Murry, John Middleton 1889-1957

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MURRY, John Middleton 1889-1957

PERSONAL: Born August 6, 1889, in London, England; died of a heart attack March 31, 1957, in Bury St. Edmonds, Suffolk, England; son of John (a civil servant) and Emily (Wheeler) Murry; married Katherine Mansfield (a writer), 1918 (died 1923); married Violet Maistre, 1924 (died March 30, 1931); married Betty Cockbayne (a nurse), May, 1931 (died 1954); married Mary Gamble, 1954; children: (second marriage) John Jr., Katherine. Education: Brasenose College, Oxford, B.A., 1912.

CAREER: Writer and editor. Founder, Rhythm (later Blue Review), 1911-13; reviewer, Westminster Gazette from 1912; editor, Athenaeum, 1919-23; founder, Adelphi 1923-48; editor, Peace News, 1940-46; developed Lodge Farm from 1946.

WRITINGS:

Fyodor Dostoevsky: A Critical Study, Dodd, Mead (New York, NY), 1916.

Still Life, Constable (London, England), 1916, Dutton (New York, NY), 1922.

Poems 1917-1918, Heron Press (Hampstead, England), 1918.

The Critic in Judgement or Belshazzar of Baron's Court, Hogarth Press (Oxford, England), 1919.

Cinnamon and Angelica: A Play, Cobden-Sanderson (London, England), 1920, Saunders (New York, NY), 1941.

Aspects of Literature, Collins (London, England), 1920, Knopf (New York, NY), 1921.

The Evolution of an Intellectual, Cobden-Sanderson (LOndon, England), 1920, Books for Libraries Press (Freeport, NY), 1967.

Poems 1916-20, Cobden-Sanderson (London, England), 1920.

The Problem of Style, Oxford University Press (Oxford, England), 1922.

The Things We Are, Dutton (New York, NY), 1922.

Countries of the Mind: Essays in Literary Criticism, Dutton (New York, NY), 1922, revised and enlarged edition, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1931, published with Countries of the Mind: Essays in Literary Criticism, Second Series, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1937, reprinted, Books for Libraries Press, 1968.

Pencillings: Little Essays on Literature, Collins (London, England), 1923, Seltzer (New York, NY), 1925.

The Voyage, Constable (London, England), 1924.

Discoveries: Essays in Literary Criticism, Collins (London, England), 1924, revised edition, Cape (London, England), 1930.

To the Unknown God: Essays towards a Religion, Cape (London, England), 1924, Peter Smith (New York, NY), 1930.

Wrap Me up in My Aubusoon Carpet, Greenberg (New York, NY), 1924.

Keats and Shakespeare: A Study of Keats' Poetic Life from 1816 to 1820, Humphrey Milford/Oxford University Press (Oxford, England), 1925.

The Life of Jesus, Cape (London, England), 1926, published as Jesus Man of Genius, Harper (New York, NY), 1926.

Things to Come Essays, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1928.

God: Being an Introduction to the Science of Metabiology, Harper (New York, NY), 1929.

Studies in Keats, Humphrey Milford/Oxford University Press (Oxford, England), 1930, enlarged edition published as Studies in Keats, New and Old, 1939, third revised edition published as The Mystery of Keats, Peter Nevill (London, England), 1949, fourth edition published as Keats, Noonday Press (New York, NY), 1955.

D. H. Lawrence Two Essays, Gordon Fraser (Cambridge, England), 1930.

Countries of the Mind: Essays in Literary Criticism, Second Series, Humphrey Milford/Oxford University Press (Oxford, England), 1931, published with Countries of the Mind as Countries of the Mind, First and Second Series, 1937, Books for Libraries Press, 1968.

Son of Woman: The Story of D. H. Lawrence, Cape (London, England), 1931, published with a new introduction as D. H. Lawrence: Son of Woman, 1954.

The Fallacy of Economics, Faber & Faber (London, England), 1932.

The Necessity of Communism, Peter Smith (New York, NY), 1932, republished with a new introduction, Seltzer (New York, NY), 1933.

Reminiscences of D. H. Lawrence, Holt (New York, NY), 1933.

William Blake, Cape (London, England), 1933, McGraw-Hill (New York, NY), 1964.

Between Two Worlds: An Autobiography, Cape (London, England), 1935, published as The Autobiography of John Middleton Murry: Between Two Worlds, Messner (New York, NY), 1936.

Shakespeare, Harcourt, Brace (New York, NY), 1936.

The Necessity of Pacifism, Cape (London, England), 1937.

God or the Nation?, Peace Pledge Union (London, England), 1937.

Heaven—and Earth, Cape (London, England), 1938, published as Heroes of Thought, Messner (New York, NY), 1938.

The Pledge of Peace, Herbert Joseph (London, England), 1938.

Peace at Christmas, School of Printing (Birmingham, England), 1938.

The Price of Leadership, Harper (New York, NY), 1939.

The Defence of Democracy, Cape (London, England), 1939.

Democracy and War, Nisbet (London, England), 1940.

Europe in Travail, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1940.

The Brotherhood of Peace, Peace Pledge Union (London, England), 1940.

