Sophie Brzeska was born in Łączki Brzeskie,[1] Galicia, Austria-Hungary (now Poland) in 1872[2] to a large family of noble descent on her mother's side.

[5] The book Matka and Other Writings (London: Mercury Graphics; includes some texts translated from French by Gillian Raffles) was from manuscript sheets which had lain unpublished for over 50 years.

It contains her account of what happened to her immediately after Henri Gaudier-Brzeska was killed at the Front in France in 1915, graphically recounts her efforts and trials to arrange a memorial exhibition of his work, and gives a frank view of how she felt his friends T. E. Hulme, Ezra Pound, Robert Bevan and others behaved toward her.

The intention of the editor has been to keep these elements evident in the translation and transcription in order to be true to her character and escalating emotional intensity and to hear her unique voice.

[6] An admirer of Gaudier's work, the art collector and historian H. S. Ede acquired her estate in 1927 from the British Treasury Solicitor after she died intestate.

Ede drew extensively on the letters written by Gaudier to Brzeska, and her writings and other material, when he published A Life of Gaudier-Brzeska (London: W. Heinemann) in 1930; the 1931 and later editions are entitled Savage Messiah.

[10][6][11] The relationship between Henri Gaudier and Sophie Brzeska was fictionalised in the 1934 stage play The Laughing Woman by Josephine Tey under the pen name 'Gordon Daviot'.

Savage Messiah, Ken Russell's 1972 film based on Ede's book, focuses on Sophie and Henri Gaudier's relationship giving them equal importance in shaping each other's lives.