June 24, 2025 • 26 mins
In 1921, Katherine Mansfield wrote a letter to Princess Bibesco which began, "I am afraid you must stop writing these little love letters to my husband while he and I still live together." Scandalous as that is, it only scratches the surface of the glamorous and adventerous life of the daughter of a Prime Minister who became royalty.
Support Noble Blood:
— Bonus episodes, stickers, and scripts on Patreon
— Order Dana's book, 'Anatomy: A Love Story' and its sequel 'Immortality: A Love Story'
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Noble Blood, A production of iHeartRadio and Grimm
and Mild from Aaron Manky Listener Discretion advised. Catherine Mansfield
was a prolific writer and critic, packing a great deal
of work into her short life. Before her death at
age thirty four in nineteen twenty three, she had written
(00:23):
dozens of short stories and poems, as well as over
one hundred pieces of literary criticism. A contemporary and close
friend of Virginia Wolf, Mansfield is widely considered to be
one of the greatest short story writers of the early
twentieth century, and still one of her most intriguing pieces
(00:45):
of writing came in the form of a very brief,
very simple letter. Here it is in its entirety, sent
in March of nineteen twenty one. Dear Princess Bibesca, I'm
afraid you must stop writing these little love letters to
my husband while he and I live together. It is
(01:07):
one of the things which is not done in our world.
You are very young, won't you ask your husband to
explain to you the impossibility of such a situation. Please
do not make me have to write to you again.
I do not like scolding people, and I simply hate
having to teach them manners. Yours, sincerely, Catherine Mansfield. It's
(01:32):
hard to imagine any work of fiction or book review
coming close to that in terms of sparking interest in
so few sentences. It's so perfectly eloquent and mean in
equal measure. I do not like scolding people, and I
simply hate having to teach them manners perfect It sounds
(01:52):
like something from a lost Noel Coward play or a
Miranda Priestly speech that ended up on a cutting room floor,
But equally intriguing, at least in my mind, is the
recipient a princess. It's hard to imagine a royal being
the recipient of such elevated and eloquent shade. And so
(02:14):
who was Princess Elizabeth Bibesco and how did she find
herself on the wrong side of the early twentieth century literati.
I'm Danish Schwartz, and this is noble blood. The story
of Princess Elizabeth Bibesco is not so much a rags
(02:35):
to riches story, but rather a privilege to more privilege story.
Her father was h. H Asquith, a man who was
from more humble beginnings but who rose through the ranks
of Parliament to become Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
when Elizabeth was eleven years old. Life as the Prime
(02:56):
Minister's daughter thrust her into the spotlight, and Elizabeth quickly
grew to love it that way. Her keen intelligence and
social grace made quite an impression on the adults around her,
and she was fearless in leveraging her position for the
greater good as well as for a little extra attention
(03:17):
of her own. When she was twelve years old, Elizabeth
enlisted playwright George Bernard Shaw to write a play for
a charity benefit, which she herself directed. By her teenage years,
her charm and philanthropy were topics of discussion in national newspapers.
During World War One, a teenage Elizabeth wrote and performed
(03:41):
in live shows for the troops. She also organized fundraisers
to help out with relief efforts. She even acted in
two silent War movies directed by D. W. Griffith. If
she were alive today, she would probably be characterized correctly
as a NEPO baby it girl. Elizabeth quickly became known
(04:04):
among London high society as a spirited young multi hyphenate
who as we'd soon see inherited her family's talent for
social climbing. Antoine Bibesco was a Romanian prince and diplomat who,
by nineteen eighteen had found himself part of the social
(04:25):
circle that included Elizabeth's father, Lord Asquith. At the time,
he was forty years old and in a serious relationship,
but when he met the dazzling twenty one year old
daughter of the then former Prime Minister, Bibesco's attentions shifted entirely.
Elizabeth's mother, Margot Asquith, was thrilled by the match. She
(04:50):
saw in Antoine the kind of continental sophistication her own
family lacked, with breeding that far exceeded those from her
own family. She also hoped he would have a calming
effect on her daughter, who'd already packed a lot of
life into her twenty one years. Elizabeth and Antoine were
(05:13):
married on April twenty ninth, nineteen nineteen, witnessed by a
who's who of British royalty and culture. Everyone from Queen
Mary to Elizabeth's old collaborator George Bernard Shaw was in attendance.
It was a union that would catapult Elizabeth from the
(05:33):
daughter of a politician into actual European royalty and all
the glamour that came with it. The newlyweds settled into
life in Paris, taking up residence in the Bibesco family townhouse.
