"Olive died peacefully" Read the full letter
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Letter ReferenceOlive Schreiner BC16/Box1/Fold2/1894/5
ArchiveUniversity of Cape Town, Manuscripts & Archives, Cape Town
Epistolary TypeLetter
Letter Date28 February 1894
Address FromKrantz Plaats, Halesowen, Eastern Cape
Address To
Who ToJessie Rose Innes nee Dods Pringle
Other VersionsRive 1987: 234
PermissionsPlease 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.
1 Krantz Platz
2 P.O. Halesowen
3 Feb 28 / 94
4
5 Dear Jessie
6
7 I was so glad to get your letter. Your letters always seem to come
8straight from your heart to mine.
9
10 We were married very quietly in Saturday & came straight home here,
11getting here in the starlight at about eight o’clock.
12
13 I don’t need Mrs Reed, dear. I’ve got a good old Hottentot girl, &
14my husband looks after me so, that I don’t need anyone else. To
15outsiders he seems a hard stern man, but he is really so gentle &
16thoughtful. I should never have married anyone if I had not met him:
17that is, I cannot picture any other type of man who would have suited
18me. We are spending a very quiet "honeymoon" each going about our work.
19 I went with him this evening to collect his goats in; & now we are
20both sitting at two desks in the same room writing. I wished you could
21have been with me on Saturday. I had no friends there but my brother
22Theo; & of course we only went through the legal form, very quietly in
23the magistrates drawing-room. I am very well, & I like Krantz Platz in
24spite of the wind!! It’s a wild lonely place. Most people wouldn’t
25like it, but it suits me. I think I shall work here. Thank you dear
26for your wire, & thank Mr Innes for his. Cron & I both send him our
27love.
28
29 Won’t it be lovely when Mary gets back. My only fear is that the
30life she will leave to live here will seem small & narrow & hard after
31the larger & freer.
32
33^Good night, & good bye, dear. I would like a long talk with you. My
34hope for the long journey on which my husband & I are setting out lies
35in the fact that we are "chums". We are more like two children playing
36together than a man & a woman. ^
37
38 Good bye dear heart
39 Yours ever
40 Olive C Schreiner
41
42
43
Notation
Rive's (1987) version omits part of this letter and is also in a number of respects incorrect.