Exploring the boundaries of biography: the family and friendship networks of Lady Curzon, Vicereine of India 1898–1905

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This paper presents a biographical analysis of Mary Curzon, Vicereine of India (1898–1905) set within the context of her family and friendship circle. Outlining the archival records that have been used to explore Mary Curzon's family and friendship network, this paper discusses the methodological considerations that face biographical researchers, and presents the recent shifts in the method and theory of biography that have opened new avenues for geographers engaged with life writing. This paper argues that by placing the biographical subject within their friendship networks, the specificity of biography can be combined with greater engagement with the wider, social, cultural, economic and political contexts in which subjects lived. Letters formed the most frequent link to ‘home’ for those living in the ‘empire’, links that provided security, but also more practical forms of advice and support. Exploring the ways in which Mary presented her reproductive and ‘bodily ills’ through correspondence to her family and friendship circle, this paper demonstrates that Mary's friendship network offered avenues for mutual reassurance and advice. Mary Curzon's attempts to control the British and India newspaper press is examined, revealing that she used family and friends to shape representations of her health through the spaces of empire, and also to manipulate newspaper representation of Indian political affairs. This paper argues that biographical approaches offer an important mechanism to combine concerns of the body and the polity when addressing the position of women within the culture of empire.