| Letter Reference | Edward Carpenter 359/33 |
| Archive | Sheffield Archives, Archives & Local Studies, Sheffield |
| Epistolary Type | Letter |
| Letter Date | Sunday 1888 |
| Address From | Alassio, Italy |
| Address To | |
| Who To | Edward Carpenter |
| Other Versions | Rive 1987: 144-5 |
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 Edward Carpenter, 1888, Sheffield Libraries, Archives & Information, Olive Schreiner Letters Project transcription’. Please also supply letter line numbers for specific quotations.
Legend
The Project is grateful to the Sheffield Archives, Sheffield Libraries, Archives and Information Services, for kindly allowing us to transcribe this Olive Schreiner letter, which is part of its Archive Collections. The year has been written on this letter in an unknown hand. Schreiner stayed in Alassio from late October 1887 to February 1888 and from early April to May 1888, where she met and corresponded with Mary Drew in the early part of 1888.
1:
Sunday night
2:
3:
My dear Edward,
4:
5:
I was glad to get your letter. You must get away to the sunshine if
6: you can. We’ve had rain here for three or four days but the sun is
7: sure to come out soon. Today has been a day of great anxiety to me. I
8: have told someone to telegraph tomorrow if any of our people are
9: killed. but I don’t think it will go so far.
10:
11:
I am working pretty well here. I cannot do very much in the day but
12: what I do is good. I have just finished off a dream tonight. Mr
13: Gladstone’s daughter said she would like to see it: when she has
14: done with it I’ll tell her to send it to you. I am writing a long
15: dream on socialism which I am going to publish in the Fortnightly. I
16: think it will be good, but writing it nearly kills one with excitement.
17: I am living quite alone here, never see or speak to anyone except
18: about food at meal times. I shall stay here till summer then go to
19: Venice for a few months & return here next winter. Give my love to
20: George Adams. I hope your soul grows strong.
21:
22:
If you should see Karl Pearson will you write and tell me. If you
23: should see him anywhere without speaking to him. I have not heard from
24: anyone who has seen him for a very long time. You would never mention
25: ^me to him if you met him? I am going to try & get my novel off my
26: hands next year.^
27:
28: ^Rather a good published Fischer Unwin 26 Paternoster Square. If you
29: can’t make arrangements with another you might go to him with the
30: song book. Write to me soon if the spirit moves you.
^
31:
32:
Goodbye my old Chips.
33:
Olive
34:
35:
36:
Notation
The 'long dream on socialism' was in fact not published in the
Fortnightly Review because of its length. See "The sunlight lay across my bed: Part I - Hell"
New Review Vol 1, no 11, April 1890, pp.300-309; and "The sunlight lay across my bed: Part II - Heaven",
New Review Vol 1, no 12, May 1890, pp.423-431. Rive's (1987) version omits part of this letter and is also in a number of respects incorrect.
