"Particularities of illness" Read the full letter
| Letter Reference | Olive Schreiner BC16/Box11/Fold1/Dated/52 |
| Archive | University of Cape Town, Manuscripts & Archives, Cape Town |
| Epistolary Type | Letter |
| Letter Date | Monday December 1920 |
| Address From | Oak Hall, Wynburg, Cape Town, Western Cape |
| Address To | |
| Who To | Lily Bolus |
| 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.
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1
Oak Hall
2 Tram terminus
3 Wynburg
4 Monday
5
6 Dear Mrs Bolus,
7
8 You don’t know what it meant to me to meet you. I know how busy you
9are, but I can’t walk & come to you, so if ever you have the spare
10time please come to see me. If you telephone before hand you won’t
11come & find me out. Sometimes I ride into town & straight out again to
12get the air & I might miss you.
13
14 I do wish you lived near me.
15
16 I had a long letter from Betty Molteno today. She seems very
17interested in her Egyptian lectures, & that I’m sure is doing her
18great good. The Molteno party will arrive this week. I am longing to
19see May & Margaret.
20
21 I hope you understood about that little book.
22
23 I think it’s splendid, but if meant for very tiny children a little
24difficult. For older ones it would be splendid.
25
26 Yours ever
27 Olive Schreiner
28
29 I hope this address will find you.
30
31
32
33
2 Tram terminus
3 Wynburg
4 Monday
5
6 Dear Mrs Bolus,
7
8 You don’t know what it meant to me to meet you. I know how busy you
9are, but I can’t walk & come to you, so if ever you have the spare
10time please come to see me. If you telephone before hand you won’t
11come & find me out. Sometimes I ride into town & straight out again to
12get the air & I might miss you.
13
14 I do wish you lived near me.
15
16 I had a long letter from Betty Molteno today. She seems very
17interested in her Egyptian lectures, & that I’m sure is doing her
18great good. The Molteno party will arrive this week. I am longing to
19see May & Margaret.
20
21 I hope you understood about that little book.
22
23 I think it’s splendid, but if meant for very tiny children a little
24difficult. For older ones it would be splendid.
25
26 Yours ever
27 Olive Schreiner
28
29 I hope this address will find you.
30
31
32
33
Notation
A typed extract from a much later letter from Lily Bolus, dated 19.12.1952, is attached, commenting:
'Meantime I have come upon a letter to me from Olive Schreiner – (The Betty Molteno referred to is Elizabeth M., eldest daughter of Sir John Molteno. She was Principal of the Girls’ Collegiate School at Port Elizabeth where I matriculated and afterwards taught, and Olive stayed with her at the school and I first got to know her there – that was before Olive went to England to live.'
The same hand that wrote the date has also written that this letter was received about ten days before Schreiner died.
The ‘little book’ referred to is: Harriet M. Louisa Bolus (1919) Elementary Lessons in Systematic Botany, based on familiar species of the South African flora, etc Cape Town: T. M. Miller.
A typed extract from a much later letter from Lily Bolus, dated 19.12.1952, is attached, commenting:
'Meantime I have come upon a letter to me from Olive Schreiner – (The Betty Molteno referred to is Elizabeth M., eldest daughter of Sir John Molteno. She was Principal of the Girls’ Collegiate School at Port Elizabeth where I matriculated and afterwards taught, and Olive stayed with her at the school and I first got to know her there – that was before Olive went to England to live.'
The same hand that wrote the date has also written that this letter was received about ten days before Schreiner died.
The ‘little book’ referred to is: Harriet M. Louisa Bolus (1919) Elementary Lessons in Systematic Botany, based on familiar species of the South African flora, etc Cape Town: T. M. Miller.