It was here that Elizabeth would give birth to their
only child, a girl named Priscilla, in nineteen twenty. It
(05:56):
was also the place where she would be initiated into
a world world far more sophisticated than even her privileged
upbringing had prepared her for. The Bibescoe family moved in
rarefied circles, their Parisian salon, drawing the most celebrated artists
(06:16):
and writers of the era. At its center was Antoine's mother,
Helene Bibesco, renowned hostess and patron, who turned their home
into a gathering place for the intellectual elite. Among the
regular visitors was none other than Marcel Proust, who had
(06:37):
formed a close friendship with Antoine long before Elizabeth had
even entered the picture. Preust became utterly enchanted by the
new Princess Bibesco, declaring her to be quote probably unsurpassed
in intelligence by any of her contemporaries. He was also
taken by her physical beauty, comparing her to a figure
(07:01):
in an Italian Fresco. The author, a discerning recluse who
rarely ventured from his home, would make late night visits
to the Babesco townhouse, discussing literature with Elizabeth and gossiping
with Antoine. Elizabeth had clearly found her footing in this
world of letters and high society, but not to everyone
(07:25):
in the literary world was quite so taken with the
vivacious young princess. While she'd mastered the art of captivating
influential men, she had also begun to make some rather
powerful enemies of their wives. To understand what would compel
(07:46):
someone to write the scathing letter I read in this
episode's introduction, Let's take a look at the woman behind
the pen. By nineteen twenty one, the New Zealand author
Catherine Mansfield had established herself as a strong voice in
modern literature, dealing with topics like existentialism, sexuality, and her
(08:09):
relationship to Christianity. She moved to London at age nineteen
and found herself in the orbit of the Bloomsbury Group.
Virginia Wolf became a close personal friend, and, like her
more famous author friend Catherine's personal life was decidedly unconventional.
She had romantic relationships with both men and women. Like
(08:33):
many of her age, she struggled with her attraction for women.
By the time her path crossed with Princess Babesco's. Katherine
Mansfield was married to a man, J. M. Murray, a
literary editor and critic. Their relationship had been rocky from
the start they met in nineteen eleven, and by the
(08:55):
time they finally married in nineteen eighteen, they had gone
through a string of breakups and reconciliations, with both Katherine
and Murray pursuing other lovers during their times apart. They
were the early twentieth century equivalent of that toxic couple
who couldn't seem to quit each other, as much as
(09:18):
their friends might have wanted them to. There was also
a third member of their relationship, Catherine's failing health. In
nineteen seventeen, she had been given a diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis,
and by late nineteen twenty the disease was steadily claiming
more of her strength and mobility. She spent long stretches
(09:42):
away from London seeking treatment in warmer climates, while Murray
remained at home, ostensibly focused on his job as editor
of a literary magazine called The Athenaeum. Katherine, isolated by
illness and sometimes geography, remained emotionally dependent on Murray, even
(10:04):
as she knew he was incapable of fidelity. Her letters
to him revealed that she clung to an idealized version
of him even as evidence mounted against her faith. Because
even though Murray stayed behind for work, he also found
plenty of time for extracurricular activities. That's where Princess Bibesco
(10:28):
comes in. During this period, Elizabeth Bibesco's own writing career
was on the rise. She was eager to be recognized
as a serious literary figure in her own right, a
drive that started with those preteen stage productions and only
grew stronger over time. This led her directly to J. M.
(10:51):
Murray's orbit when she began submitting stories to The Athenaeum.
What started as a professional relationship quickly became something far
more personal. It's worth noting that infidelity wasn't exactly foreign
territory for the Bibesco marriage either. Prince Antoine had already
(11:13):
earned himself quite a reputation around London as what the
writer and critic Rebecca West memorably called a boudoir athlete. West,
who had her own brief affair with the prince in
nineteen twenty seven, recalled looking around the room at a
French embassy party and realizing that every woman present had
(11:37):
been Antoine's mistress at one time or another. No doubt,
Elizabeth Bibesco felt entitled to some romantic adventuring of her own.
But for Catherine Mansfield, watching from her sick bed in
the South of France, the betrayals were becoming impossible to
ignore or forgive. The situation reached a breaking point in
(12:01):
December nineteen twenty when Catherine's doctors insisted that for her
health she stopped the exhausting work of writing reviews for
her husband's literary magazine. Left with nothing really to distract her,
Catherine's attention turned to Murray's affairs, particularly the one with
(12:22):
Elizabeth Bibesco. Catherine was forced to confront the humiliating reality
that her husband, in this case, was conducting something much
worse than merely a physical affair. The Princess was positioning
herself as a literary partner, asking for advice and guidance
(12:43):
in ways that must have felt like a direct attack
on Catherine's own professional relationship with her husband. The final
straw came in early nineteen twenty one, when Catherine intercepted
one of Elizabeth's letters to Murray, a breathless plea begging
him to quote resist Catherine and reminding him that you
(13:08):
swore nothing on earth should ever come between us. The
letter revealed not just the depth of the affair, but
Elizabeth Bibesco's apparent belief that she was engaged in some
kind of romantic rescue mission saving Murray from his invalid wife.
