Dramatis Personae

The ‘Dramatis Personae’ provides biographical and other information about all the people to whom Olive Schreiner wrote letters, and also concerning a large number of the people her letters mention as well. Where appropriate and possible, references to the South African and the Oxford dictionaries of national biography and also other relevant publications have been provided.

Just click on the letters of the alphabet below to see the information. In addition, clicking on the live links on people’s names in Olive Schreiner’s letters will also take you straight to this information.

Key:  signifies the person is a recipient (and mentioned) |  signifies the person is only mentioned

Name	Description
Caird, Mona	(Alice) Mona Caird nee Alison (1854 - 1932) was a ‘New Woman’ writer who, in addition to...
Carpenter, Edward	Edward Carpenter (1844 - 1929), was a writer, socialist philosopher and a pioneering gay, women’s an...
Cartwright, Albert	Journalist Albert Cartwright (1868 - 1956) took up the editorship of the South African News i
Catt, Carrie Chapman	Carrie Chapman Catt (nee Clinton Lane) (1859 - 1947) was an American suffrage activist. She became c...
Cawood, Clifford	Annie Clifford Cawood (1864 - 1949) was the eldest child of Erilda and Richard Cawood on whose farm ...
Cawood, Dora	Dora Cawood was a daughter of Richard and Erilda Cawood, on whose farm Ganna Hoek Schreiner frequent...
Cawood, Erilda	Erilda Louisa Elizabeth Cawood nee Buckley (1842 - 1903) was born near Fort Beaufort and married Ric...
Cawood, Gladys	Sarah Gladys Cawood, who was born in 1872 and died in about 1949, was a daughter of Richard and Eril...
Cawood, Willie	William Kidger Cawood (1866 - 1906), known as Willie, was a son of Richard and Erilda Cawood, on who...
Chamberlain, Joseph	Joseph Chamberlain (1836 - 1914) was a British politician who by the beginning of the twentieth cent...
Chapin, Adele	Adele Chapin was the wife of the US Consul at Johannesburg, Robert Chapin, in the period leading up ...
Chapman, Frederic	Frederic Chapman (1823 - 1895) was a British publisher and it was his firm which first published Sch...
Chapman and Hall	See Frederic Chapman
Chubb, Percival	Percival Ashley Chubb (1860 - 1960) was a prominent British Fabian. He was a member of the Progressi...
Churchill, Winston	Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (1874-1965) was a British politician and twice prime minister....
Clark, Alice	Alice Clark (1874 - 1934) was a British women's rights campaigner, pioneering historian, and a membe...
Clemes, Isabella	Isabella J. Clemes was a Mathematics teacher and a graduate of Newnham College, Cambridge. A member ...
Cobb, Elisabeth	Elisabeth Cobb (nee Sharpe), wife of the nonconformist banker, solicitor and Liberal MP, Henry Cobb,...
Colenso, Frank	Francis Ernest (Frank) Colenso (1852 - 1910) was a Zulu rights campaigner, son of the famous Bishop ...
Colenso, Harriet	Harriet (or Harriette) Emily Colenso (1847 - 1932) was the eldest daughter of John William Colenso a...
Colenso, Sophie	Sophie Colenso nee Frankland (born 1855) was the daughter of Sir Edward Frankland, Professor of Chem...
Conybeare, Emily	Emily Conybeare was a British feminist who visited South Africa in 1891. She was closely associated ...
Cornwall, Moses	Moses Cornwall (1841-1906) was the electoral returning officer in Kimberley who in 1897 had Cronwrig...
Corthorn, Alice	Alice Corthorn was a British medical doctor whose studies were in part funded by Olive Schreiner. Sc...
Costelloe, Mrs Mary	Mary Costelloe nee Pearsall Smith was an aunt of Schreiner’s friend Alys Pearsall Smith. She w...
Costelloe, Ray	Rachel Pearsall Conn (Ray) Strachey nee Costelloe (1887 - 1940) was a British feminist activist and ...
Costelloes (The)	See Mary Costelloe
Creswell, Frederick	Frederic Hugh Page Creswell (1866 - 1948) was born in Gibraltar but went on to become an important S...
Cronwright, Alfred	Alfred Cronwright (born 1874) was one of Samuel Cronwright’s brothers.
Cronwright, Beatrice	Ella Beatrice Featherstone Cronwright (born 1877) was Samuel ‘Cron’ Cronwright’s s...
Cronwright, Louie	No further information about this person is currently available
Cronwright, Louisa Zipporah	Louisa Zipporah Cronwright (1861 - 1929) was Samuel ‘Cron’ Cronwright’s eldest sis...
Cronwright, Morthland	Joseph Morthland Cotterill Cronwright (born 1872) was one of Samuel Cronwright’s brothers. He ...
Cronwright, Willie	No further information about this person is currently available
Cronwright, Zipporah	Zipporah Cronwright nee Featherstone (1835 - 1912) was Samuel ‘Cron’ Cronwright’s ...
Cronwright-Schreiner, Cron (Samuel)	Cron Cronwright (later Cronwright-Schreiner, later still Cronwright again) (1863 - 1936) was Olive S...
Cross, G. W.	George William Cross (1851 - 1920) travelled to South Africa from Britain in 1877 to take up the min...