A Raft in the Sea of Loneliness: Katherine Mansfield’s Discovery of Cosmic Anatomy

M. B. Oxon’s Cosmic Anatomy and the Structure of the Ego (1921) was a prominent feature of Katherine Mansfield's 'myth' right from its inception, in the years following her death, when J.M. Murry orchestrated the publication of her uncollected writings. When Mansfield’s Journal appeared in 1927 the public came into contact with a little-known book that had changed the life of the author one year before her death. This article investigates the role Cosmic Anatomy played within the imagination of Mansfield, in relation to her late production. It also sheds light on the personality of Oxon, whose real name was Lewis Alexander Richard Wallace, notably on his relation with Mansfield's mentor, A.R. Orage, investigating Wallace’s contribution to The New Age (the journal Orage edited), which can be defined as the 'alternative thinking' laboratory in which Cosmic Anatomy is rooted.