The relationship between the personal lives of writers and the works they produce is at the heart of this intriguing new study In particular it reconsiders the place of John Middleton Murry 1889 1957 in the development of literary modernism in Britain Drawing on Murry s unpublished journals and long forgotten novels Circulating Genius examines his significance as a circulator of ideas reputations and critical positions in his roles of editor literary critic novelist friend and lover and complicates the arguments of earlier biographers and critics about his relationships both personal and professional with Katherine Mansfield and D H Lawrence Key FeaturesRewrites standard assumptions about John Middleton Murry s relationships with Katherine Mansfield and D H LawrenceProvides intertextual readings of fiction by Mansfield Lawrence and MurryConsiders Murry s controversial role in the dissemination of modernist critical positionsExplores marginalisation and centrality in the creation of the modernist canon