Catherine's response was swift, devastating, and deserved. Let's hear it again,
(13:32):
shall we? It is just almost too good, Dear Princess Bibesco.
I'm afraid you must stop writing these little love letters
to my husband while he and I live together. It
is one of the things which is not done in
our world. You are very young, won't you ask your
husband to explain to you the impossibility of such a situation.
(13:57):
Please do not make me have to write to you again.
I do not like scolding people, and I simply hate
having to teach them manners your sincerely, Katherine Mansfield. Only
a truly gifted writer could have crafted something so glacially
polite that's also filled with verily contained fury. Clearly, the
(14:19):
Missive was designed to put the passionate young Princess in
her place, but Catherine wasn't finished. She followed up with
a second, longer response that revealed even more about the
state of mind and her philosophy about love, arts, and authenticity.
The aftermath of those letters sent ripples through London's literary circles.
(14:42):
Virginia Wolf, always one to enjoy a good bit of gossip,
wrote about what she called the Bibesco scandal, with which
London so they say rings. She described dinners where a
miserable Murray poured out heart, insisting that his affair with
Elizabeth meant nothing to him, all the while declaring his
(15:06):
absolute devotion to Catherine. Mansfield meanwhile described the Princess to
William Gerardi, an up and coming novelist, as quote a
most dreadful young person, very very emotional. It's really a
shame we didn't have reality television back then, because this
friend group was churning out vander pump Rule's levels of
(15:29):
drama For Catherine, the confrontation represented something larger than just
marital strife. Her isolation and suffering due to her chronic
condition helped to realize what was most important to her writing.
Perhaps her husband's affair with Elizabeth Bibesco wasn't just a
(15:50):
betrayal to their marriage, but a threat to her entire
literary world. Maybe she found the brazenness of the Princess
just to be a bit of a bridge too far.
Maybe she was repelled by the passion of someone boldly
declaring what they wanted with no thought given to the
feelings of others. Or maybe she simply didn't care for
(16:14):
Elizabeth Babesco's writing. Regardless of her exact reasons, Katherine Mansfield
gathered the accumulated fury of her life's misfortunes and aimed
straight for the Princess. The fact that we have the
letter at all suggests that she made a copy and
possibly shared it with a close friend or two. I
(16:37):
can certainly understand that, after all, who hasn't sent a
friend screenshots of a particularly juicy text conversation, especially when
someone is so articulate and so in the right. For
Katherine mansfield life post letter was spent in search of
(16:58):
a Hail Mary miracle cure for her tuberculosis. Her final
years became a pilgrimage through alternative therapies and spiritual remedies,
each one promising what the last had failed to deliver.
This quest ultimately led her to the Institute for the
Harmonious Development of Man in Fontainebleau, France. This was the
(17:21):
most outlandish place she'd tried yet, a transcendental commune of
sorts under the guru like leadership of a man named
George Gurjeff, a mystic, spiritual teacher and choreographer. If that
sounds like a cult, well you're not wrong. Her days
(17:41):
were full of hard labor, with little food and little sleep,
but Catherine was convinced she had found something transformative. Sadly
she was right, though not in the way she had hoped.
Catherine died of a pulmonary hemorrhage just three months after
arriving at the Institute, sparking an immediate controversy about whether
(18:06):
the Institute's extreme regimen had accelerated her death. She was
just thirty four years old, in a final indignity that
somehow seems fitting for her turbulent relationship, her husband J. M.
Murray forgot to pay her funeral expenses. This resulted in
(18:27):
Catherine being buried in a pauper's grave before the oversight
was corrected and her remains could be moved to a
more suitable resting place. Her death left Murray with the
considerable task of editing and publishing the mountain of work
she left behind, including two volumes of short stories, a novel,
(18:49):
a collection of poems, and more. In death, Catherine's voice
would reach far more readers than it ever had in life. Meanwhile,
Elizabeth Bibesco was continuing to build a literary career of
her own. In nineteen twenty one, she published her first
collection of short stories, entitled I Have only Myself to Blame.
