"About Rebecca Schreiner, OS's childhood, her writing" Read the full letter
| Letter Reference | Olive Schreiner: Extracts of Letters to Cronwright-Schreiner MSC 26/2.16/401 |
| Archive | National Library of South Africa, Special Collections, Cape Town |
| Epistolary Type | Extract |
| Letter Date | 4 June 1907 |
| Address From | Hanover, Northern Cape |
| Address To | |
| Who To | S.C. (‘Cron’) Cronwright-Schreiner |
| Other Versions | Cronwright-Schreiner 1924: 269 |
| Permissions | Please 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, and that this letter was ten pages long. There are some differences between this transcription and the version that appears in The Letters....
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…I have never felt that age made any great difference between men &
2women, but the happiest marriages I have know I know of, Mills’,
3Brownings’ & many others I have known personally the woman is older
4than the man. Women are older for their years up to 30 - I mean a
5woman of 20 or 30 seems to be older than a man of the same age - after
640 the man begins to seem older than the women of his age, & a woman
7of 60 is generally younger in all ways than a man of 50. Perhaps it is
8as you said, that the woman ‘type’ is more flexible & child like &
9therefore tends to keep its flexibility much longer mentally &
10physically. Of course if people marry merely to produce children, then
11the woman in that respect is often older than the man...
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2women, but the happiest marriages I have know I know of, Mills’,
3Brownings’ & many others I have known personally the woman is older
4than the man. Women are older for their years up to 30 - I mean a
5woman of 20 or 30 seems to be older than a man of the same age - after
640 the man begins to seem older than the women of his age, & a woman
7of 60 is generally younger in all ways than a man of 50. Perhaps it is
8as you said, that the woman ‘type’ is more flexible & child like &
9therefore tends to keep its flexibility much longer mentally &
10physically. Of course if people marry merely to produce children, then
11the woman in that respect is often older than the man...
12
13