{{Short description|British novelist (1896–1963)}} {{Use British English|date=July 2015}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2020}} {{Infobox person | name = Katharine Burdekin | image = Katharine_Burdekin_author.jpg | image_size = | caption = Katharine Burdekin | birth_name = Katharine Penelope Cade | birth_date = 23 July 1896 | birth_place = {{Nowrap|Spondon, England, <br> United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland}} | death_date = {{death date and age text|10 August 1963|23 July 1896}} | death_place = Suffolk, England, United Kingdom | death_cause = | other_names = Murray Constantine<br>Kay Burdekin | known_for = Feminist science fiction, fantasy, satire | education = Cheltenham Ladies' College | employer = | occupation = writer | spouse = Beaufort Burdekin | partner = | children = 2 | parents = | relatives = Rowena Cade (sister) | signature = | website = | footnotes = }} '''Katharine Penelope Burdekin''' (née '''Cade'''; 23 July 1896 – 10 August 1963) was a British novelist who wrote speculative fiction concerned with social and spiritual matters.<ref name="jc">John Clute, "Burdekin, Katherine P(enelope)" in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, edited by John Clute and Peter Nicholls. London, Orbit,1994. {{ISBN|1-85723-124-4}} (p.175).</ref> She was the younger sister of Rowena Cade, creator of the Minack Theatre in Cornwall. Several of her novels have been described as feminist utopian/dystopian fiction.<ref>{{cite web |title=Burdekin, Katharine 1896-1963 |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/burdekin-katharine-1896-1963 |website=Encyclopedia.com |access-date=6 October 2023}}</ref> She also wrote under the name '''Kay Burdekin''' and under the pseudonym '''Murray Constantine'''. Daphne Patai unraveled "Murray Constantine's" true identity while doing research on utopian and dystopian fiction in the mid-1980s.<ref name="Burdekin1934">{{cite book|author=Katharine Burdekin|title=Proud Man|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o9tTyTd3BQIC&pg=PA320|year=1934|publisher=Feminist Press at CUNY|isbn=978-1-55861-067-5|pages=320–}}</ref>
==Early life== Katharine Penelope Burdekin was born in Spondon, Derbyshire in 1896,<ref name="Burdekin1934"/><ref>{{cite web |title=Burdekin, Katharine 1896-1963 |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/burdekin-katharine-1896-1963 |website=Encyclopedia.com |access-date=6 October 2023}}</ref> the youngest of Charles Cade's four children. Her family had lived in Derby for many years and their ancestors include Joseph Wright of Derby.
She was educated by a governess at their home, The Homestead, and later at Cheltenham Ladies' College. Highly intelligent and an avid reader, she wanted to study at Oxford like her brothers, but her parents did not allow it. She married Olympic rower and barrister Beaufort Burdekin in 1915.<ref name="Burdekin1934" /> They had two daughters, Katharine Jayne (b. 1917) and Helen Eugenie (b. 1920).<ref>{{Cite thesis|last=Desforges|first=Kate|title=Burdekin's Utopian Visions: A Study of Four Interwar Texts|date=January 2015|degree=PhD|page=7|publisher=University of Hull|url=https://hydra.hull.ac.uk/assets/hull:14090a/content}}</ref>
Her family moved to Australia, where Katharine started writing. Her first novel, ''Anna Colquhoun'', was published in 1922.<ref name="Burdekin1922">{{cite book|author=Katharine Burdekin|title=Anna Colquhoun. [A Novel.].|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RTO5nQEACAAJ|year=1922|publisher=London}}</ref> Her marriage ended in the same year, and she moved to Minack Head to join her sister. In 1926, she met and formed a lifelong relationship with Isobel Allan-Burns.<ref name="Burdekin1989" />
==Writing career== thumb|A view near Minack Head where Burdekin lived with her partner, mother, and sister Burdekin wrote several novels during the 1920s. Of her first novel ''Anna Colquhoun'',<ref name="Burdekin1922" /> the Evening News of Sydney noted that it was "one of the most promising first novels that has come our way for a long time",<ref>{{Cite journal |last=B. |first= H.H.|title=Mrs. Burdekin's Novel|date=27 June 1922|page=4|journal=Evening News|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/118854965}}</ref> but she later considered ''The Rebel Passion'' (1929) to be her first mature work. ''The Burning Ring'' (1927) and ''The Rebel Passion'' are both time travel fantasies.<ref name="jc" />
In the 1930s she wrote thirteen novels, six of which were published. Her partner describes how Burdekin's wide-ranging reading would precede a period of quiet for a few days. She would then appear to surrender herself to writing and she would write single mindedly until it was complete. She didn't appear to plan her books, and each book was completed within six weeks.<ref name="Burdekin1989" />
Burdekin began using the pseudonym Murray Constantine in 1934. She allegedly adopted the pseudonym to protect her family from the risk of repercussions and attacks for her novel's political nature and strong criticism of fascism. Murray Constantine's true identity was unknown until long after Burdekin's death.<ref>A review of ''Proud Man'' in the ''Manchester Guardian'', 1 June 1934, suggested "Constantine" was the pseudonym of Olaf Stapledon. See Robert Crossley, ''Olaf Stapledon: Speaking for the Future'',Syracuse University Press, 1994 {{ISBN|0815602812}} (p. 427).</ref>
In ''Proud Man'' (1934) Burdekin uses the arrival of a hermaphrodite visitor from the future to criticise 1930s gender roles.<ref name="jc" /> Published the same year, ''The Devil, Poor Devil!'' is a satirical fantasy about how the Devil's power is undermined by modern rationalism.<ref>Brian Stableford, ''The A to Z of Fantasy Literature'', Scarecrow Press,Plymouth. 2005. {{ISBN|0-8108-6829-6}} (p. 56)</ref>
Burdekin published her best-known novel, ''Swastika Night'' (1937), as Murray Constantine. Reflecting Burdekin's analysis of the masculine element in fascist ideology, ''Swastika Night'' depicts a world divided between two militaristic powers: the Nazis and Japan. Burdekin anticipated the Holocaust and understood the dangers presented by a militarised Japan while most people in her society were still supporting a policy of appeasement. A pacifist committed to communist ideals, Burdekin abandoned pacifism in 1938 out of the conviction that fascism had to be fought.
