"Not sex love, our intellectual relations" Read the full letter
| Letter Reference | Olive Schreiner BC16/Box5/Fold2/1913/14 |
| Archive | University of Cape Town, Manuscripts & Archives, Cape Town |
| Epistolary Type | Letter |
| Letter Date | Sunday 20 April 1913 |
| Address From | De Aar, Northern Cape |
| Address To | |
| Who To | William Philip ('Will') Schreiner |
| Other Versions | |
| Permissions | Please read before using or citing this transcription |
| Legend |
The Project is grateful to Manuscripts and Archives, University of Cape Town, for kindly allowing us to transcribe this Olive Schreiner letter, which is part of its Manuscripts and Archives Collections. The date has been written on this letter in an unknown hand. Schreiner was resident in De Aar from November 1907 until she left South Africa for Britain and Europe in December 1913, with some fairly lengthy visits elsewhere over this time.
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1
Dear Laddie
2
3 Please send me Mr "Renaut" address on this card He sent me a box of
4fruit & I can’t write to thank him as I don’t know it, or if I
5spell his name right.
6
7 I send you a bit of Anna Purcells letter about our Boy. Its very nice
8how much others care about our children. Dot has a strange power of
9drawing women to her. They so many of them talk of her with such
10curious admiration.
11
12 Good bye. You are having your Sunday afternoon tea now at East Cliffe.
13 Your little sister
14 Ol
15
16 Cron sends much love. He was delighted at Ol’s success.
17 Sunday.
18
19 ^I always tell her she’s a South African jingo. She wants South
20Africans to do & be everything^
21
2
3 Please send me Mr "Renaut" address on this card He sent me a box of
4fruit & I can’t write to thank him as I don’t know it, or if I
5spell his name right.
6
7 I send you a bit of Anna Purcells letter about our Boy. Its very nice
8how much others care about our children. Dot has a strange power of
9drawing women to her. They so many of them talk of her with such
10curious admiration.
11
12 Good bye. You are having your Sunday afternoon tea now at East Cliffe.
13 Your little sister
14 Ol
15
16 Cron sends much love. He was delighted at Ol’s success.
17 Sunday.
18
19 ^I always tell her she’s a South African jingo. She wants South
20Africans to do & be everything^
21
Notation
The final insertion starting ‘I always tell her...’ is on part of the letter from Anna Purcell which is referred to, as follows:
'Bergvliet, Diep Rivier,
nr. Cape Town,
April 18th 1913
My darling Olive,
I was so glad to get your letter telling of your safe arrival but you did not say how you were -
How splendid about Oliver – it must have given you great pleasure. Altogether it’s a beautiful family and I love to feel they belong to us. "There’s the wicked little Jingo again"! I hear you say – but I can’t help it – I am proud of them.
Our committee promises well – It is [papertorn] mistaken still that doesn’t excuse these awful tortures of forcible feeding and of feeling that these women are martyrs in a noble cause. Miss Bright (the grand-niece of John Bright who was here on a visit) writes that this year’s self denial week in their suffrage society has exceeded all others in the results forthcoming -
Have you read a book by George called "Woman & Tomorrow"? I think it demoralizing in the same way that Miss Gawthorpe’s "Freewoman" was.'
The book referred is: W.L. George (1913) Women and Tomorrow no place or publisher details. The Freewoman was a weekly paper, edited by Mary Gawthrope and Dora Marsden.
The final insertion starting ‘I always tell her...’ is on part of the letter from Anna Purcell which is referred to, as follows:
'Bergvliet, Diep Rivier,
nr. Cape Town,
April 18th 1913
My darling Olive,
I was so glad to get your letter telling of your safe arrival but you did not say how you were -
How splendid about Oliver – it must have given you great pleasure. Altogether it’s a beautiful family and I love to feel they belong to us. "There’s the wicked little Jingo again"! I hear you say – but I can’t help it – I am proud of them.
Our committee promises well – It is [papertorn] mistaken still that doesn’t excuse these awful tortures of forcible feeding and of feeling that these women are martyrs in a noble cause. Miss Bright (the grand-niece of John Bright who was here on a visit) writes that this year’s self denial week in their suffrage society has exceeded all others in the results forthcoming -
Have you read a book by George called "Woman & Tomorrow"? I think it demoralizing in the same way that Miss Gawthorpe’s "Freewoman" was.'
The book referred is: W.L. George (1913) Women and Tomorrow no place or publisher details. The Freewoman was a weekly paper, edited by Mary Gawthrope and Dora Marsden.