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Letter ReferenceOlive Schreiner: Extracts of Letters to Cronwright-Schreiner MSC 26/2.16/396
ArchiveNational Library of South Africa, Special Collections, Cape Town
Epistolary TypeExtract
Letter Date23 May 1907
Address FromHanover, Northern Cape
Address To
Who ToS.C. (‘Cron’) Cronwright-Schreiner
Other VersionsCronwright-Schreiner 1924: 268-9
PermissionsPlease read before using or citing this transcription
Legend
The Extracts of Letters to Cronwright-Schreiner were produced by Cronwright-Schreiner in preparing The Life and The Letters of Olive Schreiner. They appear on slips of paper in his writing, taken from letters that were then destroyed; many of these extracts have also been edited by him. They are artefacts of his editorial practices and their relationship to original Schreiner letters cannot now be gauged. They should be read with considerable caution for the reasons given. Cronwright-Schreiner has written the date and where it was sent from onto this extract, that Olive Schreiner’s letter was eight pages long, and that the fever is question was also known as Maltese fever. There are some differences between this transcription and the version that appears in The Letters....
1 …very hot & oppressive, but I have to keep the fire going to dry the
2air… Oh, I wish I could get my book done before I die. It may not be
3any good; but I feel have to do it. I used to feel I couldn’t die
4till it was done; that fate wouldn’t let it be. Now I know that
5anything may be; you trust & hope for years but the things never come.
6If one has done one’s best, that is all…?Partiprese fever has
7broken out in town, several people have it and Wilson says it is one
8of the most difficult diseases in the world to cure: it goes on for
9months. The Vley must be causing it…
10
11
Notation
The book Schreiner wanted to ‘get done’ is From Man to Man.