Charlotte Mansfield
English novelist, poet and traveler
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Charlotte Mansfield (1881–1936) was an English novelist, poet, and traveler, known for her planned 1909 "Cape to Cairo"[1] journey. She was incorrectly reported to have been the first woman to make the journey, even though someone already had and Mansfield didn't complete the challenge.[2]
Charlotte Mansfield was also an accomplished needlework artist, and exhibited her embroidery work in London.
Career
Mansfield's novels include Torn Lace (1904);[3] The Girl and the Gods (1907);[4] Love and a Woman;[5] Red Pearls (1914);[6] Gloria, a Girl of the South African Veldt (1916);[7] The Dupe (1917), a World War I spy story;[8] Sex and Siller (1920);[9] and Strings (1920), a supernatural thriller about an evil violin.[10] She also published two books of poems, Flowers of the Wind (1899), and Poems (1902).[11][12] The Spectator reviewer called her poetry "verses of indifferent quality, now and then audacious in sentiment."[13]
Her widely publicized "Cape to Cairo" tour in fact only reached to Lake Tanganyika before returning to South Africa[14] and Mary Hall had already made that trip and published a book with that title.[15] Mansfield wrote about her travels in southern Africa in Via Rhodesia: A Journey Through Southern Africa (1911)).[16] In reviewing the book, The Register of Adelaide commented, "a less fitting person to follow in the steps of Mary Kingsley could hardly be imagined."[17]
Mansfield's Gloria, A Girl of the South African Veldt was one of the first South African novels to be adapted for the screen, when American director Lorimer Johnston made a silent picture at Killarney Film Studios in 1916 based on Mansfield's novel, starring English actress Mabel May in the title role.[18]
Charlotte Mansfield was also an accomplished needlework artist, and exhibited her embroidery work in London.[19]
Personal life
In 1909, she married mining engineer Vladimir Raffalovich in London; they lived in Johannesburg, South Africa.[20] Alfred Edward Turner and Mansfield's new sister-in-law Vera Raffalovich Friedlander presented and hosted the wedding festivities.[21] Vladimir Raffalovich survived Charlotte Mansfield Raffalovich when she died in 1936, aged 55 years.
