"Not a personal matter, all women of Cape Colony, Women's Enfranchisement League" Read the full letter
| Letter Reference | Olive Schreiner BC16/Box8/Fold4/MMPr/AssortedCorres/FredPL/10 |
| Archive | University of Cape Town, Manuscripts & Archives, Cape Town |
| Epistolary Type | Letter |
| Letter Date | After Start: October 1909 ; Before End: December 1909 |
| Address From | Cape Town, Western Cape |
| Address To | |
| Who To | Frederick ('Fred') Pethick-Lawrence |
| Other Versions | |
| Permissions | Please read before using or citing this transcription |
| Legend |
The Project is grateful to Manuscripts and Archives, University of Cape Town, for kindly allowing us to transcribe this Olive Schreiner letter, which is part of its Manuscripts and Archives Collections. A typescript only of this letter is available. The transcription here follows this typescript and includes any uncertain dates, ellipses, mistakes and so on. Schreiner's 'down here' comment suggests she was in Cape Town. She stayed in Cape Town in early April 1903 and then from early October to late December 1909.
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1
I have not been working at my book. Running a house with one little
2coloured girl to help you, you can’t get any time for mental work,
3but I am going to try to get on with it while down here.
4
5 I am so sorry I’ve lost and cannot find among my papers that
6splendid letter on the native question that your wife wrote me when
7she was out here. It is one of the finest and most original statements
8of the problem I have ever read, and I should like some time to ask
9her to print it or let me do so; but I can’t find it.
10
11 Cron would join me in affectionate greetings but he is out. Goodbye.
12
13
14
2coloured girl to help you, you can’t get any time for mental work,
3but I am going to try to get on with it while down here.
4
5 I am so sorry I’ve lost and cannot find among my papers that
6splendid letter on the native question that your wife wrote me when
7she was out here. It is one of the finest and most original statements
8of the problem I have ever read, and I should like some time to ask
9her to print it or let me do so; but I can’t find it.
10
11 Cron would join me in affectionate greetings but he is out. Goodbye.
12
13
14
Notation
Schreiner's 'not working at my book' reference is likely to be to Closer Union (which originated as a lengthy article published in the Transvaal on 21 December 1908 and the Cape Times on 22 December 1908 (p.9) and it appeared as a short book in 1909), or to preparing the US edition of Dream Life and Real Life', or to From Man to Man.
Schreiner's 'not working at my book' reference is likely to be to Closer Union (which originated as a lengthy article published in the Transvaal on 21 December 1908 and the Cape Times on 22 December 1908 (p.9) and it appeared as a short book in 1909), or to preparing the US edition of Dream Life and Real Life', or to From Man to Man.