Olive Schreiner Letters Online

Letter Reference	Olive Schreiner: Anna Purcell MSC 26/2.9.2
Archive	National Library of South Africa, Special Collections, Cape Town
Epistolary Type	Letter
Letter Date	After Start: Thursday 1906 ; Before End: 1910
Address From	na
Address To
Who To	Anna Purcell nee Cambier Faure
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 Anna Purcell nee Cambier Faure, 1906, 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 letter, which is part of its Special Collections. This letter has been approximately dated by reference to content concerning the women?s suffrage campaign.

1:  Thursday night
2: 
3:  My darling Anna
4: 
5:  Did you feel how I was loving you as I sat behind you at the meeting.
6:  I could have kissed your dear little black curl at the back of your
7:  neck.
8: 
9:  Your paper was lovely dear, so sweet & like yourself, but your way of
10:  reading it was sweeter. I could have cried while you were reading it.
11:  I felt sure every one must be falling in love with you. Mrs Solly's
12:  speech was clever; but after it yours & Mrs Brown's were sweet to me.
13:  I'll try to come out soon Perhaps Sunday if it's quite fine. Monday &
14:  Tuesday ^Wednesday^ I am engaged. But the other days are open so far. I
15:  try to come on Tuesday.
16: 
17:  Wasn't that Irish girl sweet?
18: 
19:  I've been very ill. My heart has not been so bad before. To-day the
20:  pain is less, & I can see clearer.
21: 
22:  //Margaretha is such a wonderful little person, all other children
23:  (except Buster) seem so common place beside her; but perhaps my eyes
24:  are blinded. She's a child one could get to love with an absorbing
25:  love. Please tell me about Malan's meeting. I hope Mrs M- will not
26:  spoil it. What does she mean by saying we are going to do something?
27:  In a country like this where men are even more enlightened & advanced
28:  on the woman question that women, where everything is advancing so
29:  wonderfully considering the short time we've been working - what does
30:  she mean?? We have the wives of two Ministers who will be in the Union
31:  Parliament on our executive! What more could we expect.
32: 
33:  My darling old boy is looking very well: he plays tennis now as well
34:  as golf, & it does him much good. But he has to work awfully hard so
35:  gets little time for reading or writing in the evening. I've not been
36:  out to the camp since I came.
37: 
38:  Ollie's puppies are so lovely, especially one - with large eyes like
39:  Netas.
40: 
41:  Good bye dear one. It was so beautiful, so sweet of you to think of
42:  that pamphlet. You will never know how I prize it. Your love &
43:  friendship has been so much to me during the last years that I hardly
44:  know how I should have gone on living here ^in Africa^ without them. It
45:  all seemed so empty while you were in Europe.
46: 
47:  Good bye.
48:  Olive
49: 
50:  Tengo Jabavu is passing tonight but I'm not able to go to the Station
51:  to meet him.
52: 
53:  ^Love to you all. My baby will be quite grown when I see her next^
54:  Olive
55: 
56:  Crons still away at de Aar, he returns on Sunday night.
57: 

Notation
Anna Purcell's paper cannot be traced.