Burdekin had a period of depression in 1938. Her friend Margaret L. Goldsmith tried to assist by giving her research material on Marie Antoinette. The outcome was a historical novel, ''Venus in Scorpio'', co-authored by Goldsmith and Burdekin (as 'Murray Constantine').<ref name="BurdekinEOTD">{{cite book|author=Katharine Burdekin|title=The End of this Day's Business|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w1qf5qa8zs0C&pg=PA165|year=1989|publisher=Feminist Press at CUNY|isbn=978-1-55861-009-5|pages=166–7}}</ref>
She wrote six further novels after World War II, none of which were published in her lifetime. These novels reflect her feminist commitments that became increasingly spiritual. Her unpublished manuscript, ''The End of This Day's Business,'' was published by The Feminist Press in New York in 1989;<ref name="BurdekinEOTD"/> it is a counterpart to ''Swastika Night'' and envisions a distant future in which women rule and men are deprived of all power.<ref name="jc" /> This vision was also subjected to Burdekin's critique; she had little patience with what she called "reversals of privilege" and aspired to a future in which domination itself would finally be overcome.
She wrote several children's books, including ''The Children's Country'' (titled ''St John's Eve'' before it was published in America) about a boy and girl who enter a magical world where children are more powerful than adults.<ref name="Burdekin1989">{{cite book|author=Katharine Burdekin|title=The End of this Day's Business|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w1qf5qa8zs0C&pg=PA163|year=1989|publisher=Feminist Press at CUNY|isbn=978-1-55861-009-5|pages=163–}}</ref>
Burdekin died in 1963. With the growing interest in women's utopian fiction in the last few decades, her work has been the object of considerable scholarly attention. Most early information about her came from Daphne Patai's research.<ref name="Shaw2000">{{cite book|author=D. Shaw|title=Women, Science and Fiction: The Frankenstein Inheritance|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eV6ADAAAQBAJ&pg=PA42|date=19 September 2000|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK|isbn=978-0-230-28734-1|pages=42–}}</ref> Patai discovered that Burdekin wrote ''Swastika Night'' and other feminist speculative fiction in the 1930s that was published under the pseudonym of Murray Constantine. Patai was also involved in their republication.<ref name="2Burdekin1989">{{cite book |author=Katharine Burdekin |title=The End of this Day's Business |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w1qf5qa8zs0C&pg=PA163 |year=1989 |publisher=Feminist Press at CUNY |isbn=978-1-55861-009-5 |pages=163–}}</ref>
== Bibliography == {{Library resources box|by=yes|viaf=19734729}} {| class="wikitable" |+ !Title !Year Published !Pseudonym !Notes |- |''Anna Colquhoun''<ref name="Burdekin1922" /> |1922 | | |- |''The Reasonable Hope'' |1924 | | |- |''The Burning Ring'' |1927 | | |- |''The Children's Country'' |1929 |Kay Burdekin | |- |''The Rebel Passion'' |1929 | | |- |''Quiet Ways'' |1930 | | |- |''The Devil, Poor Devil'' |1934 |Murray Constantine | |- |''Proud Man'' |1934 |Murray Constantine |Reprinted under her real name in 1993 |- |''Swastika Night'' |1937 |Murray Constantine |Reprinted under her real name in 1985 |- |''Venus in Scorpio'' |1940 |Murray Constantine |With Margaret Goldsmith<ref name="BurdekinEOTD" /> |- |''The End of This Day's Business''<ref name="BurdekinEOTD" /> |1989 | | |}
==References== {{reflist}}
==Sources== * [http://www.bookrags.com/biography/katharine-penelope-burdekin-dlb/ ''BookRags''] * ''Dictionary of Literary Biography'', Volume 225, British Fantasy and Science-Fiction Writers, 1918–1960 (edited by Darren Harris-Fain, 2002).
==External links== {{Portal|Cornwall}} * [http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=643 Literary Encyclopedia entry on Katherine Burdekin] * [https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/search.jsp?Erp=20&N=38537+38532+4294068065&view=grid Works by Murray Constantine] at Merril Collection of Science Fiction, Speculation & Fantasy (Toronto Public Library)
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Burdekin, Katharine}} Category:1896 births Category:1963 deaths Category:People educated at Cheltenham Ladies' College Category:British science fiction writers Category:20th-century English women novelists Category:English science fiction writers Category:English fantasy writers Category:British feminist writers Category:English anti-fascists Category:British socialist feminists Category:British women short story writers Category:British women science fiction and fantasy writers Category:20th-century English novelists Category:20th-century British short story writers Category:English lesbian writers Category:People from Spondon Category:20th-century pseudonymous women writers Category:Writers from Derbyshire Category:English women non-fiction writers Category:20th-century pseudonymous writers Category:20th-century English LGBTQ people Category:20th-century English non-fiction writers