"Life-long unions, ideal unions" Read the full letter
| Letter Reference | Letters/10 |
| Archive | |
| Epistolary Type | |
| Letter Date | 4 August 1878 |
| Address From | Ratel Hoek, Halesowen, Eastern Cape |
| Address To | |
| Who To | Erilda Cawood nee Buckley |
| Other Versions | Cronwright-Schreiner 1924: 5 |
| Permissions | Please read before using or citing this transcription |
| Legend |
When Cronwright-Schreiner prepared The Letters of Olive Schreiner, with few exceptions he then destroyed her originals. However, some people gave him copies and kept the originals or demanded the return of these; and when actual Schreiner letters can be compared with his versions, his have omissions, distortions and bowdlerisations. Where Schreiner originals have survived, these will be found in the relevant collections across the OSLO website. There is however a residue of some 587 items in The Letters for which no originals are extant. They are included here for sake of completeness. However, their relationship to Schreiners actual letters cannot now be gauged, and so they should be read with caution for the reasons given.
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1To Mrs. Cawood.
2Ratel Hoek, 4th Aug.
3
4And now I'm going to quarrel with you. What do you mean by going to
5Cradock and staying there all that time and never having your likeness
6taken, when I've asked you so often and when you knew how much I
7wanted it? I had a beautiful nice large likeness taken when I was in
8Queenstown last, but I won't send you one, and there now Madam! And
9I'll never do anything that would please you; and there now Madam! And
10I nearly did die the other day; I woke up in the morning and felt as
11if I were dying, and I went to call someone, and fell against the door
12and cut my face all open, and it was half an hour before I got warm
13and could speak, and there now Madam! And I'm going to "spook" you
14about that likeness one of these days, and there now Madam!
15
2Ratel Hoek, 4th Aug.
3
4And now I'm going to quarrel with you. What do you mean by going to
5Cradock and staying there all that time and never having your likeness
6taken, when I've asked you so often and when you knew how much I
7wanted it? I had a beautiful nice large likeness taken when I was in
8Queenstown last, but I won't send you one, and there now Madam! And
9I'll never do anything that would please you; and there now Madam! And
10I nearly did die the other day; I woke up in the morning and felt as
11if I were dying, and I went to call someone, and fell against the door
12and cut my face all open, and it was half an hour before I got warm
13and could speak, and there now Madam! And I'm going to "spook" you
14about that likeness one of these days, and there now Madam!
15