"Unwise to start branch of Aborigines Protection society; bad name" Read the full letter
| Letter Reference | Olive Schreiner: Mimmie Murray 2001.24/62 |
| Archive | National English Literary Museum, Grahamstown |
| Epistolary Type | Letter |
| Letter Date | After Start: April 1913 ; Before End: November 1913 |
| Address From | De Aar, Northern Cape |
| Address To | |
| Who To | Minnie or Mimmie Murray nee Parkes |
| Other Versions | |
| Permissions | Please read before using or citing this transcription |
| Legend |
The Project is grateful to the National English Literary Museum (NELM) for kindly allowing us to transcribe this Olive Schreiner letter, which is part of its Manuscript Collections. This letter has been approximately dated by reference to content. Schreiner was resident in De Aar from November 1907 until she left South Africa for Britain and Europe in December 1913, but with some fairly lengthy visits elsewhere over this time. Schreiner was in De Aar from April to late November 1913.
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1
My dear Friend
2
3 Your letter & Mr Murrays went to my heart. You are the kind of souls
4that have to be taken care of by your friends against yourselves you
5are so good & unselfish like my brother Will.
6
7 Don't keep the town house for me, but if later I feel I must go
8somewhere I'll come to the little cottage at Broederstroom if you can
9have me. I can't get a niece as I have only Miss Hemming ^who could
10have come^ but I'll hire a coloured or white girl, if I'm not so
11helpless as to require a nurse: I don't want a nurse while I can get
12about at all.
13
14 My friends in England are pressing for me to come home & try medical
15treatment, but you know dear friend, I myself don't think it will be
16of any help. My dear friend Emily Hobhouse is perhaps coming out to
17unveil the ^Boer^ Women's Memorial at Bloemfontein. She wants me, if she
18is well enough to come to go back with her in December, because she
19has her little maid with her who could look after us both on the ship,
20& she wants me to go to Florence to the heart Doctor Carloni who has
21so wonderfully brought her back from death to life. My husband says he
22is not going to Europe now & the parting with him will be bitter; but
23it would be better to end on the voyage than to go on as I am now.
24
25 Do Will you be at Broederstroom in the summer or are you going back to
26Portlock? It would be so good to see you all. Your dear children are
27such a joy to me. I am so glad you have a lady doctor. I would have
28written the day before yesterday when I got your letters but I wasn't
29able.
30
31 Thank your dear husband for his note. I shall keep both your letters
32as a precious treasures.
33
34 I am a little better this afternoon: a kind Jewish girl whom I hardly
35know at all brought their cart & took me for a little drive. Riding or
36going in a motor car is the only thing that does me any good - the
37movement relieves the pain so.
38
39 So good bye dear friend
40 Olive Schreiner
41
42
43
2
3 Your letter & Mr Murrays went to my heart. You are the kind of souls
4that have to be taken care of by your friends against yourselves you
5are so good & unselfish like my brother Will.
6
7 Don't keep the town house for me, but if later I feel I must go
8somewhere I'll come to the little cottage at Broederstroom if you can
9have me. I can't get a niece as I have only Miss Hemming ^who could
10have come^ but I'll hire a coloured or white girl, if I'm not so
11helpless as to require a nurse: I don't want a nurse while I can get
12about at all.
13
14 My friends in England are pressing for me to come home & try medical
15treatment, but you know dear friend, I myself don't think it will be
16of any help. My dear friend Emily Hobhouse is perhaps coming out to
17unveil the ^Boer^ Women's Memorial at Bloemfontein. She wants me, if she
18is well enough to come to go back with her in December, because she
19has her little maid with her who could look after us both on the ship,
20& she wants me to go to Florence to the heart Doctor Carloni who has
21so wonderfully brought her back from death to life. My husband says he
22is not going to Europe now & the parting with him will be bitter; but
23it would be better to end on the voyage than to go on as I am now.
24
25 Do Will you be at Broederstroom in the summer or are you going back to
26Portlock? It would be so good to see you all. Your dear children are
27such a joy to me. I am so glad you have a lady doctor. I would have
28written the day before yesterday when I got your letters but I wasn't
29able.
30
31 Thank your dear husband for his note. I shall keep both your letters
32as a precious treasures.
33
34 I am a little better this afternoon: a kind Jewish girl whom I hardly
35know at all brought their cart & took me for a little drive. Riding or
36going in a motor car is the only thing that does me any good - the
37movement relieves the pain so.
38
39 So good bye dear friend
40 Olive Schreiner
41
42
43