"Destroying letters, letters as sacred as a promise" Read the full letter
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Letter ReferenceLetters/227
Archive
Epistolary Type
Letter Date19 April 1887
Address FromAlassio, Italy
Address To
Who ToLouie Ellis
Other VersionsCronwright-Schreiner 1924: 114-5
PermissionsPlease read before using or citing this transcription
Legend
When Cronwright-Schreiner prepared The Letters of Olive Schreiner, with few exceptions he then destroyed her originals. However, some people gave him copies and kept the originals or demanded the return of these; and when actual Schreiner letters can be compared with his versions, his have omissions, distortions and bowdlerisations. Where Schreiner originals have survived, these will be found in the relevant collections across the OSLO website. There is however a residue of some 587 items in The Letters for which no originals are extant. They are included here for sake of completeness. However, their relationship to Schreiners actual letters cannot now be gauged, and so they should be read with caution for the reasons given.
1To Miss Louie Ellis.
2Alassio, 19th April.
3
4I am going to leave this on the seventh for Switzerland, because I’m
5afraid I’ll die here and they’ll bury me here and I don’t like it. I’m
6going to be buried at Maderaner Thal. What is your grave going to be
7like? This is a true and faithful picture of mine.
8
9OLIVE SCHREINER,
10CITIZEN OF THE WORLD.
11
12WHEN SHE WAS A LITTLE GIRL
13SHE LIVED AT HEALD TOWN,
14CAPE OF GOOD HOPE,
15SOUTH AFRICA.
16
17No I won't have a foot-stone. I'll send you lovely wild flowers when
18I'm in Switzerland. I never go out here. The little boys throw stones
19at me and I'm always writing or trying to. There's a nice terrace one
20can walk up and down all day long. Write and tell me what you think of
21the boy when he comes back. Has he developed much?
22