"Aesthetics" Read the full letter
| Letter Reference | HRC/OliveSchreinerUncatLetters/OS-TFisherUnwin/61 |
| Archive | Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas, Austin |
| Epistolary Type | Letter |
| Letter Date | 30 July 1897 |
| Address From | New College, Eastbourne, East Sussex |
| Address To | |
| Who To | T. Fisher Unwin |
| Other Versions | |
| Permissions | Please read before using or citing this transcription |
| Legend |
The Project is grateful to the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, the University of Texas at Austin, for kindly allowing us to transcribe this Olive Schreiner letter, which is part of its Manuscript Collections. This letter is written on printed headed embossed notepaper.
|
1New College Junior School,
2Eastbourne.
3
4^Private^
5
6July 30 / 97
7
8Dear Mr Unwin
9
10I have received your note & the Chronical. As I before said I do not
11in intend replying to any of the denials of the Chartered Company’s
12officials, in news pappers. I do not suppose that anything they say,
13affects for a moment the judgement of any the English man or woman who
14sha has not shares in the Chartered Company^,^ or relations^,^ up in
15Mashonaland who are making money; & these people will be affected by
16nothing, but the loss of their money, which will come some day!
17
18Sir R Martins ripost is but a first small instalment of that which
19will come to ^to^ light within the next couple of years. It is not for
20me, put ^but^ for the English public (the people, & not the ^even^
21government) to insist on an official inquiry which shall make clear
22the conduct of the Chartered Company during the last five years, & wh
23will show how mild & pale a picture of things in Mashona & Matabele
24land was contained in Peter Halket!!
25
26When my two last articles of “Stray Thoughts” appear, my attitude
27on this question will be made much clearer & ^the last article^ will
28have a much more powerful effect, I believe in moving English public
29opinion on this matter than were I to publish the most terrible
30eye-witness accounts which I have, of shooting & floggings in Mashona land.
31
32July
33My heart has completely broken down, & I have been ordered out at once
34to South Africa by Sir W Broadbent. If I recover there, I shall
35^probably^ be returning next year to England:
36we sail on the 21st of August for South Africa.
37
38Yours faithfully
39Olive Schreiner
40
2Eastbourne.
3
4^Private^
5
6July 30 / 97
7
8Dear Mr Unwin
9
10I have received your note & the Chronical. As I before said I do not
11in intend replying to any of the denials of the Chartered Company’s
12officials, in news pappers. I do not suppose that anything they say,
13affects for a moment the judgement of any the English man or woman who
14sha has not shares in the Chartered Company^,^ or relations^,^ up in
15Mashonaland who are making money; & these people will be affected by
16nothing, but the loss of their money, which will come some day!
17
18Sir R Martins ripost is but a first small instalment of that which
19will come to ^to^ light within the next couple of years. It is not for
20me, put ^but^ for the English public (the people, & not the ^even^
21government) to insist on an official inquiry which shall make clear
22the conduct of the Chartered Company during the last five years, & wh
23will show how mild & pale a picture of things in Mashona & Matabele
24land was contained in Peter Halket!!
25
26When my two last articles of “Stray Thoughts” appear, my attitude
27on this question will be made much clearer & ^the last article^ will
28have a much more powerful effect, I believe in moving English public
29opinion on this matter than were I to publish the most terrible
30eye-witness accounts which I have, of shooting & floggings in Mashona land.
31
32July
33My heart has completely broken down, & I have been ordered out at once
34to South Africa by Sir W Broadbent. If I recover there, I shall
35^probably^ be returning next year to England:
36we sail on the 21st of August for South Africa.
37
38Yours faithfully
39Olive Schreiner
40
Notation
Despite Schreiner's reference to the 'two last articles', at least three appeared (one in Cosmopolis and two in The Cosmopolitan) in the later 1890s. The whole set of her 'A Returned South African' essays was to have been published as 'Stray Thoughts on South Africa'. However, although prepared for book publication, a dispute with a US publisher and the events of the South African War prevented this. They and some other essays were posthumously published as Thoughts on South Africa.
Despite Schreiner's reference to the 'two last articles', at least three appeared (one in Cosmopolis and two in The Cosmopolitan) in the later 1890s. The whole set of her 'A Returned South African' essays was to have been published as 'Stray Thoughts on South Africa'. However, although prepared for book publication, a dispute with a US publisher and the events of the South African War prevented this. They and some other essays were posthumously published as Thoughts on South Africa.