"Trying to help Will Schreiner politically; I want 'She wrote Peter Halket' on my grave; it's what it cost me" Read the full letter
| Letter Reference | HRC/OliveSchreinerUncatLetters/OS-PhilipKent/6 |
| Archive | Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas, Austin |
| Epistolary Type | Letter |
| Letter Date | 12 May 1883 |
| Address From | Edinburgh House, Warrior Square, St Leonards, East Sussex |
| Address To | |
| Who To | Philip Kent |
| Other Versions | |
| 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.
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1Edinburgh House
2Warrior Square
3St Leonards-on-Sea
4May 12 / 83
5
6My dear Mr Kent
7
8Many thanks for the notice you sent me. It ought to make up to me for
9a great many Saturday Reviewers - & it does.
10
11I am going to get “Honest Davie”, & read it; but first I am going
12to read “Cousin Pons” which I have just got. I have read very few
13novels in my life, not twenty in all. I only read the Mill on the
14Floss for the first time the other day. Isn’t it splendid? I wish
15George Eliot was alive. I would like ^so^ to ask her to let me kiss her.
16That Maggie is the finest portrait of a woman’s soul that ever was
17painted. I read Adam Bede long ago: it is more power-ful perhaps, but
18I like the Mill on the Floss best.
19
20As far as my miserable haggling over money goes, - I wrote to tell Mr
21Chapman I wouldn’t have £30. So he’s written to say that I must
22come & see him, that he’ll give me a cheque on account of the copies
23sold, & that we^’ll^ talk matters over comfortably & that he didn’t
24really mean to offer me only £30. Publishers are curious. My
25acquaintance since I came to England has been mainly with
26lodging-house keepers & publishers, & I think they are both curious.
27
28^I am,^
29Yours very sincerely,
30Olive Schreiner
31
32^After next Thursday, my address will be 3. Harrington Road South
33Kensington^
34
2Warrior Square
3St Leonards-on-Sea
4May 12 / 83
5
6My dear Mr Kent
7
8Many thanks for the notice you sent me. It ought to make up to me for
9a great many Saturday Reviewers - & it does.
10
11I am going to get “Honest Davie”, & read it; but first I am going
12to read “Cousin Pons” which I have just got. I have read very few
13novels in my life, not twenty in all. I only read the Mill on the
14Floss for the first time the other day. Isn’t it splendid? I wish
15George Eliot was alive. I would like ^so^ to ask her to let me kiss her.
16That Maggie is the finest portrait of a woman’s soul that ever was
17painted. I read Adam Bede long ago: it is more power-ful perhaps, but
18I like the Mill on the Floss best.
19
20As far as my miserable haggling over money goes, - I wrote to tell Mr
21Chapman I wouldn’t have £30. So he’s written to say that I must
22come & see him, that he’ll give me a cheque on account of the copies
23sold, & that we^’ll^ talk matters over comfortably & that he didn’t
24really mean to offer me only £30. Publishers are curious. My
25acquaintance since I came to England has been mainly with
26lodging-house keepers & publishers, & I think they are both curious.
27
28^I am,^
29Yours very sincerely,
30Olive Schreiner
31
32^After next Thursday, my address will be 3. Harrington Road South
33Kensington^
34
Notation
The 'haggling' concerns payment for a new edition of The Story of An African Farm. The books referred to are: Honore de Balzac (1880) Poor Relations. Cousin Pons (translated by Philip Kent) London: Simpkin, Marshall & Co; Frank Barrett (1883) Honest Davie. A Novel London: Ward & Downey; George Eliot (1859) Adam Bede Edinburgh & London: William Blackwood & Sons; George Eliot (1860) The Mill on the Floss Edinburgh & London: William Blackwood & Sons.
The 'haggling' concerns payment for a new edition of The Story of An African Farm. The books referred to are: Honore de Balzac (1880) Poor Relations. Cousin Pons (translated by Philip Kent) London: Simpkin, Marshall & Co; Frank Barrett (1883) Honest Davie. A Novel London: Ward & Downey; George Eliot (1859) Adam Bede Edinburgh & London: William Blackwood & Sons; George Eliot (1860) The Mill on the Floss Edinburgh & London: William Blackwood & Sons.