For this second volume of the Katherine Mansfield Studies journal the theme is ‘Katherine Mansfield and Modernism’, a challengingly broad topic, as C. K. Stead observes in his foreword. It is a theme given a distinct focus in this volume by our highlighting the relatively unexplored relationship between Katherine Mansfield and D. H. Lawrence, to whom, both as artist and person, Mansfield felt herself uncannily alike.

Mansfield's literary and biographical relationship with Lawrence is investigated in two essays which are the joint winners of the Katherine Mansfield Society's first essay prize. Linda Lappin reflects on the similar life-pilgrimages undertaken by Mansfield and Lawrence and Kirsty Martin traces close linguistic affinities between the ways in which the two writers treated the subject of happiness. The Editors are immensely grateful to the judging panel of the essay competition, C. K. Stead, Andrew Harrison, and their chair, Susan Reid, for their generous expenditure of time and careful assessment of the entries. The emphasis on Mansfield's relationship with Lawrence which the entries to the competition have made possible is not only overdue but also timely: the publication of this volume coincides with that of a new book, Circulating Genius: John Middleton Murry, Katherine Mansfield, and D. H. Lawrence by the eminent Mansfield scholar Sydney Janet Kaplan: we look forward to reviewing it in our next volume.