"Trying to help Will Schreiner politically; I want 'She wrote Peter Halket' on my grave; it's what it cost me" Read the full letter
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Letter ReferenceLetters/454
Archive
Epistolary Type
Letter Date29 November 1902
Address FromHanover, Northern Cape
Address To
Who ToAnna Purcell nee Cambier Faure
Other VersionsCronwright-Schreiner 1924: 234
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 Mrs. Anna Purcell.
2Hanover, 29th Nov.
3
4Did I tell you that we met General De Wet at Colesberg Junction and
5had ten minutes chat in the train with him? He is just as I expected
6him, a man of great strength and truth, the very best type of Boer.
7But (is it prejudice?) General Malan strikes me as a much more
8exceptional man, not a better man, but a man of genius; I wonder if I
9overrate Malan; there is something that appeals to me greatly in him;
10he strikes me as all men of genius strike one, as being of no
11nationality; he is not a Boer; he is not an Englishman; he is not a
12Frenchman; he is Malan! They say genius has no sex, but I say it has
13no nationality either.
14