"Your astonishing letter, family duties, will never mention Katie's name as long as I live" Read the full letter
Letter Reference | Letters/262 |
Archive | |
Epistolary Type | |
Letter Date | 22 December 1887 |
Address From | Alassio, Italy |
Address To | |
Who To | Havelock Ellis |
Other Versions | Cronwright-Schreiner 1924: 125 |
Permissions | Please 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.
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1To Havelock Ellis.
2Alassio, 22nd Dec.
3
4I cannot tell you what this air and blue sea and sky are to me now I
5love them. I am working. I seem at last to have conquered, I think for
6ever. It may be not. ... It is unlikely I shall get any publisher in
7England but Vizetelly to take this book. I am getting so hopeless on
8the question of earning money. The Devil comes to me sometimes for a
9moment and says: "Wouldn't it be better to sell your soul and work for
10money, and so be free and independent?" I shall work night and day for
11a year or two years more, and then what shall I get for it?
12
2Alassio, 22nd Dec.
3
4I cannot tell you what this air and blue sea and sky are to me now I
5love them. I am working. I seem at last to have conquered, I think for
6ever. It may be not. ... It is unlikely I shall get any publisher in
7England but Vizetelly to take this book. I am getting so hopeless on
8the question of earning money. The Devil comes to me sometimes for a
9moment and says: "Wouldn't it be better to sell your soul and work for
10money, and so be free and independent?" I shall work night and day for
11a year or two years more, and then what shall I get for it?
12