| Letter Reference | Olive Schreiner: Extracts of Letters to Cronwright-Schreiner MSC 26/2.16/197 |
| Archive | National Library of South Africa, Special Collections, Cape Town |
| Epistolary Type | Extract |
| Letter Date | 17 December 1904 |
| Address From | Pretoria, Transvaal |
| Address To | |
| Who To | S.C. (‘Cron’) Cronwright-Schreiner |
| Other Versions | |
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 S.C. (‘Cron’) Cronwright-Schreiner, 17 December 1904, NLSA Cape Town, Special Collections, Olive Schreiner Letters Project transcription’. Please also supply letter line numbers for specific quotations.
Legend
The Project is grateful to the National Library of South Africa (NLSA), Cape Town, for kindly allowing us to transcribe this Olive Schreiner extract, which is part of its Special Collections. This extract was produced by Cronwright-Schreiner using original letters when he was preparing
The Life... (1924) and
The Letters of Olive Schreiner (1924). With a few exceptions, the original letters in his possession were then destroyed. However, when Olive Schreiner's originals can be compared, this shows his extracts to be severely shortened, and/or inaccurate in sometimes minor but sometimes major respects, while their frequent multiple dates (eg. 8-15 August) indicate that he often combined a number of original letters, among other bowdlerisations and intrusions as well as deletions. Consequently the status of the Cronwright-Schreiner Extracts, of which this is one, is that they are artefacts of his editorial practices, rather than being ‘Olive Schreiner letters’ as such. They are provided for the sake of completeness, because they give clues as to where Schreiner was resident at different points in time, and indicate some of her activities. However, they should be read and used with considerable caution for the reasons spelled out here. Cronwright-Schreiner has written the date, where it was sent from and the place it was sent to onto this extract. 'Words In Season' is the sub-title of Schreiner’s
An English South African’s View of the Situation.
1:
…We had a splendid day for the funeral yesterday, cool & grey,
2: cloudy, but no rain… I am perfectly well… Did you know that De Wet
3: can speak English perfectly? The more you see him the more you like
4: him. He surprised me by quoting in English a whole passage from Words
5: in Season… Yesterday Malan & seven of his Commando were here to see
6: me, Cloete I promised to go out to ?Langloofte where Malan’s parents
7: are tomorrow afternoon; Mrs Van Heerden is there & all the Commando
8: are coming. Such a fine looking fighting lot when they are together…
9:
10:
Notation
'Words in Season' refers to Schreiner's
An English South African's View of the Situation, originally published in the
South African News over three successive days; see 'Words in Season. An English South African's View of the Situation'
South African News 1 June 1899 (p.8), 2 June 1899 (p.8) and 3 June 1899 (also p.8). It was also reprinted in a number of other newspapers. It then was published as a pamphlet, then as a book. A second edition of the book was ready but withdrawn from publication with Hodder and Stoughton by Schreiner when the South African War started in October 1899, so as not to profit from this.
