"Standing by what you write" Read the full letter
Letter Reference | T120 (M722): W.T. Stead Papers/20- pages 107-110 & 215-16 |
Archive | National Archives Depot, Pretoria |
Epistolary Type | Letter |
Letter Date | 19 February 1893 |
Address From | Middelburg, Eastern Cape |
Address To | |
Who To | William Thomas Stead |
Other Versions | Cronwright-Schreiner 1924: 210 |
Permissions | Please read before using or citing this transcription |
Legend |
The Project is grateful to the National Archives Repository, Pretoria, for kindly allowing us to transcribe this Olive Schreiner letter, which is part of its Micofilm Collections.
|
1^Private^
2
3Middelburg
4Feb 19 / 93.
5
6Dear Friend
7
8Thank you for your letter.
9
10I shall be home by the 2nd week in May. Yes, I hope I shall often see
11you. I will explain to you why I acted as I did: There was a woman I
12was afraid I should talk against to you if I saw you. I can't bear to
13talk against anyone, yet if other people talk of them the thing I know
14or the opinion I have sometimes bursts out; so I find it better not to
15see people who talk of them. Don’t dis-cuss other women with me ever,
16except in their political or public capacities, & don't expect me to
17know all your women friends, because some women are such an anguish to
18me they almost break my heart. (This is all strictly private).
19
20I should like to see your little girl.
21
22My sister Ettie is out here again with all her family.
23
24N.B. Do you know of any one who wants, or do you want yourself for
25news paper a first rate correspondent in South Africa? A man with a
26keen condensed, picturesque style of putting things; a fearless out
27spoken thinker on political questions? Don’t forget to answer this. I
28am anxious that a truer, more vivid, more impartial picture of South
29African men & things should be given to the English public, & have
30found the man who can do it. He is not a professional journalist; &
31only has bother to write on different political & social questions, as
32they moved him. My friendship for him began by my being struck by the
33stance he took on certain political questions, & by his artistic
34literary, style. You’ll not be sorry if you get him to send you a
35monthly letter on South African affairs, life, men & c. If you don’t
36want them do you know any one who does?
37
38Good bye dear friend
39Address still to –
40Matjesfontein
41Olive Schreiner
42
43Thank God you’ve got off the ghost subject!!!
44
2
3Middelburg
4Feb 19 / 93.
5
6Dear Friend
7
8Thank you for your letter.
9
10I shall be home by the 2nd week in May. Yes, I hope I shall often see
11you. I will explain to you why I acted as I did: There was a woman I
12was afraid I should talk against to you if I saw you. I can't bear to
13talk against anyone, yet if other people talk of them the thing I know
14or the opinion I have sometimes bursts out; so I find it better not to
15see people who talk of them. Don’t dis-cuss other women with me ever,
16except in their political or public capacities, & don't expect me to
17know all your women friends, because some women are such an anguish to
18me they almost break my heart. (This is all strictly private).
19
20I should like to see your little girl.
21
22My sister Ettie is out here again with all her family.
23
24N.B. Do you know of any one who wants, or do you want yourself for
25news paper a first rate correspondent in South Africa? A man with a
26keen condensed, picturesque style of putting things; a fearless out
27spoken thinker on political questions? Don’t forget to answer this. I
28am anxious that a truer, more vivid, more impartial picture of South
29African men & things should be given to the English public, & have
30found the man who can do it. He is not a professional journalist; &
31only has bother to write on different political & social questions, as
32they moved him. My friendship for him began by my being struck by the
33stance he took on certain political questions, & by his artistic
34literary, style. You’ll not be sorry if you get him to send you a
35monthly letter on South African affairs, life, men & c. If you don’t
36want them do you know any one who does?
37
38Good bye dear friend
39Address still to –
40Matjesfontein
41Olive Schreiner
42
43Thank God you’ve got off the ghost subject!!!
44
Notation
Cronwright-Schreiner’s (1924) extract from this letter is incorrect in a range of ways; he also comments that the ‘first rate’ correspondent referred to is himself.
Cronwright-Schreiner’s (1924) extract from this letter is incorrect in a range of ways; he also comments that the ‘first rate’ correspondent referred to is himself.