"Publishing 'The Story of an African Farm', publishers" Read the full letter
| Letter Reference | HRC/CAT/OS/3a-xvii-a |
| Archive | Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas, Austin |
| Epistolary Type | Letter |
| Letter Date | Tuesday 25 November 1884 |
| Address From | 144 Marina, St Leonards, East Sussex |
| Address To | 24 Thornsett Road, South Penge Park, London |
| Who To | Havelock Ellis |
| Other Versions | Draznin 1992: 228-9 |
| Permissions | Please read before using or citing this transcription |
| Legend |
The Project is grateful to the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, the University of Texas at Austin, for kindly allowing us to transcribe this Olive Schreiner letter, which is part of its Manuscript Collections. This letter has been dated by reference to an associated envelope and its postmark, which also provides the address it was sent to. Schreiner was resident in St Leonards at different addresses from mid October 1884 to the end of April 1885.
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1Tuesday Night
2
3Your letter was sweet to me this evening. I went to try & get rooms at
4at Hastings to-day. Have not yet found any. Will perhaps go to a
5boardinghouse if they will come down in their price
6
7I W will be better when the Spring comes, my darling. Don’t feel so
8anxious about me. I feel I don’t think you lead quite the right kind
9of life, that is why brain work tells on you like it does on me now,
10but no, it isn’t the brain work that tells on me, it’s just the
11one thing that strengthens me. But I wish you & I were in a country
12where there was sunshine & could tear about on wild horses for an hour
13or two every day. We would both soon be well then & able to work eh? I
14would make you like it.
15
16I spit a little blood today. Do you ever have that light kind of
17feeling as if you hadn’t my body I have it this evening.
18
19^I am going to take my bath now before I go to bed. Good night my
20comrade. Olive.^
21
22^Isn’t that a nice little passage in Far from the Mad. about
23comrade-ship^
24
2
3Your letter was sweet to me this evening. I went to try & get rooms at
4at Hastings to-day. Have not yet found any. Will perhaps go to a
5boardinghouse if they will come down in their price
6
7I W will be better when the Spring comes, my darling. Don’t feel so
8anxious about me. I feel I don’t think you lead quite the right kind
9of life, that is why brain work tells on you like it does on me now,
10but no, it isn’t the brain work that tells on me, it’s just the
11one thing that strengthens me. But I wish you & I were in a country
12where there was sunshine & could tear about on wild horses for an hour
13or two every day. We would both soon be well then & able to work eh? I
14would make you like it.
15
16I spit a little blood today. Do you ever have that light kind of
17feeling as if you hadn’t my body I have it this evening.
18
19^I am going to take my bath now before I go to bed. Good night my
20comrade. Olive.^
21
22^Isn’t that a nice little passage in Far from the Mad. about
23comrade-ship^
24
Notation
'Far from the Mad' is a reference to: Thomas Hardy (1875) Far From the Madding Crowd London: Smith, Elder & Co. Draznin's (1992) version of this letter is in some respects different from our transcription.
'Far from the Mad' is a reference to: Thomas Hardy (1875) Far From the Madding Crowd London: Smith, Elder & Co. Draznin's (1992) version of this letter is in some respects different from our transcription.