Olive Schreiner Letters Online

Letter Reference	Olive Schreiner BC16/Box7/Fold2/Aug-Dec1919/44
Archive	University of Cape Town, Manuscripts & Archives, Cape Town
Epistolary Type	Letter
Letter Date	12 December 1919
Address From	9 Porchester Place, Edgware Road, Westminster, London
Address To	Eastcliff, St James, Cape Town, Western Cape
Who To	Frances ('Fan') Schreiner nee Reitz
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 Frances ('Fan') Schreiner nee Reitz, 12 December 1919, UCT Manuscripts & Archives, Olive Schreiner Letters Project transcription’. Please also supply letter line numbers for specific quotations.

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 address this letter was sent to is provided by an attached envelope. Schreiner was resident at Porchester Place from early April 1917 until August 1920, when she left Britain for South Africa. The end of the letter seems to be missing.

1:  Dec 12th 1919
2: 
3:  Dear old Sister,
4: 
5:  I wasn’t able to write to anyone last week, even Cron. Edna told me
6:  she had a letter from you telling her that Dot was back with you &
7:  that Ursula & Sidney had bought Frank Jouberts house.
8: 
9:  I fear by the time this gets to you Dot will have left you for her far
10:  off home. I have written to her there.
11: 
12:  Edna & Ol will have told you of all their trouble about people not
13:  being willing to have them with a baby. But they have rooms at least
14:  in Ursies old street. What I feel is that will be so far from me I can
15:  hardly ever see them or the baby, I am much weaker than when you were
16:  here & cannot easily get so far now. But I think the old woman will be
17:  kind to Edna. I cannot tell you how much I am growing to love Edna.
18:  She is sweet. She takes hold of ones heart.
19: 
20:  Tell me of your plans. There How is Sidney getting on? Does Ursie live
21:  near Alice Mushett? Do you see Anna Purcell sometimes? I hear Mrs
22:  Murray’s heart is very bad. Oh I’m glad you are not here, dear, for
23:  your sake. Its too dark. Food is getting dearer & dearer & worse &
24:  worse. We get one oz of butter a week now (& such butter!) but after
25:  Xmas h we are to have none at all the Gov says. But it doesn’t matter
26:  much to me because I can only eat very little of anything.
27: 
28:  We have had no eggs for three weeks – & they say will not get any for
29:  another month. They have been 6d each for a long time. But we should
30:  not complain of anything when we think how the people on the continent
31:  are dying of hunger.
32: 
33:  I find that little grey knitted jersey you gave me such a comfort to
34:  me in the cold. Clothes are rising rapidly in price: especially all
35:  warm clothes. If the gov doesn’t stop it I fear there will be riots
36:  before the winter is over. I saw a little quite plain knitted babys
37:  jacket in Marshall & Snellgrove’s window; I went in & asked the price
38:  as I wanted to get it for Edna’s baby – the price was 18/- !!!! before
39:  the war it would have cost 1/6 & even last year it wouldn’t have cost
40:  more than 4/- The wool people must be making millions in this country.
41: 
42:  [page/s missing]
43: 

Notation