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Letter ReferenceOlive Schreiner BC16/Box6/Fold2/1916/1
ArchiveUniversity of Cape Town, Manuscripts & Archives, Cape Town
Epistolary TypeLetter
Letter DateWednesday January 1916
Address From30 St Mary Abbotts Terrace, Kensington, London
Address To
Who ToWilliam Philip ('Will') Schreiner
Other Versions
PermissionsPlease 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.
130 St Mary Abbotts Terrace
2Wednesday night
3
4My dear old Man
5
6I hear from the Cape that there is a report in the papers there that
7you are going to resign your post – which report you will neither
8confirm nor deny. I know not the cause, dear, but I fear you must have
9had some worry over your work, & hope with your anxiety about Ol you
10don’t need any additional worry. I don’t think your work can
11always be quite easy – no public work can ever be to a man who has
12any principles or strong conviction of his own.
13
14But I hope it is coming all right. With your salary being taxed in
15England & taxed in Africa you are having money losses as well.
16
17The The girls going off to Egypt East Africa weighs on me. I feel
18almost more anxious about them than about our boy just now.
19
20And behind all, for me lies the great shadow – the future of our
21human race on earth during the coming centuries.
22
23I have realized that the race is three thousand years nearer the wild
24beast than I had hoped though my faith in the ultimate end never
25wavers! If one could do ones little tiny bit towards the end one
26desires, it might be easier to bear.
27
28I wrote half a little book on the problem of race & war human union
29while I was in Wales. I think you would like it! But I have not been
30able to go on since I left. My writing is of a kind I can only do with
31a great expenditure of blood pressure; & when I try to work I collapse.
32 The great noise in this street too adds to the difficulty.
33
34^Good bye dear. I hope all will settle itself satisfactorily for you.^
35Your old sister
36Olive
37
Notation
The 'half a little book' is Schreiner's never completed 'The Dawn of Civilization'.