"War stuff all around" Read the full letter
| Letter Reference | Olive Schreiner BC16/Box5/Fold2/1913/44 |
| Archive | University of Cape Town, Manuscripts & Archives, Cape Town |
| Epistolary Type | Letter |
| Letter Date | November 1913 |
| Address From | De Aar, Northern Cape |
| Address To | |
| Who To | Alice Greene |
| 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. The month and year have been written on this letter in an unknown hand. Schreiner was resident in De Aar from November 1907 until she left South Africa for Britain and Europe in December 1913, with some fairly lengthy visits elsewhere over this time.
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1
Dear Alice
2
3 It will be good to see you & Bettie when I come down I sail on the 5th
4of December; have got a splendid airy cabin with two windows & a
5heater for the cold & a place for an electric fan for the tropics so I
6feel quite hopeful about the voyage. There will be very few passengers
7so I shall be nice & quiet & in 17 days I shall be in London among my
8beloved friends. If the weather is cold & frosty I shall perhaps stay
9for a week or ten days & then go on to Clarens on the lake of Geneva
10for a week or so to enjoy the frost which is always life to me, & then
11go on to the Riviera. The Havelock Ellis’s & several of my other
12friends have promised to come & see me on the continent so I shan’t
13be lonely. I wonder if any one else in the world has such good
14beautiful friends as I have!! If only I were well life even at de Aar
15would be too beautiful. You don’t know how hard I feel it to leave
16my husband. unreadable
17
18 PS. I shall stay with Dr Corthorn when I am in London this time, &
19shall be largely guided by her advice & that of Dr Mackenzie the great
20heart specialist, as to what course of treatment I under go &c &c. I
21have just found out that this ^great^ Mackenzie is a young Scotch doctor
22whom I knew years ago in England, when I was a girl. I shall try & see
23another specialist in London & also the best specialist in Paris that
24I can compare their opinions. Write me a nice letter all about
25yourselves. Does dear Lucy Molteno seem better for her voyage?
26
27 I’ve just got a letter from my nephew Oliver from Cambridge. He says
28he will come & spend a week with me in Italy. Isn’t it sweet of him
29in his beautiful bright healthy youth, to care to be troubled by a
30broken down old derelict like me?
31
32^I’m glad to hear you are so happy fixed at unreadable Love to my
33darling Betty, ^
34 Olive
35
36
37
2
3 It will be good to see you & Bettie when I come down I sail on the 5th
4of December; have got a splendid airy cabin with two windows & a
5heater for the cold & a place for an electric fan for the tropics so I
6feel quite hopeful about the voyage. There will be very few passengers
7so I shall be nice & quiet & in 17 days I shall be in London among my
8beloved friends. If the weather is cold & frosty I shall perhaps stay
9for a week or ten days & then go on to Clarens on the lake of Geneva
10for a week or so to enjoy the frost which is always life to me, & then
11go on to the Riviera. The Havelock Ellis’s & several of my other
12friends have promised to come & see me on the continent so I shan’t
13be lonely. I wonder if any one else in the world has such good
14beautiful friends as I have!! If only I were well life even at de Aar
15would be too beautiful. You don’t know how hard I feel it to leave
16my husband. unreadable
17
18 PS. I shall stay with Dr Corthorn when I am in London this time, &
19shall be largely guided by her advice & that of Dr Mackenzie the great
20heart specialist, as to what course of treatment I under go &c &c. I
21have just found out that this ^great^ Mackenzie is a young Scotch doctor
22whom I knew years ago in England, when I was a girl. I shall try & see
23another specialist in London & also the best specialist in Paris that
24I can compare their opinions. Write me a nice letter all about
25yourselves. Does dear Lucy Molteno seem better for her voyage?
26
27 I’ve just got a letter from my nephew Oliver from Cambridge. He says
28he will come & spend a week with me in Italy. Isn’t it sweet of him
29in his beautiful bright healthy youth, to care to be troubled by a
30broken down old derelict like me?
31
32^I’m glad to hear you are so happy fixed at unreadable Love to my
33darling Betty, ^
34 Olive
35
36
37