(19:15):
The Princess drew inspiration from the glittering Parisian society she
now called home, capturing what one critic would later call
the quote buoyant charm, nonchalant wit, and sparkling decor of
a rarefied world. Though others would find her writing superficial,
(19:37):
all glamour and no depth, she was a prolific writer,
publishing novels, plays, short story collections and more. Over the
course of the next two decades, her work garnered international attention,
and she even had a novel serialized in The Washington Post.
(19:57):
Yet despite her productivity a lie, Elizabeth found herself perpetually
dismissed by the literary establishment. The tensions that had erupted
over the Mansfield Murray affair crystallized a broader cultural divide
between the Bloomsbury intellectuals with their serious modernist sensibilities, and
(20:20):
Elizabeth's more fashionable, continental approach to both life and marriages
and literature. In the nineteen thirties, the Princess reached out
to Virginia wolf for support while putting together an anti
fascist exhibition in London, HARKing back to her teenage tenure
(20:41):
as a wartime organizer. Elizabeth drew from her well of
celebrity contacts, but Virginia Wolfe was no George Bernard Shaw.
Wolf was suspicious of Elizabeth's politics, particularly around feminism, or
she called it the woman in question. After a brief
(21:02):
terse exchange, Wolfe made it clear that in her view,
the Princess remained as shallow and politically naive as ever,
there's no denying Elizabeth Bibesco made enemies during her life,
but her writing deserves to be evaluated on its own terms.
Her work serves as a snapshot of a specific time
(21:26):
in history, a breathy, deceptively sincere counterpoint to the Bloomsbury
Group's existentialism. Years later, the English writer Elizabeth Bowen would
write a more generous assessment of Bibesco's writing than many
of her contemporaries. She noted that Elizabeth Bibesco's characters quote
(21:48):
seemed to be the inhabitants of a special millieu in
which the more ordinary taboos of feeling and breaks on
speech do not operate end quote. Elizabeth wrote of privileged
people with big feelings, people who came through the First
World War utterly changed and unsure where they fit in.
(22:11):
Those who survived became obsessed with the minutia of everyday life,
taking nothing for granted. Her characters followed their hearts just
as she had in real life, with all the fallout
that came along with it. In the end, perhaps the
real tragedy isn't that Elizabeth Bubesco was dismissed by her
(22:32):
more serious literary contemporaries, but that she was born into
the wrong era. Entirely in our current age of social
media and personal branding. Her instinct for self promotion and
her talent for turning life into art might have made
her a sensation. Instead, she found herself caught between two worlds.
(22:54):
A princess who wanted to be taken seriously as an
artist in an age that solemn intellectualism. A girl called
out and ostracized for an affair in a circle where
it was nearly the norm. Catherine Mansfield no doubt got
the last word in their famous exchange, but hopefully history
(23:16):
has softened a bit on Princess Bibesco, a woman whose
greatest crime may have been saying the quiet part out loud.
That's the story of Princess Elizabeth Bibesco, But keep listening
after a brief sponsor break for a bit more of
the Princess's glamorous life. Throughout her literary career, Elizabeth Bibesco
(23:46):
maintained a second job as ambassador's wife. She remained married
to Antoine Bibesco, despite his affairs and hers for the
entirety of her life, and the Bibescoes moved around with
Antoine's work work, first to Washington, d C and later Madrid.
When World War II began, the family returned to Romania,
(24:08):
where Elizabeth would spend her final years. She died in
nineteen forty five at just forty eight years old, and
was buried in the Bibesco family graveyard. Her grave is
inscribed with the last line of one of her collections
of poetry, My soul has gained the freedom of the night.
(24:29):
It's the perfect inscription and one last reminder to her
lifelong commitment to main character energy. Perhaps the most telling
detail about Princesses Bibesco's life comes from her obituary in
The New York Times. Quote, she narrowly escaped death in
nineteen twenty eight when an airplane in which she was
(24:50):
making a tour of Near East relief work crashed on
a rocky beach in Greece. The plane somersaulted three times,
ching passengers over a cliff into the sea. End quote. This,
to me is one of the most compelling arguments for
a more empathetic reframe of the Princess's life. She wasn't
(25:13):
just an architect of chaos. Sometimes the drama sought her out.
Noble Blood is a production of iHeartRadio and Grim and
Mild from Aaron Mankey. Noble Blood is hosted by me
Dana Schwartz, with additional writing and research by Hannah Johnston, Hannaswick,
(25:37):
Courtney Sender, Amy Hit and Julia Milaney. The show is
edited and produced by Jesse Funk, with supervising producerrima Ill
Kaali and executive producers Aaron Mankey, Trevor Young, and Matt Frederick.
