| Letter Reference | Olive Schreiner BC16/Box8/Fold4/MMPr/AssortedCorres/FredPL/8 |
| Archive | University of Cape Town, Manuscripts & Archives, Cape Town |
| Epistolary Type | Letter |
| Letter Date | 12 June 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, 12 June 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. The transcription here follows this typescript and includes uncertain dates, ellipses, mistakes and so on.
1:
Matjesfontein
2:
June 12th, 1909
3:
4:
I am sure, thinking it over, you will be too busy to make arrangements
5: with a publisher about printing my pamphlets so will you give it to
6: any honest publishing agent you may know and ask him to arrange for
7: its publication. I enclose the terms. Don’t give it to Watt & Sons:
8: I have tried them, they don’t do.
9:
10:
It is glorious how you are getting on with your work in England. It is
11: the women here we have to rouse! and our Women’s Enfranchisement
12: League, owing to bad management and wrong starting has done more harm
13: than good, I fear. But among the younger South African women a
14: splendid feeling is growing. I am writing a short article defending
15: the tactics of the Women’s Social and Political Union and will send
16: it to the Fortnightly Review and am going to write a paper on the
17: Woman question, in length about like that the pamphlet and am going to
18: have it printed as a small booklet.
19:
20:
21:
Notation
The pamphlet referred to is likely to be
Closer Union, which appeared in a variety of languages; it 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. A short article 'defending the tactics of the WSPU' was never written by Schreiner and did not appear in the
Fortnightly Review during 1909. However, Schreiner's 'paper on the Woman question' drew together her two earlier articles on 'Woman', to become
Woman and Labour.
