| Letter Reference | T120 (M722): W.T. Stead Papers/43- pages 177-180 |
| Archive | National Archives Depot, Pretoria |
| Epistolary Type | Letter |
| Letter Date | Sunday July 1897 |
| Address From | Morley’s Hotel, Trafalgar Square, London |
| Address To | |
| Who To | William Thomas Stead |
| 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 William Thomas Stead, July 1897, National Archives Depot, Pretoria, Olive Schreiner Letters Project transcription’. Please also supply letter line numbers for specific quotations.
Legend
The Project is grateful to the National Archives Repository, Pretoria, for kindly allowing us to transcribe this Olive Schreiner letter, which is part of its Micofilm Collections. Stead’s
Notables of Britain was published in the first part of 1897 while, out of many occasions she was at Morley’s Hotel, Schreiner stayed there for some weeks during July 1897, hence the dating of this letter.
1: Morley’s Hotel
2: Sunday
3:
4: ^Private^
5:
6: Dear Friend
7:
8: I have just received your book of Notables of Britain. Yes I have a
9: suggestion to make about my photograph: Seven years ago Eliot & Fry
10: took the caricature of me which you ^have^ reproduced.
11:
12: I had given them special instructions to destroy the negatives & keep
13: no copies of the photograph. Will you kindly let me know where you got
14: the copy you have reproduced?
15:
16: If you care to have a photograph taken by the photographers you
17: mentioned before, I will go & have one taken for the book you with
18: great pleasure (if you will send me the address which I have forgotten!)
19: ^but please on the condition that if I think it bad it is to be
20: destroyed^ but please don’t put that ^Elliot & Fry^ photo in the next
21: edition! This note is private.
22:
23: Thine ever
24: Olive Schreiner
25:
26: I know of course, dear friend, you thought the photograph was all
27: right. I want to know how it got out of Elliot & Fry’s hands.
28:
Notation
The book in question is: WT Stead (1897)
Notables of Britain: An Album of Portraits and Autographs London: Review of Review Offices. The entry for Olive Schreiner, with the Elliott & Fry photograph referred to, is on page 205 and describes her as ‘the most remarkable woman of South Africa...; a brilliant writer; a vehement but somewhat Utopian politician.’.