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
(25:58):
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to Noble Blood, A production of iHeartRadio and Grimm
and Mild from Aaron Manky Listener Discretion advised. Catherine Mansfield
was a prolific writer and critic, packing a great deal
of work into her short life. Before her death at
age thirty four in nineteen twenty three, she had written
(00:23):
dozens of short stories and poems, as well as over
one hundred pieces of literary criticism. A contemporary and close
friend of Virginia Wolf, Mansfield is widely considered to be
one of the greatest short story writers of the early
twentieth century, and still one of her most intriguing pieces
(00:45):
of writing came in the form of a very brief,
very simple letter. Here it is in its entirety, sent
in March of nineteen twenty one. Dear Princess Bibesca, I'm
afraid you must stop writing these little love letters to
my husband while he and I live together. It is
(01:07):
one of the things which is not done in our world.
You are very young, won't you ask your husband to
explain to you the impossibility of such a situation. Please
do not make me have to write to you again.
I do not like scolding people, and I simply hate
having to teach them manners. Yours, sincerely, Catherine Mansfield. It's
(01:32):
hard to imagine any work of fiction or book review
coming close to that in terms of sparking interest in
so few sentences. It's so perfectly eloquent and mean in
equal measure. I do not like scolding people, and I
simply hate having to teach them manners perfect It sounds
(01:52):
like something from a lost Noel Coward play or a
Miranda Priestly speech that ended up on a cutting room floor,
But equally intriguing, at least in my mind, is the
recipient a princess. It's hard to imagine a royal being
the recipient of such elevated and eloquent shade. And so
(02:14):
who was Princess Elizabeth Bibesco and how did she find
herself on the wrong side of the early twentieth century literati.
I'm Danish Schwartz, and this is noble blood. The story
of Princess Elizabeth Bibesco is not so much a rags
(02:35):
to riches story, but rather a privilege to more privilege story.
Her father was h. H Asquith, a man who was
from more humble beginnings but who rose through the ranks
of Parliament to become Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
when Elizabeth was eleven years old. Life as the Prime
(02:56):
Minister's daughter thrust her into the spotlight, and Elizabeth quickly
grew to love it that way. Her keen intelligence and
social grace made quite an impression on the adults around her,
and she was fearless in leveraging her position for the
greater good as well as for a little extra attention
(03:17):
of her own. When she was twelve years old, Elizabeth
enlisted playwright George Bernard Shaw to write a play for
a charity benefit, which she herself directed. By her teenage years,
her charm and philanthropy were topics of discussion in national newspapers.
During World War One, a teenage Elizabeth wrote and performed
(03:41):
in live shows for the troops. She also organized fundraisers
to help out with relief efforts. She even acted in
two silent War movies directed by D. W. Griffith. If
she were alive today, she would probably be characterized correctly
as a NEPO baby it girl. Elizabeth quickly became known
(04:04):
among London high society as a spirited young multi hyphenate
who as we'd soon see inherited her family's talent for
social climbing. Antoine Bibesco was a Romanian prince and diplomat who,
by nineteen eighteen had found himself part of the social
(04:25):
circle that included Elizabeth's father, Lord Asquith. At the time,
he was forty years old and in a serious relationship,
but when he met the dazzling twenty one year old
daughter of the then former Prime Minister, Bibesco's attentions shifted entirely.
Elizabeth's mother, Margot Asquith, was thrilled by the match. She
(04:50):
saw in Antoine the kind of continental sophistication her own
family lacked, with breeding that far exceeded those from her
own family. She also hoped he would have a calming
effect on her daughter, who'd already packed a lot of
life into her twenty one years. Elizabeth and Antoine were
(05:13):
married on April twenty ninth, nineteen nineteen, witnessed by a
who's who of British royalty and culture. Everyone from Queen
Mary to Elizabeth's old collaborator George Bernard Shaw was in attendance.
It was a union that would catapult Elizabeth from the
(05:33):
daughter of a politician into actual European royalty and all
the glamour that came with it. The newlyweds settled into
life in Paris, taking up residence in the Bibesco family townhouse.
