Olive Schreiner Letters Online

Letter Reference	Milner Papers, dep. 209, ff. 278-280
Archive	Special Collections, Bodleian Library, University of Oxford
Epistolary Type	Letter
Letter Date	30 May 1899
Address From	Johannesburg, Transvaal
Address To
Who To	Alfred Milner
Other Versions	Rive 1987: 354

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 Alfred Milner, 30 May 1899, Special Collections, Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, Olive Schreiner Letters Project transcription’. Please also supply letter line numbers for specific quotations.

Legend
The Project is grateful to the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, and the Warden and Scholars of New College, Oxford, for permission to transcribe this Olive Schreiner letter, which is part of their Special Collections.

1:  Box 406
2:  Johannesburg
3:  May 30th 1899
4: 
5:  Dear Sir Alfred Milner,
6: 
7:  I have much wished to see you or to write to you. I have tried to
8:  write many times during the last three days, but I am not able, my
9:  health prevents it. May I beg of you, please to read my article, & ill
10:  expressed as it is, to consider whether no truth lies in it.
11: 
12:  I do not ask you to forgive my writing to you because there are times
13:  when a man has a right to do almost anything.
14: 
15:  Yours sincerely,
16:  Olive Schreiner
17: 
18:  I have much wished to see you apart from all political considerations.
19:  Many of my friends in England are those who know and value^d^ you: &
20:  life in Africa is a little lonely to those who have spent their
21:  forming years in England.
22: 
23:  Can you understand my position - it is that of many others? We are
24:  like a man born in a log cabin, who afterwards goes to live in a
25:  palace, & all his affections & interest centre in the palace. But one
26:  day he finds the the palace is beginning to oppress the cabin, & then
27:  he says, “I belong to the cabin.” – but he loves the palace still.
28: 

Notation
The article which Schreiner ‘begs’ Milner to read is likely to be the newspaper article that became An English South African’s View of the Situation. This was originally published in the South African News over three successive days; see 'Words in Season. An English South African's View of the Situation' South African News 1 June 1899 (p.8), 2 June 1899 (p.8) and 3 June 1899 (also p.8). It was also reprinted in a number of other newspapers. It then was published as a pamphlet, then as a book. A second edition of the book was ready but withdrawn from publication by Schreiner when the South African War started in October 1899, so as not to profit from this. Rive’s (1987) version of this letter is incorrect in minor ways.