Born in Wellington, New Zealand, she moved permanently to Europe as a young woman, met and married John Middleton Murry, contracted tuberculosis in 1917. Later she joined the Gurdjieff commune south of Paris France called the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man and died there at Fontainebleau. She is buried in the cemetery in the Fontainebleau district in the town of Avon where there is a street named in her honour.
A writer of short stories, Mansfield developed the techniques of Anton Chekhov in the genre. Much of her work reflects her New Zealand childhood.
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