"The baby's holy little life" Read the full letter
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Letter ReferenceLetters/466
Archive
Epistolary Type
Letter Date19 April 1907
Address FromHanover, Northern Cape
Address To
Who ToAdela Villiers Smith nee Villiers
Other VersionsCronwright-Schreiner 1924: 266
PermissionsPlease 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.
1To Mrs. Francis Smith.
2Hanover, 19th April.
3
4... I hope next month to get away for a few days and go to see a
5Mission Station called Heald Town, where I spent my childhood from six
6to nine years old. The little sister, whom I loved so is buried there
7in the garden, and I love the whole place so; it is sacred ground to
8me. It is such a pity that travelling is so expensive in this country
9and the distances so immense. My childhood was so very bitter and dark,
10 but I cling to the memories of it and especially the places I lived
11at, they were so unutterably lovely and it was in nature I found all
12the joy and help I had in those lonely years.
13