Katharine Burdekin
Katharine Burdekin, born Katharine Penelope Cade on July 23, 1896, in Derbyshire, England, was an influential writer known for her exploration of social, philosophical, and political themes. Raised in an upper-middle-class family, she was educated at home and later attended Cheltenham Ladies College. Burdekin's early life included service as a volunteer nurse during World War I and a subsequent marriage that ended in apparent discord, which she reflected in her first novel, "Anna Colquhoun" (1922).
She became an active member of the London literary scene, associating with prominent figures such as Virginia Woolf and Bertrand Russell. Throughout the 1920s, Burdekin produced a diverse body of work, including the feminist-themed children's book "The Children's Country" (1929) and the dystopian "Swastika Night" (1937), which is noted for its antifascist commentary. Burdekin published under the pseudonym Murray Constantine for much of her later work, maintaining her anonymity due to concerns over political repercussions.
Despite her prolific writing, many of her novels remained unpublished at her death on August 10, 1963. Her legacy includes a posthumous publication of "The End of This Day's Business" in 1989, which reflects her visionary ideas about a future female-dominated society. Burdekin's contributions to literature, particularly in the realm of speculative fiction and feminism, continue to be recognized and appreciated today.
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Katharine Burdekin
Writer
- Born: July 23, 1896
- Birthplace: Spondon, Derbyshire, England
- Died: August 10, 1963
- Place of death: Suffolk, England
Biography
Katharine Burdekin was born Katharine Penelope Cade in Spondon, a town in Derbyshire, England, on July 23, 1896. She was the youngest of four children in an upper-middle-class household and was schooled at home until 1907, when she attended Cheltenham Ladies College. Although her mother had instilled her with a passion for education and reading, her parents denied her requests to attend Oxford when she graduated in 1913. Two years later she married Beaufort Burdekin, an Australian barrister, who at the time was a soldier serving in France. Katherine served as a volunteer nurse in Cheltenham during World War I. She and Beaufort had two daughters, Katherine Jane in 1917, and Helen Eugenie in 1920. The Burdekins moved to Sydney in 1920, but by June, 1921, Katherine had returned with her daughter to England, her marriage apparently ended.
Intimations of marital discord were reflected in her first novel, Anna Colquhoun (1922), the story of a woman who gives her up her husband and career as part of her spiritual rehabilitation. In 1926, Burdekin met the woman who would be her private companion for the rest of her life. She became a member of the London literary scene and included Havelock Ellis, Leonard and Virginia Woolf, and Bertrand and Dora Russell among her colleagues. Throughout the 1920’s she wrote steadily and proved herself a versatile writer who approached social, philosophical, and political themes from a variety of perspectives. Her second novel, The Reasonable Hope (1924), a realistic portrayal of a shell-shocked veteran of World War I, revealed a strong pacifist sensibility she would later elaborate in Quiet Ways (1930), a novel based on her own wartime experiences. The Burning Ring (1927), bylined as by Kay Burdekin,was a time-travel fantasy in which an artist finds personal and professional fulfillment with the help of a magic talisman that allows him to travel to different eras. The Children’s Country (1929), also by Kay Burdekin, is a book for young readers; its account of an alternate fantasyland where gender differences do not exist was one of the first expressions in print of Burdekin’s feminist concerns. Another fantasy, The Rebel Passion (1928), offered a utopian vision of a future in which cruelty (generally depicted in her work as a masculine trait) is gradually replaced by universal compassion.
In 1934, Burdekin invented the pseudonym Murray Constantine for her novel The Devil, Poor Devil!. All remaining novels published in her lifetime would appear under that byline, and Burdekin kept her identity so secret, reportedly out of concern for political reprisal, that the novels were not linked to her until 1981. These novels show an increasing use of science fiction motifs in the construction of allegories exploring contemporary social and political concerns. Proud Man (1934) tells of a visit by a representative from the future who is naturally benevolent without having been exposed to religion, and whose androgyny allows the assumptions of both male and female personas and spur reflection on contemporary gender roles. Swastika Night (1937), a prescient antifascist dystopia set in the seventh century following a Nazi war triumph, is thought to have influenced George Orwell and many other writers of alternate history. The last novel published in Burdekin’s lifetime, Venus in Scorpio: A Romance of Versailles, 1770- 1793 (1938), was a collaboration with Margaret Goldsmith, who provided “Murray Constantine” with notes for a historical novel about Marie Antoinette.
Burdekin worked in a shoe factory for two years during World War II. She resumed writing fiction after the war but did not publish any of her work. She suffered a near-fatal aneurysm in 1955, from which she recovered but remained bedridden. She died of congestive heart failure in Suffolk, England, on August 10, 1963. At her death, fourteen of her novels remained unpublished. The End of This Day’s Business, a utopian tale written around 1935 and concerned with a future female-dominated society, was published under her own name in 1989.