"Spending the last days destroying letters & papers, no daughter to leave them to" Read the full letter
Letter Reference | Olive Schreiner: Extracts of Letters to Cronwright-Schreiner MSC 26/2.16/237 |
Archive | National Library of South Africa, Special Collections, Cape Town |
Epistolary Type | Extract |
Letter Date | 4 April 1906 |
Address From | Hanover, Northern Cape |
Address To | De Aar, Northern Cape |
Who To | S.C. (‘Cron’) Cronwright-Schreiner |
Other Versions | Cronwright-Schreiner 1924: 253 |
Permissions | Please read before using or citing this transcription |
Legend |
The Extracts of Letters to Cronwright-Schreiner were produced by Cronwright-Schreiner in preparing The Life and The Letters of Olive Schreiner. They appear on slips of paper in his writing, taken from letters that were then destroyed; many of these extracts have also been edited by him. They are artefacts of his editorial practices and their relationship to original Schreiner letters cannot now be gauged. They should be read with considerable caution for the reasons given. Cronwright-Schreiner has written the date, where it was sent from and the place it was sent to onto this extract, and also that her sister Ettie had sent her the butter dish and knife as a birthday present for 24 March. There are some differences between this transcription and the version that appears in The Letters….
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…Ollie cried for you in the most extraordinary way last night, all
2the evening she kept running about & whining: I fed her & at last
3wrapped her up in my big dressing gown & put her in my bed... There
4will be “a light in the window for you” when you return on
5Thursday night. Poor little Ollie, how can one leave her with
6strangers. No ordinary person will understand her sensitive little
7nature. Goodbye, take care of my husband, remember he’s not your
8husband but mine & you have to look after him… The most exquisite
9silver butter dish with ice cooler & knife…
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2the evening she kept running about & whining: I fed her & at last
3wrapped her up in my big dressing gown & put her in my bed... There
4will be “a light in the window for you” when you return on
5Thursday night. Poor little Ollie, how can one leave her with
6strangers. No ordinary person will understand her sensitive little
7nature. Goodbye, take care of my husband, remember he’s not your
8husband but mine & you have to look after him… The most exquisite
9silver butter dish with ice cooler & knife…
10
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