"Intellect & mothering instinct not at odds, types of minds" Read the full letter
| Letter Reference | T120 (M722): W.T. Stead Papers/22- pages 117-18 |
| Archive | National Archives Depot, Pretoria |
| Epistolary Type | Letter |
| Letter Date | 26 August 1895 |
| Address From | The Homestead, Kimberley, Northern Cape |
| Address To | |
| Who To | William Thomas Stead |
| Other Versions | Rive 1987: 256 |
| 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.
|
1The Homestead
2Kimberley
3August 26 / 95
4
5Dear Friend,
6
7I send you a copy of our paper on the Political Situation at the Cape.
8Read it carefully, please. I wish you were out here. I know we should
9see eye to eye. It is a terrible thing to live in a country which is
10not only not moving back forwards - but which is rolling back back back!
11
12Our history during the last five years has been the saddest that I
13think has ever been set down on the record of any South African ^Anglo Saxon^
14people.
15
16And we had such hopes of Rhodes years ago!
17
18We want an “If Christ Came to South Africa” from your pen.
19
20It's curious that all the time we were writing this article that poem
21of Lowell which you say once lived with you so much – “Once to Every
22Man & Nation” - was running in my mind.
23
24My husband joins me in greetings to you.
25
26Yours ever,
27Olive Schreiner
28
29^I shall send you a photo of my husband & myself next week.^
30
2Kimberley
3August 26 / 95
4
5Dear Friend,
6
7I send you a copy of our paper on the Political Situation at the Cape.
8Read it carefully, please. I wish you were out here. I know we should
9see eye to eye. It is a terrible thing to live in a country which is
10not only not moving back forwards - but which is rolling back back back!
11
12Our history during the last five years has been the saddest that I
13think has ever been set down on the record of any South African ^Anglo Saxon^
14people.
15
16And we had such hopes of Rhodes years ago!
17
18We want an “If Christ Came to South Africa” from your pen.
19
20It's curious that all the time we were writing this article that poem
21of Lowell which you say once lived with you so much – “Once to Every
22Man & Nation” - was running in my mind.
23
24My husband joins me in greetings to you.
25
26Yours ever,
27Olive Schreiner
28
29^I shall send you a photo of my husband & myself next week.^
30
Notation
‘Our paper’ refers to Schreiner’s The Political Situation, which Cronwright-Schreiner read out as a public address in Kimberley Town Hall on 20 August 1895. ‘If Christ Came to South Africa’ is a reworking of the title of Stead’s (1894) If Christ Came to Chicago London: Review of Reviews Offices; Chicago: Laird & Lee. The line of poetry comes from Lowell’s (1844) ‘The Present Crisis’, in James Russell Lowell (1880) The Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell London: Macmillan & Co. Rive’s (1987) version omits part of this letter and is incorrect in minor respects.
‘Our paper’ refers to Schreiner’s The Political Situation, which Cronwright-Schreiner read out as a public address in Kimberley Town Hall on 20 August 1895. ‘If Christ Came to South Africa’ is a reworking of the title of Stead’s (1894) If Christ Came to Chicago London: Review of Reviews Offices; Chicago: Laird & Lee. The line of poetry comes from Lowell’s (1844) ‘The Present Crisis’, in James Russell Lowell (1880) The Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell London: Macmillan & Co. Rive’s (1987) version omits part of this letter and is incorrect in minor respects.