"The trial, Rhodes removing names from voters' lists, educated Christian Kaffir" Read the full letter
Letter Reference | Karl Pearson 840/4/2/92-93 |
Archive | University College London Library, Special Collections, UCL, London |
Epistolary Type | Letter |
Letter Date | 25 June 1886 |
Address From | The Convent, Harrow, London |
Address To | |
Who To | Karl Pearson |
Other Versions | |
Permissions | Please read before using or citing this transcription |
Legend |
The Project is grateful to University College London (UCL) and its Library Services for kindly allowing us to transcribe this Olive Schreiner letter, which is part of its Special Collections. The date has been written on this letter in an unknown hand. The name of the addressee is indicated by content and archival location.
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1
The Convent
2
3 No; I shan’t. (This with regard to the play.).
4
5 //You are right & you are wrong about Carpenter. When I said something
6about liking his poetry he said, "Yes, but in one way you are
7overrating it. It was only when I had read & lived on Whitman that my
8work was worth anything. All the poetry I wrote before that was a
9failure."
10
11 That struck me me as a great thing to say; a thing no small man could
12have said. You will feel when you know him that he is a man &
13represents something you have not found before, anywhere. ^He has made
14my conception of humanity more complete^
15
16 I do still want to see you, though not so much. Will you please come
17on Tuesday. Try & arrange to stay till the late afternoon. Just before
18sunset it is so nice. I am allowed to be out till nine.
19
20 //Eleanor Aveling is very shortsighted.
21
22 I wonder whether you are not feeling as I did before I left London. If
23I had not come here & got solitude I should have snapped.
24
25 //It doesn’t matter about your understanding the women; I want them
26to understand you.
27
28 Come still if it rains on Tuesday. We can sit in the arbour at the Inn,
29 & have tea & talk. We can meet at the church porch.
30
31 //When I see people like Miss Müller, I feel an almost passionate
32wish to awake them from their sleep. As the Christians say, Their
33souls press heavy on me.
34
35 Yours ever
36 O.S.
37
38
39
2
3 No; I shan’t. (This with regard to the play.).
4
5 //You are right & you are wrong about Carpenter. When I said something
6about liking his poetry he said, "Yes, but in one way you are
7overrating it. It was only when I had read & lived on Whitman that my
8work was worth anything. All the poetry I wrote before that was a
9failure."
10
11 That struck me me as a great thing to say; a thing no small man could
12have said. You will feel when you know him that he is a man &
13represents something you have not found before, anywhere. ^He has made
14my conception of humanity more complete^
15
16 I do still want to see you, though not so much. Will you please come
17on Tuesday. Try & arrange to stay till the late afternoon. Just before
18sunset it is so nice. I am allowed to be out till nine.
19
20 //Eleanor Aveling is very shortsighted.
21
22 I wonder whether you are not feeling as I did before I left London. If
23I had not come here & got solitude I should have snapped.
24
25 //It doesn’t matter about your understanding the women; I want them
26to understand you.
27
28 Come still if it rains on Tuesday. We can sit in the arbour at the Inn,
29 & have tea & talk. We can meet at the church porch.
30
31 //When I see people like Miss Müller, I feel an almost passionate
32wish to awake them from their sleep. As the Christians say, Their
33souls press heavy on me.
34
35 Yours ever
36 O.S.
37
38
39
Notation
'The play' is Karl Pearson (1882) The Trinity: A Nineteenth Century Passion-Play Cambridge: E. Johnson.
'The play' is Karl Pearson (1882) The Trinity: A Nineteenth Century Passion-Play Cambridge: E. Johnson.