It was here that Elizabeth would give birth to their
only child, a girl named Priscilla, in nineteen twenty. It
(05:56):
was also the place where she would be initiated into
a world world far more sophisticated than even her privileged
upbringing had prepared her for. The Bibescoe family moved in
rarefied circles, their Parisian salon, drawing the most celebrated artists
(06:16):
and writers of the era. At its center was Antoine's mother,
Helene Bibesco, renowned hostess and patron, who turned their home
into a gathering place for the intellectual elite. Among the
regular visitors was none other than Marcel Proust, who had
(06:37):
formed a close friendship with Antoine long before Elizabeth had
even entered the picture. Preust became utterly enchanted by the
new Princess Bibesco, declaring her to be quote probably unsurpassed
in intelligence by any of her contemporaries. He was also
taken by her physical beauty, comparing her to a figure
(07:01):
in an Italian Fresco. The author, a discerning recluse who
rarely ventured from his home, would make late night visits
to the Babesco townhouse, discussing literature with Elizabeth and gossiping
with Antoine. Elizabeth had clearly found her footing in this
world of letters and high society, but not to everyone
(07:25):
in the literary world was quite so taken with the
vivacious young princess. While she'd mastered the art of captivating
influential men, she had also begun to make some rather
powerful enemies of their wives. To understand what would compel
(07:46):
someone to write the scathing letter I read in this
episode's introduction, Let's take a look at the woman behind
the pen. By nineteen twenty one, the New Zealand author
Catherine Mansfield had established herself as a strong voice in
modern literature, dealing with topics like existentialism, sexuality, and her
(08:09):
relationship to Christianity. She moved to London at age nineteen
and found herself in the orbit of the Bloomsbury Group.
Virginia Wolf became a close personal friend, and, like her
more famous author friend Catherine's personal life was decidedly unconventional.
She had romantic relationships with both men and women. Like
(08:33):
many of her age, she struggled with her attraction for women.
By the time her path crossed with Princess Babesco's. Katherine
Mansfield was married to a man, J. M. Murray, a
literary editor and critic. Their relationship had been rocky from
the start they met in nineteen eleven, and by the
(08:55):
time they finally married in nineteen eighteen, they had gone
through a string of breakups and reconciliations, with both Katherine
and Murray pursuing other lovers during their times apart. They
were the early twentieth century equivalent of that toxic couple
who couldn't seem to quit each other, as much as
(09:18):
their friends might have wanted them to. There was also
a third member of their relationship, Catherine's failing health. In
nineteen seventeen, she had been given a diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis,
and by late nineteen twenty the disease was steadily claiming
more of her strength and mobility. She spent long stretches
(09:42):
away from London seeking treatment in warmer climates, while Murray
remained at home, ostensibly focused on his job as editor
of a literary magazine called The Athenaeum. Katherine, isolated by
illness and sometimes geography, remained emotionally dependent on Murray, even
(10:04):
as she knew he was incapable of fidelity. Her letters
to him revealed that she clung to an idealized version
of him even as evidence mounted against her faith. Because
even though Murray stayed behind for work, he also found
plenty of time for extracurricular activities. That's where Princess Bibesco
(10:28):
comes in. During this period, Elizabeth Bibesco's own writing career
was on the rise. She was eager to be recognized
as a serious literary figure in her own right, a
drive that started with those preteen stage productions and only
grew stronger over time. This led her directly to J. M.
(10:51):
Murray's orbit when she began submitting stories to The Athenaeum.
What started as a professional relationship quickly became something far
more personal. It's worth noting that infidelity wasn't exactly foreign
territory for the Bibesco marriage either. Prince Antoine had already
(11:13):
earned himself quite a reputation around London as what the
writer and critic Rebecca West memorably called a boudoir athlete. West,
who had her own brief affair with the prince in
nineteen twenty seven, recalled looking around the room at a
French embassy party and realizing that every woman present had
(11:37):
been Antoine's mistress at one time or another. No doubt,
Elizabeth Bibesco felt entitled to some romantic adventuring of her own.
But for Catherine Mansfield, watching from her sick bed in
the South of France, the betrayals were becoming impossible to
ignore or forgive. The situation reached a breaking point in
(12:01):
December nineteen twenty when Catherine's doctors insisted that for her
health she stopped the exhausting work of writing reviews for
her husband's literary magazine. Left with nothing really to distract her,
Catherine's attention turned to Murray's affairs, particularly the one with
(12:22):
Elizabeth Bibesco. Catherine was forced to confront the humiliating reality
that her husband, in this case, was conducting something much
worse than merely a physical affair. The Princess was positioning
herself as a literary partner, asking for advice and guidance
(12:43):
in ways that must have felt like a direct attack
on Catherine's own professional relationship with her husband. The final
straw came in early nineteen twenty one, when Catherine intercepted
one of Elizabeth's letters to Murray, a breathless plea begging
him to quote resist Catherine and reminding him that you
(13:08):
swore nothing on earth should ever come between us. The
letter revealed not just the depth of the affair, but
Elizabeth Bibesco's apparent belief that she was engaged in some
kind of romantic rescue mission saving Murray from his invalid wife.
