1Hotel du Pavillon
2Mentone
3
4Dear Dr Garnett,
5
6What do I think of you tales? I think they are delicious I don’t
7think many people will understand; there’s a delicious rare old
8flavour about them, that people whose taste has been spoiled by crude
9new wines won’t be able to catch. Your son’s book shows power, &
10it shows a grasping after things which he has not yet reached to,
11which is perfectly hopeful. Nothing is so terrible as those very
12finished-up young writers.
13
14Thank you much for sending them me. Thank you for what you said about
15my work. No, you are quite mistaken about my work I never or seldom
16re-touch anything. I write down at a dash a thing as it comes in my
17minds. If I don’t find it perfect (to my ideas & according to my
18powers) I burn it. Sometimes I write a thing entirely over again. As a
19rule I don’t even re-read any thing till I see it in proof. Then I
20make corrections. I think however a great deal before I write.
21Sometimes I carry a thing about with me for years, before I set a word
22down. For the last 8 years I have been doing s-cientific work almost
23exclusively. But it will all come back to me in the shape of art at last.
24 I write all this because you have shown such a friendly sympathy in
25my work.
26
27Yours always faithfully,
28Olive Schreiner
29
30^I shall be here till May, when I hope to return to England, for a
31short time^
32