"Distributing relief money & goods wisely & justly" Read the full letter
| Letter Reference | Letters/478 |
| Archive | |
| Epistolary Type | |
| Letter Date | 20 August 1909 |
| Address From | De Aar, Northern Cape |
| Address To | |
| Who To | Caroline Augusta Foley Rhys Davids nee Foley |
| Other Versions | Cronwright-Schreiner 1924: 287-8 |
| 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. C. A. F. Rhys Davids.
2De Aar, 20th Aug.
3
4Thank you for the pamphlet; and thank you much more for your wish to
5dedicate the book to me. In two ways I shall feel it an especial gift.
6In one, because of my strong feeling about Buddha's teaching, that it
7was of a higher grade in many directions than that of any other
8religious teacher; in the other, because you impressed me as being one
9of the largest, most “women-of-the-future” type of woman I ever met.
10It wasn't only your intellect that impressed me, it was your large
11breezy sincerity, the quality one dreams of in the woman of the future,
12 and which is so rare in women of the present. After all, the greatest
13part of women's emancipation is something she only she can confer on
14herself! Some of the passages of these women’s poems in your papers
15bring one strangely near to those old dead women.
16
2De Aar, 20th Aug.
3
4Thank you for the pamphlet; and thank you much more for your wish to
5dedicate the book to me. In two ways I shall feel it an especial gift.
6In one, because of my strong feeling about Buddha's teaching, that it
7was of a higher grade in many directions than that of any other
8religious teacher; in the other, because you impressed me as being one
9of the largest, most “women-of-the-future” type of woman I ever met.
10It wasn't only your intellect that impressed me, it was your large
11breezy sincerity, the quality one dreams of in the woman of the future,
12 and which is so rare in women of the present. After all, the greatest
13part of women's emancipation is something she only she can confer on
14herself! Some of the passages of these women’s poems in your papers
15bring one strangely near to those old dead women.
16
Notation
Schreiner's thanks to Rhys Davids for were the dedication of her translation Psalms of the Early Buddhists to her in 1909. The dedication reads: "To Olive Schreiner, Seer of 'Dreams', this translation of verses ascribed to the spiritual daughters of Gotama Buddha, 'The Wake', is in grateful and loving homage dedicated". See Caroline Rhys Davids (ed, trans) (1909) Psalms of the Early Buddhists London: Pali Text Society.
Schreiner's thanks to Rhys Davids for were the dedication of her translation Psalms of the Early Buddhists to her in 1909. The dedication reads: "To Olive Schreiner, Seer of 'Dreams', this translation of verses ascribed to the spiritual daughters of Gotama Buddha, 'The Wake', is in grateful and loving homage dedicated". See Caroline Rhys Davids (ed, trans) (1909) Psalms of the Early Buddhists London: Pali Text Society.