Olive Schreiner Letters Online

Letter Reference	View Olive Schreiner to Emily Hobhouse HTC/1
Archive	Hobhouse Trust, Canada
Epistolary Type	Letter
Letter Date	29 May 1908
Address From	De Aar, Northern Cape
Address To
Who To	Emily Hobhouse
Other Versions

The manuscript of this letter by Olive Schreiner belongs to the Archive referenced above; its ownership of the original should be acknowledged by referencing the letter as indicated: Copyright transcription: © Olive Schreiner Letters Project. This transcription can be freely used as long as copyright is acknowledged and it is referenced using the following citation: ‘Olive Schreiner to Emily Hobhouse, 29 May 1908, Hobhouse Trust, Olive Schreiner Letters Project transcription’. Please also supply letter line numbers for specific quotations.

Legend
The Project is grateful to Jennifer Hobhouse Balme and the Hobhouse Trust for kindly allowing us to transcribe this Olive Schreiner letter to Emily Hobhouse, which is part of the Trust collection.

1:  Letter to be read at meeting
2: 
3:  de Aar
4:  May 29th 1908
5: 
6:  Dear Miss Hobhouse
7: 
8:  I regret I cannot be with you on the second.
9: 
10:  The time is a very important one; because is it greatly to be desired,
11:  that (as in Australia) with the federation of the different South
12:  African states, should go the re cognition of woman’s citizenship, &
13:  her duty towards the state nation.
14: 
15:  //The male members of our society, who have, in the past, alone, been
16:  intrusted with the duty of shaping laws & public insti-tutions, have
17:  in South Africa often shown a sanity & breadth of insight, often not
18:  always shown by those of other societies.
19: 
20:  //In the non-sexual cases of our University regulations we have the
21:  noblest example of this. This constitution recognizes that the
22:  benefits of the highest intellectual culture are as curiously denied
23:  on the score of sex as of race: & that social health demands that
24:  their enjoyment ^use^ should depend, entirely on the desire & ability of
25:  the individual ^citizen^ to make use of them.
26: 
27:  //In the splendid use which many of our younger women are now making
28:  of those advantages, we have as a society the reward of the breadth &
29:  foresight shown by certain of our men ^in the past^; & we have no not
30:  need to fear that in the future South Africa’s men will be far found
31:  falling behind those of other nations in the path of progressive &
32:  enlightened social development.
33: 
34:  //I have never regarded the desire (now as wide spread as civilization
35:  itself) that woman should take her share in the duties & labours of
36:  the nation life, as in any sense a movement of the sexes against each
37:  other; but, rather, as a as a great integrative movement, of the sexes
38:  towards each other.
39: 
40:  How deeply this movement ^is the expression^ of a great social need,
41:  felt equally by man & woman, unreadable is shown in our country, by
42:  that large body of its most intelligent & advanced men who, not only
43:  stand shoulder to shoulder with woman in her struggle for this reform,
44:  but who have indeed often been leaders.
45: 
46:  There ?shal have been with-in the last weeks councils held by certain
47:  of our men, seeking to forward what ^they hope^ will ultimately be, a
48:  federation of our different states
49: 
50:  //We here today are are met ^?in an endeavour to^ forward an even deeper
51:  & wider ^measure of^ reform – the Federation of the Sexes.
52: 
53:  I believe they will ultimately succeed – I know, we shall.
54: 
55:  Yours ever
56:  Olive Schreiner
57: 
58: 

Notation
Emily Hobhouse has written on to this letter, 'Sent to me to be read at the meeting in favour of Women's Suffrage in Cape Town - I duly read it. E.H.' On 2 June 1908, a major meeting in support of women's enfranchisement was held in the Metropolitan Hall, Cape Town, organised by the Women's Enfranchisement League with Caroline Murray as its President. Hobhouse addressed the meeting in her own right; she also read out the text of Schreiner's letter. See South African News 3 June 1908 (p.5).

Letter Reference	View Olive Schreiner to Emily Hobhouse HTC/2
Archive	Hobhouse Trust, Canada
Epistolary Type	Letter
Letter Date	3 October 1908
Address From	De Aar, Northern Cape
Address To
Who To	Emily Hobhouse
Other Versions	Cronwright-Schreiner 1924: 283

The manuscript of this letter by Olive Schreiner belongs to the Archive referenced above; its ownership of the original should be acknowledged by referencing the letter as indicated: Copyright transcription: © Olive Schreiner Letters Project. This transcription can be freely used as long as copyright is acknowledged and it is referenced using the following citation: ‘Olive Schreiner to Emily Hobhouse, 3 October 1908, Hobhouse Trust, Olive Schreiner Letters Project transcription’. Please also supply letter line numbers for specific quotations.

Legend
The Project is grateful to Jennifer Hobhouse Balme and the Hobhouse Trust for kindly allowing us to transcribe this Olive Schreiner letter to Emily Hobhouse, which is part of the Trust collection.

1:  De Aar
2:  Oct 3rd 1908
3: 
4:  Dear Emily Hobhouse
5: 
6:  I seems too sad that you are really going away from Africa, & yet I
7:  feel it’s best. I too would go if I could. That is, I feel I could
8:  do much more in Europe than I can here. No one needs me here now
9:  except the natives - & that is indeed hard & stern works that calls to
10:  all the bravest souls in South Africa for many years to come.
11: 
12:  I think you will find a large field of work opening for in England in
13:  aiding our women there. Let me hear from you sometimes & know how the
14:  world opens before you. We shall have an uphill fight here to rouse &
15:  educate our women to their public duties. You see, we are just 60
16:  years behind Europe in this, as in so many other matters.
17: 
18:  I wish you were coming this way on your journey home. Its is a noble
19:  page of a woman’s work that you are closing as you go away.
20: 
21:  Yours ever & ever
22:  Olive Schreiner
23: 
24:  Ple Tell Naude he must spend a day with me on his way home. I have a
25:  tiny prophet’s character & I can put him in.
26: 
27:  It is a terrible pity the last part of that journal was not translated
28:  in the same splendid simple style the first part was. If it were, I
29:  would be glad to write a little preface to it & I’m
30: 
31:  ^sure some English publisher would be glad to take it simply as a
32:  "Human Document" as the Americans calls such a revelation of human
33:  nature. I think it wonderful.^
34: 
35: 
36: 

Notation
Emily Hobhouse has attached a note to this letter saying 'Olive Schreiner 2nd opinion of the Badenhorst Manuscript.' Cronwright-Schreiner's (1924) version of the letter is incorrect in a range of respects.