Katherine Mansfield: The Memories of L.M.

by Leslie Moore (Pseudonym), Ida Constance Baker

extremely rare,very good condition

Genres: Biography

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Pseudonym of Ida Constance Baker

Reviews

[Violet wells · Rating 3 out of 5]

LM (Ida Baker) was probably the most enigmatic character in KM's life. They met at college in London when they were both fifteen and it seems to have been love at first sight for Ida and she was to sustain her uncritical worship of Katherine until the end of her long life. They seem to have next to nothing in common. An unkind interpretation of her role in KM's life would be lackey or lap-dog. The weaker KM was the more need she had of Ida which is a dangerous dynamic in a relationship with someone as steely willed as Ida. You might say it was in Ida's interest that things didn't go well in Katherine's life - and things very rarely went well in her life. It's almost tempting to picture Ida as a busy spider diligently fortifying her web. There's certainly an element of the well-meaning vampire in Ida, except she's wholly unconscious of motive or psychology. She's not a thinker, has little understanding of literature. Theirs was not a relationship founded on shared intellectual interests or personal enthusiasms but on Ida's unrelenting willingness to do everything she was told by do by KM. "As Katherine expressed herself in writing, so I expressed myself in service - and that meant not just attendance to Katherine's everyday needs, but the selfless giving of love and support when Katherine, and only Katherine, demanded it." However, Ida wasn't especially practical. In fact at times she seemed like a comic serial blunderer. Her talent was perhaps her ability to always be there for Katherine. There's a suspicion Katherine, always the insecure colonial, never quite believed in any of the sophisticated bohemian personas she created and that with Ida she returned to the more confident, somewhat overbearing young girl she had been in New Zealand.

If I was KM I'd be more embarrassed by this book than anything her husband published. It's an uncomfortable read as Ida uses every opportunity to offer questionable evidence of the exalted nature of their bond and belittle her husband. At times it feels like she's clutching at straws as for example when she mentions washing Katherine's hair with no context. Except one catches oneself thinking of all the mocking and cruel things KM was constantly writing to everyone about Ida in her letters. Shame at her dependency on Ida was one of her few constant emotions. KM was very clever at saying what people wanted to hear. What Ida wanted to hear was often criticism of Murry. The sicker Katherine got the greater her dependency on Ida became. Katherine was to push away most of her friends at the end. The suspicion is, she was ashamed of her sickness and couldn't bear anyone she admired to see her in her frailty. Virginia Woolf wanted to visit her but KM made excuses. She had no such qualms about seeing Ida. You might say it's true for all of us that there are very few people in our lives who we don't mind seeing us the worst for wear without our make-up.

Ida wrote this memoir late in her life. After, no doubt, she had read some of the scathing things Katherine had written about her in letters. But she remains admirably steadfast in her devotion. It's as if she never grew beyond the starstruck teenage girl she was when she met KM.

But when all's said and done you'd have to be KM obsessed to get anything out of this.

[AH · Rating 4 out of 5]

A tale of codependency more fascinating for being true.

[Karen-Leigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Katherine Mansfield from a new perspective. I had more sympathy for the writer than for KM in her talent and travails and temperamental life despite KM's difficulty with her selfish husband. I read a number of books about Mansfield back in March but by the time I got to this one I had run out of interest in KM's life so the book sat on bedside all this time until upon impulse I restarted the book and this time found it interesting and enjoyable.