Olive Schreiner Letters Online

Letter Reference	Edward Carpenter 359/60
Archive	Sheffield Archives, Archives & Local Studies, Sheffield
Epistolary Type	Letter
Letter Date	1892
Address From	na
Address To
Who To	Edward Carpenter
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 Edward Carpenter, 1892, 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. This letter has been dated 1892 because of its place in the archival sequence.

1:  Dear Old Ned
2: 
3:  I’m coming home in April next. It will be beautiful to see you all.
4:  Old Bob & George & all of you. Couldn’t you come out here this
5:  summer & go back with me in April. Summer here is fine, winters are
6:  bad. I’ve had measles been up two months but quite fit again. Very
7:  well & happy.
8: 
9:  Good bye
10:  Olive
11: 
12:  Alice had a peep at you. Said you looked at always. Everyone is very
13:  good & kind to me here, but I want to see my old comrades.
14: 
15:  The only hope for Africa lies in the English people being unwilling to
16:  aid in these these things; but I fear there is no hope; no hope!
17: 
18:  You can have no idea reading the paper at Home, where it will seem
19:  moderate & simple enough, what a storm it has raised in this country.
20:  You know what wildly excited socialist orators say that capitalism is
21:  in England & America; - well, that’s what it realy is here. You
22:  can’t picture anything worse! You don’t know what capitalism is in
23:  England. You’ve never seen a hord of men sweep down on a country, &
24:  take possession of every thing!! lands, mines, public works,
25:  Government, - everything! And we are so powerless. We are just like a
26:  tiny fly caught by the hindlegs in a huge spiders web. It’s no use.
27:  Good bye dear old boy. Cron sends his love to you. So do I.
28: 
29:  Olive
30: 
31: 
32: 

Notation
'The paper' referred to is Schreiner's ' Returned South African no. 1' essay, 'South Africa: its natural features, its diverse peoples, its political status: the problem', which was published in the Fortnightly Review in July 1891 to considerable effect. With a number of companion articles, it was intended for publication in book form as 'Stray Thoughts on South Africa'. However, although prepared for publication, a dispute with a US publisher and the events of the South African War prevented this. With some related essays, they were posthumously published as Thoughts on South Africa.