Katherine Mansfield, an outstanding English short-story writer of the 20th century [´senCVrI], was born in New Zealand in 1888 and died in 1923. She is the author of a number of excellent short stories which deal with human nature and psychology [saI´kPlqGI].
At the age of eighteen she decided to become a professional writer. Her first short stories appeared in Melbourne [´melbqn, ´melbLn] in 1907, but literary fame came to her in London after the publication of a collection of short stories called "In a German Pension [´penSn]".
Katherine Mansfield took a great interest in Russian literature, particularly in the works of Chekhov. In fact, she considered herself to be a pupil of the great Russian writer.