"Solitude, change, work" Read the full letter
| Letter Reference | Olive Schreiner: Mimmie Murray 2001.24/31 |
| Archive | National English Literary Museum, Grahamstown |
| Epistolary Type | Letter |
| Letter Date | 10 April 1917 |
| Address From | c/o Standard Bank, 10 Clements Lane, Lombard Street, London |
| Address To | Portlock, Graaff-Reinet, Eastern Cape |
| Who To | Minnie or Mimmie Murray nee Parkes |
| Other Versions | |
| Permissions | Please read before using or citing this transcription |
| Legend |
The Project is grateful to the National English Literary Museum (NELM) for kindly allowing us to transcribe this Olive Schreiner letter, which is part of its Manuscript Collections. The address this letter was sent to is provided by an attached envelope.
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1
London
2 April 10th 1917
3
4 My darling friend
5
6 I hope you have got both my letters. Mails to the Cape seem so
7uncertain now. I have written to Alice Greene about the governess.
8(She is staying in England now as is Miss Molteno) & she thinks with
9me there is no chance of getting a governess now till the war is over
10- then she feels sure she would be able to find you one. Write & tell
11me more fully what you need.
12
13 Must she be a BA? Would it do if she had only matriculated or passed a
14good teachers exam? What about would you care to pay?
15
16 I long for more news of you all. Is Kathie stronger. We are having the
17most terrible "spring" ever known in England. Continual snow; we had a
18heavy fall yesterday & the ground is white, & the wind cuts like a
19knife. Some people say it is the cutting of the Panama canal which is
20drawing the gulf stream away & changing the climate of England.
21
22 I have been worse this winter than I've ever been before. Isn't it
23strange how one goes on living when you are no more use in the world.
24I thought last year I could not be alive now, & still it goes on. It
25is not death one fears, nor suffering but being of no use to any one.
26
27 I often see dear Betty Molteno, but not many other people. Alice
28Greene is living with her family at Harsten near Cambridge.
29
30 I often see in my mind's eye all your dear faces, the dear face that
31has gone forever & the dear old Portlock with you all so bright &
32happy there.
33
34 I long so once again to see the blue sky of Africa, but I know now it
35will not be. If it had not been for the war & I could have gone with
36my treatment at Nauheim, & I stayed in Italy for the winter, it seems
37to me I might have got better. But what a small thing ones own life
38seems when one thinks of all the suffering & anguish going on in the
39world. My two beloved nieces are still nursing in France. Oliver my
40beloved nephew, nephew who was wounded & won won the Military Cross
41has sailed for India to take command of some troops there. He is a
42Captain.
43
44 Give my dear love to all the children & ask Andre to write me.
45
46 Oh my beloved friend how I realize your great loneliness without Him.
47
48 Olive
49
50 Address as before
51 c/o Standard Bank
52 10 Clements Lane
53 Lombard St
54 London
55 E.
56
2 April 10th 1917
3
4 My darling friend
5
6 I hope you have got both my letters. Mails to the Cape seem so
7uncertain now. I have written to Alice Greene about the governess.
8(She is staying in England now as is Miss Molteno) & she thinks with
9me there is no chance of getting a governess now till the war is over
10- then she feels sure she would be able to find you one. Write & tell
11me more fully what you need.
12
13 Must she be a BA? Would it do if she had only matriculated or passed a
14good teachers exam? What about would you care to pay?
15
16 I long for more news of you all. Is Kathie stronger. We are having the
17most terrible "spring" ever known in England. Continual snow; we had a
18heavy fall yesterday & the ground is white, & the wind cuts like a
19knife. Some people say it is the cutting of the Panama canal which is
20drawing the gulf stream away & changing the climate of England.
21
22 I have been worse this winter than I've ever been before. Isn't it
23strange how one goes on living when you are no more use in the world.
24I thought last year I could not be alive now, & still it goes on. It
25is not death one fears, nor suffering but being of no use to any one.
26
27 I often see dear Betty Molteno, but not many other people. Alice
28Greene is living with her family at Harsten near Cambridge.
29
30 I often see in my mind's eye all your dear faces, the dear face that
31has gone forever & the dear old Portlock with you all so bright &
32happy there.
33
34 I long so once again to see the blue sky of Africa, but I know now it
35will not be. If it had not been for the war & I could have gone with
36my treatment at Nauheim, & I stayed in Italy for the winter, it seems
37to me I might have got better. But what a small thing ones own life
38seems when one thinks of all the suffering & anguish going on in the
39world. My two beloved nieces are still nursing in France. Oliver my
40beloved nephew, nephew who was wounded & won won the Military Cross
41has sailed for India to take command of some troops there. He is a
42Captain.
43
44 Give my dear love to all the children & ask Andre to write me.
45
46 Oh my beloved friend how I realize your great loneliness without Him.
47
48 Olive
49
50 Address as before
51 c/o Standard Bank
52 10 Clements Lane
53 Lombard St
54 London
55 E.
56