"Great pleasure to meet you, hope sincere friendship may follow" Read the full letter
Letter Reference | HRC/UNCAT/OS-111 |
Archive | Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas, Austin |
Epistolary Type | Letter |
Letter Date | 10 December 1886 |
Address From | 9 Blandford Square, Paddington, London |
Address To | |
Who To | Havelock Ellis |
Other Versions | Cronwright-Schreiner 1924: 106; Draznin 1992: 424-5 |
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.
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19 Blandford Sq
2Dec 9 10 / 86
3
4Havelock I’m very tired in spirit.
5
6Please tell me about that woman. I want to know very much.
7
8Dr. Donkin thinks Jan very bad, unworthy of me, not interesting,
9though it has power he says I think he’s right. I’ll not print it.
10I couldn’t understand your thinking it good, but p I think you see
11all I do as better than it is. I don’t think he could like anyone
12anyone has ever or will ever feel to me as you have felt. It is given
13to a humanbeing once in a life to be given such a tenderness as yours
14has been to me. I know that
15
16I am meditating today getting away from England next week as soon as I
17am better with out telling a soul except my brother where I am going.
18I feel in that old reckless devil state I felt in when I was fifteen ^&^
19sixteen. It’s strange to pass back into a past state like that. I
20want no one. As Eleanor says “Olive it’s no use clinging to other
21souls & living through them”.
22
23Good bye my Havelock. I’m still in bed. Donkin says I was almost
24
25^dangerously bad on Thursday Monday. I’m much better now^
26Olive
27
28^It’s strange I have all along felt sure Mrs Cobb was the writer of
29the anonemous letters. What you say about Thickness proves this.
30Don’t mention this, as it is only an intuition.^
31
32Olive
33
2Dec 9 10 / 86
3
4Havelock I’m very tired in spirit.
5
6Please tell me about that woman. I want to know very much.
7
8Dr. Donkin thinks Jan very bad, unworthy of me, not interesting,
9though it has power he says I think he’s right. I’ll not print it.
10I couldn’t understand your thinking it good, but p I think you see
11all I do as better than it is. I don’t think he could like anyone
12anyone has ever or will ever feel to me as you have felt. It is given
13to a humanbeing once in a life to be given such a tenderness as yours
14has been to me. I know that
15
16I am meditating today getting away from England next week as soon as I
17am better with out telling a soul except my brother where I am going.
18I feel in that old reckless devil state I felt in when I was fifteen ^&^
19sixteen. It’s strange to pass back into a past state like that. I
20want no one. As Eleanor says “Olive it’s no use clinging to other
21souls & living through them”.
22
23Good bye my Havelock. I’m still in bed. Donkin says I was almost
24
25^dangerously bad on Thursday Monday. I’m much better now^
26Olive
27
28^It’s strange I have all along felt sure Mrs Cobb was the writer of
29the anonemous letters. What you say about Thickness proves this.
30Don’t mention this, as it is only an intuition.^
31
32Olive
33
Notation
'Jan' is a reference to Schreiner's lost or destroyed story, 'Jan van der Linden's Wife'. Draznin's (1992) version is in some respects different from our transcription. Cronwright-Schreiner's (1924) extract is incorrect in various ways.
'Jan' is a reference to Schreiner's lost or destroyed story, 'Jan van der Linden's Wife'. Draznin's (1992) version is in some respects different from our transcription. Cronwright-Schreiner's (1924) extract is incorrect in various ways.