"Everything so dark & mysterious, going to be a great European war" Read the full letter
| Letter Reference | Olive Schreiner BC16/Box2/Fold3/1900/27 |
| Archive | University of Cape Town, Manuscripts & Archives, Cape Town |
| Epistolary Type | Letter |
| Letter Date | 1 May 1900 |
| Address From | Wagenaars Kraal, Three Sisters, Northern Cape |
| Address To | |
| Who To | Betty Molteno |
| Other Versions | |
| Permissions | Please read before using or citing this transcription |
| 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. The name of the addressee is indicated by salutation and content. Schreiner stayed at Wagenaars Kraal from 21 February until late July 1900.
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1
May 1st 1900
2
3 I wonder if you are in Cape Town now, dear Friend. Things are looking
4dark enough. It seems we are going to loose every vestige of freedom
5in this land.
6
7 I hope your brother James is quite fit again.
8
9 I’m sending you a bit of my woman question book, if you feel in the
10mood to read it. I have such a longing for books, I have not had one
11book to read in the two months I have been here. It saves ones brain
12from useless thinking when it is too exhausted really to work.
13
14 Has Mrs Murray perhaps got among her books Grote’s History of Greece
15or Bancroft’s History of the United States? If she has & could lend
16them me I would pay the carriage up & return them carefully.
17
18 They would be useful in the work I am doing now & rest me.
19
20 Isn’t it terrible that Mr Lloyd should have ratted? It gives me a
21feeling of such sharp pain I can’t write of it.
22
23 Lord Wolesley said Lord Roberts was to be in Pretoria on the 15th of
24May, that is fifteen days from today. Cron says Rhodes is loosing cast
25tremendously in London, even with the Jingoes.
26
27 Good bye. Doesn’t one’s head always feel tired now a days
28 Olive
29
30 ^PS If I should find a room in Beaufort West & you are passing you
31might stay with me some day eh?^
32
33
34
2
3 I wonder if you are in Cape Town now, dear Friend. Things are looking
4dark enough. It seems we are going to loose every vestige of freedom
5in this land.
6
7 I hope your brother James is quite fit again.
8
9 I’m sending you a bit of my woman question book, if you feel in the
10mood to read it. I have such a longing for books, I have not had one
11book to read in the two months I have been here. It saves ones brain
12from useless thinking when it is too exhausted really to work.
13
14 Has Mrs Murray perhaps got among her books Grote’s History of Greece
15or Bancroft’s History of the United States? If she has & could lend
16them me I would pay the carriage up & return them carefully.
17
18 They would be useful in the work I am doing now & rest me.
19
20 Isn’t it terrible that Mr Lloyd should have ratted? It gives me a
21feeling of such sharp pain I can’t write of it.
22
23 Lord Wolesley said Lord Roberts was to be in Pretoria on the 15th of
24May, that is fifteen days from today. Cron says Rhodes is loosing cast
25tremendously in London, even with the Jingoes.
26
27 Good bye. Doesn’t one’s head always feel tired now a days
28 Olive
29
30 ^PS If I should find a room in Beaufort West & you are passing you
31might stay with me some day eh?^
32
33
34
Notation
The 'bit of the woman question' book is likely to have been one of the two linked essays on 'Woman'; they were originally conceived as part of a major theoretical work on 'man and woman', but the manuscript was left in Johannesburg when Schreiner went to Karree Kloof in late August 1899 and was destroyed when her house was badly damaged and burned by marauding troops during the war. The two articles eventually became Woman and Labour. The books referred to are: George Grote (1846-56) A History of Greece London: John Murray; George Bancroft (1861-62) History of the United States, from the discovery of the American continent to the Declaration of Independence London: Routledge, Warne and Routledge.
The 'bit of the woman question' book is likely to have been one of the two linked essays on 'Woman'; they were originally conceived as part of a major theoretical work on 'man and woman', but the manuscript was left in Johannesburg when Schreiner went to Karree Kloof in late August 1899 and was destroyed when her house was badly damaged and burned by marauding troops during the war. The two articles eventually became Woman and Labour. The books referred to are: George Grote (1846-56) A History of Greece London: John Murray; George Bancroft (1861-62) History of the United States, from the discovery of the American continent to the Declaration of Independence London: Routledge, Warne and Routledge.