The Betrayal of Christ by the Churches, Andrew Dakers (London, England), 1940.

The Dilemma of Christianity James Clarke (London, England), 1941.

Our Long-Term Faith, Peace Pledge Union (London, England), 1942.

Christocracy, Andrew Dakers (London, England), 1942.

Adam and Eve: An Essay towards a New and Better Society, Andrew Dakers (London, England), 1944.

The Free Society, Andrew Dakers (London, England), 1948.

Looking before and After: A Collection of Essays, Sheppard Press (London, England), 1948.

The Challenge of Schweitzer, Jason Press (London, England), 1948, Folcroft Press (Folcroft, PA), 1970.

Katherine Mansfield, and Other Literary Portraits, Peter Nevill (London, England), 1949.

John Clare, and Other Studies, Peter Nevill (London, England), 1950, Krause (New York, NY), 1968.

The Conquest of Death, Peter Nevill (London, England), 1951.

Community Farm, Peter Nevill (London, England), 1952.

Jonathan Swift: A Critical Biography, Cape (London, England), 1954, Noonday Press (New York, NY), 1955.

Swift, Longmans, Green (London, England), 1955.

Unprofessional Essays, Cape (London, England), 1956.

Love, Freedom and Society, Cape (London, England), 1957.

Katherine Mansfield and Other Literary Studies, forword by T. S. Eliot, Constable (London, England), 1959.

Not as the Scribes: Lay Sermons, edited, with an introduction by Alec R. Vidler, SCM Press (London, England), 1959, Horizon (New York, NY), 1960.

Selected Criticism 1916-1957, chosen and introduced by Richard Rees, Oxford University Press, 1960.

Poets, Critics, Mystics: A Selection of Criticisms Written between 1919 and 1955, edited by Richard Rees, Feffer & Simons (London, England), 1970, Southern Illinois University Press (Carbondale, IL), 1970.

Defending Romanticism: Selected Essays of John Middleton Murry, introduced and edited by Malcolm Woodfield, Bristol Press (Bristol, England), 1989.

OTHER

(Author of introductory note) Katherine Mansfield, The Doves' Nest, and Other Stories, Knopf (New York, NY), 1923.

(Author of introductory note) Katherine Mansfield, Poems, Constable (London, England), 1923, Knopf (New York, NY), 1924.

(Author of unsigned introductory note) Katherine Mansfield, Something Childish, and Other Stories, Constable (London, England), 1924, published as The Little Girl, and Other Stories, Knopf (New York, NY), 1924.

(Author of introductory note) Katherine Mansfield, In a German Pension, Knopf (New York, NY), 1926.

(Editor and author of introduction) Journal of Katherine Mansfield, Knopf (New York, NY), 1927.

(Editor and contributor) The Letters of Katherine Mansfield, Constable (London, England), 1927, Knopf (New York, NY), 1929.

(Author of introduction) Katherine Mansfield, The Aloe, Knopf (New York, NY), 1930.

(Editor) Katherine Mansfield, Novels and Novelists, Knopf (New York, NY), 1930.

(Selector) Stories by Katherine Mansfield, Knopf (New York, NY), 1930.

(Author of introduction) The Short Stories of Katherine Mansfield, Knopf (New York, NY), 1937.

(Editor) The Scrapbook of Katherine Mansfield, Constable (London, England), 1939, Knopf (New York, NY), 1940.

(Selector) Stories of Katherine Mansfield, World (Cleveland, OH), 1946.

(Editor) Katherine Mansfield's Letters to John Middleton Murry 1913-1922, Knopf (New York, NY), 1951.

(Editor) Journal of Katherine Mansfield, Constable (London, England), 1954.

LETTERS

The Letters of John Middleton Murry and Katherine Mansfield, selected and edited by Cherry A. Hankin, Franklin Watts (New York, NY), 1983, published as The Letters between Katherine Mansfield and John Middleton Murry, Virago (London, England), 1988.

SIDELIGHTS: John Middleton Murry is perhaps best known as the husband of Katherine Mansfield, and the good friend of D. H. Lawrence. But Murry was also an author in his own right. Though his creative works were not well received, his studies of authors—including Mansfield and Lawrence—have added much to critical literature. Robert Ross, in an article for Dictionary of Literary Biography, noted, "He has been called an opportunist, a shallow critic who too often relied on intuition and personal revelation for judgments, a sloppy, often bombastic, self-indulgent writer, a political dabbler. Ironically, the two matters that led to the accusation of opportunism have also helped to assure his lasting reputation … he became the tireless promoter of … Katherine Mansfield … and [composed] critical work on the novelist [Lawrence]."

Murry was born on August 6, 1889 in London. His parents, John and Emily (Wheeler) Murry, were working people with big dreams for their son; John toiled as a civil servant while Emily took in borders in order to send their son to good schools from an early age. Ross suggested, "The elder Murry, firmly believing in his son's potential, harbored great ambition for him and was determined to see the young John Murry one day rise to the upper levels of civil service. … Balancing these stern paternal demands were the tenderness and sensitivity of his mother." Murry's own account of his childhood narrates a sense of great responsibility; he describes a moment of awareness in which he realized the confusion of his own wants and his parents wants for him: "I crept down from my peep-hole awe struck, and smitten with a wild and impossible desire to get a scholarship and have an airgun. One day I got a scholarship: but an air-gun I never had."

