Olive Schreiner Letters Online

Letter Reference	Olive Schreiner BC16/Box8/Fold4/MMPr/AssortedCorres/FredPL/5
Archive	University of Cape Town, Manuscripts & Archives, Cape Town
Epistolary Type	Letter
Letter Date	1 January 1909
Address From	Matjesfontein, Western Cape
Address To
Who To	Frederick ('Fred') Pethick-Lawrence
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 Frederick ('Fred') Pethick-Lawrence, 1 January 1909, 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. A typescript only of this letter is available, misdated as 1907 - Schreiner's Closer Union appeared duuring 1909. The transcription here follows this typescript and includes any uncertain dates, ellipses, mistakes and so on, apart from the change of date.

1:  Matjesfontein
2:  January 1st, 1907
3: 
4:  Dear Fred,
5: 
6:  I have written a little paper on Closer Union which I had published in
7:  a Johannesburg paper: the copyright is mine, they paid me nothing for
8:  it. It has attracted an astonishing amount of attention and interest
9:  here. More than anything I ever wrote. Soon all the English papers
10:  will be full of the matter of Closer Union of the South African states
11:  as the National Convention will publish the results of its sitting in
12:  February. It is said English people will probably be much interested
13:  in the matter and I have been wondering whether some good publisher
14:  might be willing to publish the article in the form of a little
15:  booklet at 1/- or 2/- as they did my paper on peace before the Boer
16:  War. Hodder & Stoughton? I kept the copyright but they published it &
17:  gave me a percentage of the profits which came to a couple of hundred
18:  pounds. I wonder whether with all your work you would have time to try
19:  and get this published by a good honest firm giving me so much a
20:  royalty on each copy sold. I would give ten per cent of all I earned
21:  to your women’s work. With what I get I want to start a league of
22:  men and women together to be called, "The Citizen Franchise League",
23:  to work for all forms of enfranchisement, the women and the native,
24:  and to resist all attempts to take the franchise from those who have
25:  it now. (This is private, don’t let it get into the papers till the
26:  League is started). If you are too busy, please send the copy of my
27:  paper I am sending with this to Dr. Alice Corthorne. Please let me
28:  have a line. Our Woman’s work will get on much better here if we
29:  work men & women together.
30: 
31:  The women here are all far behind. There are three men in Africa who
32:  want to see women enfranchised for every one woman. Three men who
33:  voted for us in Parliament, have wives who are bitterly opposed to our
34:  getting the franchise. The condition of affairs here is entirely unlike
35:  that in England. I believe your tactics are absolutely wise and right
36:  there.
37: 
38:  All good be with you in your work. My heart rejoices over it.
39: 
40: 
41: 

Notation
Schreiner's Closer Union originated as a lengthy article published in the Transvaal Leader on 21 December 1908 and the Cape Times on 22 December 1908 (p.9); it appeared as a short book in 1909.