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Letter ReferenceT120 (M722): W.T. Stead Papers/8- pages 66-9 & 227-8
ArchiveNational Archives Depot, Pretoria
Epistolary TypeLetter
Letter Date12 July 1890
Address FromMatjesfontein, Western Cape
Address To
Who ToWilliam Thomas Stead
Other VersionsCronwright-Schreiner 1924: 191; Rive 1987: 175
PermissionsPlease read before using or citing this transcription
Legend
The Project is grateful to the National Archives Repository, Pretoria, for kindly allowing us to transcribe this Olive Schreiner letter, which is part of its Micofilm Collections.
1Matjesfontein
2July 12 / 90
3
4My dear Friend
5
6I must drop you one word to say how very much I am satisfied & pleased
7with the April Review. It is quite invaluable in a country like this
8where there is no possibility of seeing everything & it seems to
9improve number by number.
10
11Thank you more than I can say for your sympathetic feeling towards my
12allegory. My stories I fancy a good many people must like, but my
13allegories are so much a part of myself that is hard to publish them,
14and I feel keenly any sympathy.
15
16I am still living here, Up-county in the Karroo. And all out Colonial
17political & social news you will have better from other sources. The
18only big man we have here is Rhodes, & the only big thing the
19Chartered Company.
20
21I feel a curious & almost painfully intense interest in the man & his
22career. I am so afraid of his making a mistake, as he would do, I
23think, if he accepted the Prime Ministership of this Colony, as there
24is some talk of his doing. I don't see how he can play the hand of the
25Chartered Company & the hand of the Colony at the same time, & I
26should so regret his putting himself in a position in which he was
27obliged to be false to the interest of one or the other. I’ve never
28met him though I have often seen him. There’s nothing else big or
29interesting in our political world.
30
31I hope soon after Xmas to start on my journey to Lake ?N’garmi & the
32Zambesi, & am trying to get all my work done first.
33
34Do you know anything of Sir Henry Loch, our Governor, a splendid
35fellow & a man all over?
36
37If ever there is any great move in your life or work let me know of it.
38
39Yours always unfailingly
40Olive Schreiner
41
Notation
The allegory that Schreiner mentions was ‘noticed’ was 'The Sunlight Lay Across my Bed'; see Review of Reviews April 1890 p.317. See also 'The Sunlight Lay Across My Bed; Part I - Hell' New Review vol 1, no.11, April 1890, pp.300-309. Rive’s (1987) version omits part of this letter and is incorrect in a number of minor respects. Cronwright-Schreiner’s (1924) extract is incorrect in a range ways.