Catherine's response was swift, devastating, and deserved. Let's hear it again,
(13:32):
shall we? It is just almost too good, Dear Princess Bibesco.
I'm afraid you must stop writing these little love letters
to my husband while he and I live together. It
is one of the things which is not done in
our world. You are very young, won't you ask your
husband to explain to you the impossibility of such a situation.
(13:57):
Please do not make me have to write to you again.
I do not like scolding people, and I simply hate
having to teach them manners your sincerely, Katherine Mansfield. Only
a truly gifted writer could have crafted something so glacially
polite that's also filled with verily contained fury. Clearly, the
(14:19):
Missive was designed to put the passionate young Princess in
her place, but Catherine wasn't finished. She followed up with
a second, longer response that revealed even more about the
state of mind and her philosophy about love, arts, and authenticity.
The aftermath of those letters sent ripples through London's literary circles.
(14:42):
Virginia Wolf, always one to enjoy a good bit of gossip,
wrote about what she called the Bibesco scandal, with which
London so they say rings. She described dinners where a
miserable Murray poured out heart, insisting that his affair with
Elizabeth meant nothing to him, all the while declaring his
(15:06):
absolute devotion to Catherine. Mansfield meanwhile described the Princess to
William Gerardi, an up and coming novelist, as quote a
most dreadful young person, very very emotional. It's really a
shame we didn't have reality television back then, because this
friend group was churning out vander pump Rule's levels of
(15:29):
drama For Catherine, the confrontation represented something larger than just
marital strife. Her isolation and suffering due to her chronic
condition helped to realize what was most important to her writing.
Perhaps her husband's affair with Elizabeth Bibesco wasn't just a
(15:50):
betrayal to their marriage, but a threat to her entire
literary world. Maybe she found the brazenness of the Princess
just to be a bit of a bridge too far.
Maybe she was repelled by the passion of someone boldly
declaring what they wanted with no thought given to the
feelings of others. Or maybe she simply didn't care for
(16:14):
Elizabeth Babesco's writing. Regardless of her exact reasons, Katherine Mansfield
gathered the accumulated fury of her life's misfortunes and aimed
straight for the Princess. The fact that we have the
letter at all suggests that she made a copy and
possibly shared it with a close friend or two. I
(16:37):
can certainly understand that, after all, who hasn't sent a
friend screenshots of a particularly juicy text conversation, especially when
someone is so articulate and so in the right. For
Katherine mansfield life post letter was spent in search of
(16:58):
a Hail Mary miracle cure for her tuberculosis. Her final
years became a pilgrimage through alternative therapies and spiritual remedies,
each one promising what the last had failed to deliver.
This quest ultimately led her to the Institute for the
Harmonious Development of Man in Fontainebleau, France. This was the
(17:21):
most outlandish place she'd tried yet, a transcendental commune of
sorts under the guru like leadership of a man named
George Gurjeff, a mystic, spiritual teacher and choreographer. If that
sounds like a cult, well you're not wrong. Her days
(17:41):
were full of hard labor, with little food and little sleep,
but Catherine was convinced she had found something transformative. Sadly
she was right, though not in the way she had hoped.
Catherine died of a pulmonary hemorrhage just three months after
arriving at the Institute, sparking an immediate controversy about whether
(18:06):
the Institute's extreme regimen had accelerated her death. She was
just thirty four years old, in a final indignity that
somehow seems fitting for her turbulent relationship, her husband J. M.
Murray forgot to pay her funeral expenses. This resulted in
(18:27):
Catherine being buried in a pauper's grave before the oversight
was corrected and her remains could be moved to a
more suitable resting place. Her death left Murray with the
considerable task of editing and publishing the mountain of work
she left behind, including two volumes of short stories, a novel,
(18:49):
a collection of poems, and more. In death, Catherine's voice
would reach far more readers than it ever had in life. Meanwhile,
Elizabeth Bibesco was continuing to build a literary career of
her own. In nineteen twenty one, she published her first
collection of short stories, entitled I Have only Myself to Blame.
(19:15):
The Princess drew inspiration from the glittering Parisian society she
now called home, capturing what one critic would later call
the quote buoyant charm, nonchalant wit, and sparkling decor of
a rarefied world. Though others would find her writing superficial,
(19:37):
all glamour and no depth, she was a prolific writer,
publishing novels, plays, short story collections and more. Over the
course of the next two decades, her work garnered international attention,
and she even had a novel serialized in The Washington Post.
