"Please don't discuss my affairs, my big sex book" Read the full letter
| Letter Reference | Olive Schreiner BC16/Box5/Fold3/1914/92 |
| Archive | University of Cape Town, Manuscripts & Archives, Cape Town |
| Epistolary Type | Letter |
| Letter Date | 25 December 1914 |
| Address From | Kensington Palace Mansions, De Vere Gardens, Kensington, London |
| Address To | The College, Ivy Dene, Rondesbosch, Cape Town, Western Cape |
| Who To | Alice Greene |
| 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. The letter is on printed headed notepaper, and the address it was sent to is provided by an attached envelope.
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1Telephone: 3675 Kensington.
2Telegrams: Apartment, London.
3
4Kensington Palace Mansions & Hotel,
5De Vere Gardens,
6W.
7
8Xmas Day
9
10My dear Alice
11
12Thank you for your letter. Oh if I could see your dear face just for
13half an hour, or only see it looking in at the door. Its a grim dark
14foggie day. I have been in bed all day but have got up now to write a
15few lines to you & Lucy Molteno whose dear little blotter came this
16morning as my one Xmas greeting, & her letter came yesterday, There is
17so much to say, & yet nothing.
18
19There is so much to say, & yet nothing.
20
21I have always been surprised at my darling Anna’s position – it
22just staggered. It shows one how utterly I am looking at life from a
23standpoint that cuts me off from everything.
24
25I have no news to give you. I have not spoken to a human being for a
26week; & what the papers say you know.
27
28I have had four doctors lately but they can do nothing for me. It is
29the internal pain that grows more & more. They cannot discover what it
30is without operating & as my heart is too week for anesthetics, that
31cannot be they say. But dear, it would be better to end it some way?
32
33I read the little bit of Fouries speech before he was executed but we
34hear very little of South African affairs. What I know I know only by
35intuition – when you know a country & you know certain individuals
36you know what must happen, and you know what will happen in the future
37too. I am not able to see my beloved Adela. She lies ill in bed, & is
38to be moved up to a nursing home at Hampstead next week. Strange she
39has had all the best doctors in London & they have only found out now
40that what she has suffered from for years it tuberculosis. Now it has
41attacked the right lung.
42
43I am sending you a copy of the Labour Leader. Tell me if you get it. I
44am also sending you a copy of the New Statesman with an article by
45Bernard Shaw
46
47Good bye dear
48
49^Oh to feel your arms around me, & have one kiss from you. I am getting
50like a little child I long so for love^
51
52Olive
53
54^Give this letter to Anna Purcell to read as I’ve no time to write to
55her today.^
56
57^All the world is hate now.^
58
2Telegrams: Apartment, London.
3
4Kensington Palace Mansions & Hotel,
5De Vere Gardens,
6W.
7
8Xmas Day
9
10My dear Alice
11
12Thank you for your letter. Oh if I could see your dear face just for
13half an hour, or only see it looking in at the door. Its a grim dark
14foggie day. I have been in bed all day but have got up now to write a
15few lines to you & Lucy Molteno whose dear little blotter came this
16morning as my one Xmas greeting, & her letter came yesterday, There is
17so much to say, & yet nothing.
18
19There is so much to say, & yet nothing.
20
21I have always been surprised at my darling Anna’s position – it
22just staggered. It shows one how utterly I am looking at life from a
23standpoint that cuts me off from everything.
24
25I have no news to give you. I have not spoken to a human being for a
26week; & what the papers say you know.
27
28I have had four doctors lately but they can do nothing for me. It is
29the internal pain that grows more & more. They cannot discover what it
30is without operating & as my heart is too week for anesthetics, that
31cannot be they say. But dear, it would be better to end it some way?
32
33I read the little bit of Fouries speech before he was executed but we
34hear very little of South African affairs. What I know I know only by
35intuition – when you know a country & you know certain individuals
36you know what must happen, and you know what will happen in the future
37too. I am not able to see my beloved Adela. She lies ill in bed, & is
38to be moved up to a nursing home at Hampstead next week. Strange she
39has had all the best doctors in London & they have only found out now
40that what she has suffered from for years it tuberculosis. Now it has
41attacked the right lung.
42
43I am sending you a copy of the Labour Leader. Tell me if you get it. I
44am also sending you a copy of the New Statesman with an article by
45Bernard Shaw
46
47Good bye dear
48
49^Oh to feel your arms around me, & have one kiss from you. I am getting
50like a little child I long so for love^
51
52Olive
53
54^Give this letter to Anna Purcell to read as I’ve no time to write to
55her today.^
56
57^All the world is hate now.^
58
Notation
The New Statesman reference is likely to be to: George Bernard Shaw (1914) 'Common Sense About the War' New Statesman 14 November 1914 (Special War Supplement).
The New Statesman reference is likely to be to: George Bernard Shaw (1914) 'Common Sense About the War' New Statesman 14 November 1914 (Special War Supplement).