Murry earned a scholarship to Christ's Hospital in 1901, where he learned to affect the attitudes of the upper class. He wrote bitterly, "I had been uprooted and unrooted in my early boyhood. I had no organic connection either with the class from which I had been taken, nor with the class into which I had been thrust. … I had no people; I belonged nowhere." Ross explained, "While he fulfilled all expectations from an academic standpoint, Murry discovered literary interests far afield from those that would prepare him for a distinguished civil service career. Further, the school's rich environment alienated him from his family, and he attempted to hide his humble origins-a combined shame and guilt that continued to haunt him once he reached Brasenose College, Oxford, on scholarship."

While at Oxford, Murry took steps to see that he could meet his own dreams of becoming a literary man and an intellectual. With a friend, he began a quarterly magazine called Rhythm, in which he published modernist contributions and through which he became known as a man of taste. In 1912, just after graduating from Oxford with a first in Greats, Murry began to write reviews for the Westmister Gazette (under Stephen Spender) as well as the Times Literary Supplement. In the following year, he met Katherine Mansfield (then married to George Bowden) and the two fell in love; he also met D. H. Lawrence in the same year, and the two became close friends. In his autobiography Murry describes his love for Mansfield as adoration: she was "a woman simple and lovely in all her ways … a totally exquisite being. … Everything she did or said had its own manifest validity. I do not think it ever entered my head, at any time, to criticize her in any way." The letters between Mansfield and Murry describe a tempestuous relationship, though a loving one; they also describe Mansfield's tremendous drive to write. "I'm a writer first," she explains in one note, "you are dearer than anyone in the world to me—but more than anything else—more even than talking or laughing or being happy I want to write."

Murry, too, wanted to write, and in 1916 he published a critical study of Fyodor Dostoevsky as well as a novel, Still Life. The study of Dostoevsky attempts to study the emotional underpinnings of the author's work; Ross explained, "The study does not focus on Dostoevsky as an artist but views him instead as a seeker of truth who uses the novel simply as an instrument to carry out his metaphysical explorations and to answer the overriding question: What must he do to be saved?" The novel, however, seems to have been a great disappointment—Mansfield derided it, while Lawrence more gently dissuaded Murry from publishing it. After publishing two more novels, The Things We Are (1922) and The Voyage (1924), Murry acknowledged himself a critic.

Murry also tried his hand at poetry and drama in the late 1910s, publishing the long poem The Critic in Judgment (1919) and the play Cinnamon and Angelica (1920). These too received dismal reviews, so Murry focused stoically on his criticism. In that arena, he had some success; he edited the Athenaeum from 1919 to 1920, and thereafter began to contribute articles to various journals. In 1921 he gave a series of lectures at Oxford that were later published as The Problem of Style (1922); in the lectures, he explains what he means by that troublesome term "style": "Style consists in adding to a given thought all the circumstances calculated to produce the whole effect that the thought ought to produce. Much is concealed beneath that little word 'ought.'"

In 1923 Murry's work shifted somewhat following the death of Mansfield. He founded the magazine Adelphi and began to explore his own spiritual intuitions in its pages. He also began to publish books exploring the same issues: To the Unknown God (1924), The Life of Jesus (1926), and God: Being an Introduction to the Science of Metabiology (1929). During this period Murry married his second wife, Violet Maistre, with whom he had two children. After Maistre died in 1931, Murry endured a brief marriage to his children's nurse, Betty Cockbayne, though the couple separated in 1941. Thereafter, Murry lived with Mary Gamble, marrying her after Cockbayne's death in 1954.

After 1931 Murry also began to explore his political interests. In 1931 he declared himself a Marxist, and in the following years he penned several Marxist pamphlets and books, including the study William Blake (1933), which looked for evidence of Blake's potential Marxist leanings. In 1936, Murry proclaimed himself a pacifist, and began to write books delineating his thoughts about peace: The Necessity of Pacifism (1937), God or the Nation? (1937), The Pledge of Peace (1938), Heaven and Earth (1938), and The Defence of Democracy (1939). Murry also published his autobiography during this period, as well as continuing to produce editions of the letters, diaries, scrapbooks, and marginalia of Mansfield.

As Ross noted, Murry has been criticized for his insistence on publishing Mansfield's papers. Ross elaborated: "Supposedly, Mansfield wanted these incomplete and private papers destroyed, and her friends were often appalled when the materials appeared in print, sometimes first in the Athenaeum then in book form." But as Ross also pointed out, the careful work Murry performed in laying a foundation for Mansfield scholarship has ensured her a place in the literary pantheon. Perhaps, knowing this, Mansfield would have approved.

Murry was a cultivator of many things: of ideals, of relationships, and of tastes. He spent his last years developing a farm in Norfolk, and died of a heart attack on March 12, 1957. His tombstone reads: "Farmer and Author."