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Letter ReferenceOlive Schreiner BC16/Box11/Fold1/Dated/41
ArchiveUniversity of Cape Town, Manuscripts & Archives, Cape Town
Epistolary TypeLetter
Letter DateAugust 1917
Address FromLlandrindod Wells, Wales
Address To
Who ToWilliam Philip ('Will') Schreiner
Other Versions
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. The month and year have been written on this letter in an unknown hand. Schreiner first stayed in Llandrindod Wells from late July to late October 1915, and then again from mid June to the end of August 1916.
1 Dear Laddie,
2
3 I know of course you won’t agree at all with this l the view in this
4little allegory – but I’d like to know if you don’t think the word wae
5even if of my own invention! ^is good where it stands!^ Of course I
6can’t publish anything now. I just write them.
7
8 You need not return it, as it might get lost in the post. I’ll fetch
9it when next I come
.
10
11 I’m so glad you are going to Cambridge, dear. I tried to get through
12^to you^ on the telephone the night of the great raid but couldn’t. But
13I knew from the sound the bombs were not down your way. I am not
14afraid at all for myself. Life has become for me so much unbroken
15physical anguish, that I have no fear of the great stranger. If I
16could really work, I would not mind anything – but I am broken. I’m no
17good to any one any more.
18
19 Take care of yourself, dear. You are younger than I & must go on a bit
20longer. Ol ^If any thing happened to you it would unreadable be the
21last blow to me^
22
23 ^Your old sister
24 Ol^
25
26 Let me know as soon as you have any fresh news of the boy. Cron always
27sends much love to you.
28
29
30
Notation
Schreiner's use of 'wae' appears in her allegory 'Who Knocks at the Door'?; see: "Who Knocks at the Door?" Fortnightly Review November 1916, pp.641-5; it also appears in Stories, Dreams and Allegories.