"Men selling their souls & fate watching" Read the full letter
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Letter ReferenceMacFarlane-Muirhead/17
ArchiveMacFarlane Collection
Epistolary TypeLetter
Letter Date After Start: Friday September 1900 ; Before End: October 1907
Address FromHanover, Northern Cape
Address To
Who ToRobert Franklin ('Bob') Muirhead
Other Versions
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Legend
The Project is grateful to Mrs Hazel MacFarlane for kindly allowing us to transcribe this Olive Schreiner letter to Bob Muirhead, which is part of the MacFarlane family collection of Muirhead Papers, Special Collections, University of Glasgow Library. Schreiner was resident in Hanover from September 1900 to October 1907, after 1902 with visits, sometimes fairly lengthy, elsewhere.
1Hanover
2Friday
3
4My dear Bob
5
6“Is there spirits about!” Yesterday for the first time for eleven
7or more months I wrote to you, & this morning when I send the girl to
8the post she brings me a letter from you who haven’t written to me
9for an even longer time. Curious, isn’t it?
10
11The girl took my letter to you y down to the post, so I can’t get it
12out though it’s addressed wrong, to your old place. I suppose
13you’ll still get it?
14
15Thankyou so much for little Ruth’s picture. I like it much. Is her
16head really the curious shape it looks in the photo? It’s exactly
17like mine if it is. I never can get a hat to fit because I’m so high
18here from the top of the ear to the top of the head. I fancy, if its
19not the photograph that distorts her head, its very much like mine
20only hers is “rise” is a little more to the back than mine; is
21abnormally high & unreadable
My head is so awfull wide above the ears
22too. Its been a trouble to me all my life to know how to do my hair
23because of it. If I part it down the middle & wear it smooth as I like,
24 every one does nothing but look at the top of my head. It an
25additional attraction to Ruth to think she should have the same
26affliction!
27
28I can’t write any more now. Must catch post
29Olive
30
Notation
At the point in the letter where Schreiner has written 'I'm so high here', she has provided the drawing shown in the jpeg below. Image Description