(19:57):
Yet despite her productivity a lie, Elizabeth found herself perpetually
dismissed by the literary establishment. The tensions that had erupted
over the Mansfield Murray affair crystallized a broader cultural divide
between the Bloomsbury intellectuals with their serious modernist sensibilities, and
(20:20):
Elizabeth's more fashionable, continental approach to both life and marriages
and literature. In the nineteen thirties, the Princess reached out
to Virginia wolf for support while putting together an anti
fascist exhibition in London, HARKing back to her teenage tenure
(20:41):
as a wartime organizer. Elizabeth drew from her well of
celebrity contacts, but Virginia Wolfe was no George Bernard Shaw.
Wolf was suspicious of Elizabeth's politics, particularly around feminism, or
she called it the woman in question. After a brief
(21:02):
terse exchange, Wolfe made it clear that in her view,
the Princess remained as shallow and politically naive as ever,
there's no denying Elizabeth Bibesco made enemies during her life,
but her writing deserves to be evaluated on its own terms.
Her work serves as a snapshot of a specific time
(21:26):
in history, a breathy, deceptively sincere counterpoint to the Bloomsbury
Group's existentialism. Years later, the English writer Elizabeth Bowen would
write a more generous assessment of Bibesco's writing than many
of her contemporaries. She noted that Elizabeth Bibesco's characters quote
(21:48):
seemed to be the inhabitants of a special millieu in
which the more ordinary taboos of feeling and breaks on
speech do not operate end quote. Elizabeth wrote of privileged
people with big feelings, people who came through the First
World War utterly changed and unsure where they fit in.
(22:11):
Those who survived became obsessed with the minutia of everyday life,
taking nothing for granted. Her characters followed their hearts just
as she had in real life, with all the fallout
that came along with it. In the end, perhaps the
real tragedy isn't that Elizabeth Bubesco was dismissed by her
(22:32):
more serious literary contemporaries, but that she was born into
the wrong era. Entirely in our current age of social
media and personal branding. Her instinct for self promotion and
her talent for turning life into art might have made
her a sensation. Instead, she found herself caught between two worlds.
(22:54):
A princess who wanted to be taken seriously as an
artist in an age that solemn intellectualism. A girl called
out and ostracized for an affair in a circle where
it was nearly the norm. Catherine Mansfield no doubt got
the last word in their famous exchange, but hopefully history
(23:16):
has softened a bit on Princess Bibesco, a woman whose
greatest crime may have been saying the quiet part out loud.
That's the story of Princess Elizabeth Bibesco, But keep listening
after a brief sponsor break for a bit more of
the Princess's glamorous life. Throughout her literary career, Elizabeth Bibesco
(23:46):
maintained a second job as ambassador's wife. She remained married
to Antoine Bibesco, despite his affairs and hers for the
entirety of her life, and the Bibescoes moved around with
Antoine's work work, first to Washington, d C and later Madrid.
When World War II began, the family returned to Romania,
(24:08):
where Elizabeth would spend her final years. She died in
nineteen forty five at just forty eight years old, and
was buried in the Bibesco family graveyard. Her grave is
inscribed with the last line of one of her collections
of poetry, My soul has gained the freedom of the night.
(24:29):
It's the perfect inscription and one last reminder to her
lifelong commitment to main character energy. Perhaps the most telling
detail about Princesses Bibesco's life comes from her obituary in
The New York Times. Quote, she narrowly escaped death in
nineteen twenty eight when an airplane in which she was
(24:50):
making a tour of Near East relief work crashed on
a rocky beach in Greece. The plane somersaulted three times,
ching passengers over a cliff into the sea. End quote. This,
to me is one of the most compelling arguments for
a more empathetic reframe of the Princess's life. She wasn't
(25:13):
just an architect of chaos. Sometimes the drama sought her out.
Noble Blood is a production of iHeartRadio and Grim and
Mild from Aaron Mankey. Noble Blood is hosted by me
Dana Schwartz, with additional writing and research by Hannah Johnston, Hannaswick,
(25:37):
Courtney Sender, Amy Hit and Julia Milaney. The show is
edited and produced by Jesse Funk, with supervising producerrima Ill
Kaali and executive producers Aaron Mankey, Trevor Young, and Matt Frederick.
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
(25:58):
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Host
Dana Schwartz
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Cold Case Files: Miami
Joyce Sapp, 76; Bryan Herrera, 16; and Laurance Webb, 32—three Miami residents whose lives were stolen in brutal, unsolved homicides. Cold Case Files: Miami follows award‑winning radio host and City of Miami Police reserve officer Enrique Santos as he partners with the department’s Cold Case Homicide Unit, determined family members, and the advocates who spend their lives fighting for justice for the victims who can no longer fight for themselves.