"Narrow racialism of Nationalists" Read the full letter
| Letter Reference | Karl Pearson 840/4/2/50-51 |
| Archive | University College London Library, Special Collections, UCL, London |
| Epistolary Type | Letter |
| Letter Date | Monday 12 April 1886 |
| Address From | St Dominic?s Convent, Mutrix Road, Kilburn, London |
| Address To | |
| Who To | Karl Pearson |
| Other Versions | |
| Permissions | Please read before using or citing this transcription |
| Legend |
The Project is grateful to University College London (UCL) and its Library Services for kindly allowing us to transcribe this Olive Schreiner letter, which is part of its Special Collections. The date has been written on this letter in an unknown hand.
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1
St Dominics Convent
2 Kilburn
3 Monday
4
5 Dear Mr Pearson
6
7 I sent you that MS. not because I thought it good, but because I
8thought you might feel the kind of interest in it I feel in your old
9writings. You ought not to have read it now while you are so busy. I
10wonder what the work is you have had to relinquish for the time. If it
11is writing perhaps it is well so. Have you ever noticed when you are
12obliged even by illness to leave work unfinished, your mind seems to
13mature it, ^unconsciously^ & you come back to it, & are surprised to
14find with what added force. I am only sorry because of your holiday,
15it will press a little like an unseen weight on your mind all the time.
16
17 //Much of what you say about creative unreadable ^work^ is true; only
18it’s not the whole truth. If I should have anything I should want to
19say while you are away I suppose I can send it to the Temple, & it
20will be forwarded.
21
22 I don’t know what you feel with regard to pictures, but ^if they’re
23anything to you^ you ought to go & see Holman Hunts exhibition at 148
24New Bond St, if you have not seen unreadable it & have time before you
25leave. They give me a peculiar kind of joy, a deep restful kind of
26feeling. In the Christ’s face in the Shadow of Death there is a look
27that it seems to me no picture as embodied yet, something which
28expresses to me the aspiration of our modern world. It is all that old
29Christs are not. I believe unreadable the Jewish carpenter really
30lived unreadable
31
32 I am getting on with my work. You are the only person almost I expect
33to like it - & perhaps you will not. Thank you very much for your
34letter.
35
36 Yours very sincerely
37 Olive Schreiner
38
39 At Basel you are going to the place which above all others I wish to
40see. My father was there as a student. Ever since I was a child I have
41been picturing the hills he used to go to to botanise with the friend
42he loved. Are there hills at Basel? Don’t you think that German men
43have truer friendships ^with each other^ more often than Englishmen? I
44am going out of my convent tomorrow to meet Mrs Clifford.
45
46
47
2 Kilburn
3 Monday
4
5 Dear Mr Pearson
6
7 I sent you that MS. not because I thought it good, but because I
8thought you might feel the kind of interest in it I feel in your old
9writings. You ought not to have read it now while you are so busy. I
10wonder what the work is you have had to relinquish for the time. If it
11is writing perhaps it is well so. Have you ever noticed when you are
12obliged even by illness to leave work unfinished, your mind seems to
13mature it, ^unconsciously^ & you come back to it, & are surprised to
14find with what added force. I am only sorry because of your holiday,
15it will press a little like an unseen weight on your mind all the time.
16
17 //Much of what you say about creative unreadable ^work^ is true; only
18it’s not the whole truth. If I should have anything I should want to
19say while you are away I suppose I can send it to the Temple, & it
20will be forwarded.
21
22 I don’t know what you feel with regard to pictures, but ^if they’re
23anything to you^ you ought to go & see Holman Hunts exhibition at 148
24New Bond St, if you have not seen unreadable it & have time before you
25leave. They give me a peculiar kind of joy, a deep restful kind of
26feeling. In the Christ’s face in the Shadow of Death there is a look
27that it seems to me no picture as embodied yet, something which
28expresses to me the aspiration of our modern world. It is all that old
29Christs are not. I believe unreadable the Jewish carpenter really
30lived unreadable
31
32 I am getting on with my work. You are the only person almost I expect
33to like it - & perhaps you will not. Thank you very much for your
34letter.
35
36 Yours very sincerely
37 Olive Schreiner
38
39 At Basel you are going to the place which above all others I wish to
40see. My father was there as a student. Ever since I was a child I have
41been picturing the hills he used to go to to botanise with the friend
42he loved. Are there hills at Basel? Don’t you think that German men
43have truer friendships ^with each other^ more often than Englishmen? I
44am going out of my convent tomorrow to meet Mrs Clifford.
45
46
47
Notation
The 'MS' referred to is from Undine.
The 'MS' referred to is from Undine.