"Your astonishing letter, family duties, will never mention Katie's name as long as I live" Read the full letter

Lyndall Gregg Collection

Some 230 previously unknown Olive Schreiner letters have just become available and will be published in due course as part of the Olive Schreiner Letters Online. These letters are to Schreiner’s favourite niece, Lyndall (known as Dot) Schreiner, later Gregg. Dot clocked up many firsts in South Africa, as the first woman with a law degree to be called to the bar; while a student at Newnham she became involved in the women’s suffrage movement in the UK; she was later secretary of the Women’s Enfranchisement League in Cape Town at a crucial point in its history in ‘race’ terms; and later still she wrote about her experiences of VAD nursing in World War I. 

The content of these letters is full and rich, containing much about books, politics, women’s suffrage and many other matters that engaged Schreiner and consequently they stand out as among the most important of her letters that survive. In particular, no account of Olive Schreiner's women's suffrage ideas and involvements will be complete without taking these letters into account.

This is incredibly exciting news for all Schreiner scholars. Transcription will commence asap, as problems have arisen concerning do for this project. But still watch this space!