"Hunted down by people, experience at hotel" Read the full letter
| Letter Reference | Olive Schreiner: S.C. Cronwright-Schreiner SMD 30/33/k |
| Archive | National English Literary Museum, Grahamstown |
| Epistolary Type | Letter |
| Letter Date | 9 December 1920 |
| Address From | Oak Hall, Wynburg, Cape Town, Western Cape |
| Address To | |
| Who To | S.C. ('Cron') Cronwright-Schreiner |
| Other Versions | |
| Permissions | Please read before using or citing this transcription |
| Legend |
The Project is grateful to the National English Literary Museum (NELM) for kindly allowing us to transcribe this Olive Schreiner letter, which is part of its Manuscript Collections. Schreiner stayed with her niece Ursula Scott, her sister-in-law Fan Schreiner, and her friend Lucy Molteno, in Cape Town after her arrival from Britain on 30 August 1920, moving to a boarding-house in Wynberg in late October, where she was resident until her death on 11 December 1920.
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1
Dec 9th 1920
2
3 My Pal,
4
5 I hope you have been able to get out of the London fog soon. They are
6choaking. I shall love to think of you in Rome. If you go through
7Basle & stop any time there, I sometimes had to stop 4 hours, you
8might like to go to the University to see my father's picture there. I
9wish you could go to Stutgard & go to Felbach a little village about 4
10miles out & see my fathers birth place the little house in which he
11was born was exactly as it was when he was a baby when I was there.
12
13 [missing page/s] bed with rheumatism. She is lucky to have a place
14where she can be ill in!! I am trying to go & see her.
15
16 Willie Cronwrights wife went up to Aliwal, because she could not sleep
17after her daughters death, but she got very very ill there with her
18heart & could not leave her bed. Its too high for her heart. She had
19to come down here on account of her heart. Ursie & Fan I never see.
20You see I can't walk & they've no time to come & see me. The only
21person
22
23 [missing page/s] country seems strongly stirred about the elections.
24Sir David Graaff & his fellow capitalists are behind Jannie. Money
25will flow like water. It is going to be a pure capitalists movement. I
26believe many of the old SA Party will now join the Nationalists. I'll
27add more if there's any news. Margaretha Purcell is still very ill &
28Joey is still in the hospital. There is no hope for her Anna tells me,
29it is cancer, but they are keeping this from
30
31 I long so to see the stars & the veldt: one day I will go up to
32Matjiesfontein just for one day, if I can find anyone to take me. It
33doesn't seem to me this is Africa.
34
35 A Happy New Year my dear one
36 Rensie
37
38
39
2
3 My Pal,
4
5 I hope you have been able to get out of the London fog soon. They are
6choaking. I shall love to think of you in Rome. If you go through
7Basle & stop any time there, I sometimes had to stop 4 hours, you
8might like to go to the University to see my father's picture there. I
9wish you could go to Stutgard & go to Felbach a little village about 4
10miles out & see my fathers birth place the little house in which he
11was born was exactly as it was when he was a baby when I was there.
12
13 [missing page/s] bed with rheumatism. She is lucky to have a place
14where she can be ill in!! I am trying to go & see her.
15
16 Willie Cronwrights wife went up to Aliwal, because she could not sleep
17after her daughters death, but she got very very ill there with her
18heart & could not leave her bed. Its too high for her heart. She had
19to come down here on account of her heart. Ursie & Fan I never see.
20You see I can't walk & they've no time to come & see me. The only
21person
22
23 [missing page/s] country seems strongly stirred about the elections.
24Sir David Graaff & his fellow capitalists are behind Jannie. Money
25will flow like water. It is going to be a pure capitalists movement. I
26believe many of the old SA Party will now join the Nationalists. I'll
27add more if there's any news. Margaretha Purcell is still very ill &
28Joey is still in the hospital. There is no hope for her Anna tells me,
29it is cancer, but they are keeping this from
30
31 I long so to see the stars & the veldt: one day I will go up to
32Matjiesfontein just for one day, if I can find anyone to take me. It
33doesn't seem to me this is Africa.
34
35 A Happy New Year my dear one
36 Rensie
37
38
39
Notation
The page on which this letter is written is torn off following the paragraph beginning 'I hope you have been able?', and what follows on the reverse has been crossed through in Cronwright-Schreiner's hand. The paragraph beginning 'country seems strongly stirred' is on a separate sheet of paper and has also been crossed through by him, while on the reverse is the paragraph beginning 'I long so to see the stars', which he has not crossed through. This is one of the very last letters that Olive Schreiner wrote; she died in the early hours of 11 December 1920.
The page on which this letter is written is torn off following the paragraph beginning 'I hope you have been able?', and what follows on the reverse has been crossed through in Cronwright-Schreiner's hand. The paragraph beginning 'country seems strongly stirred' is on a separate sheet of paper and has also been crossed through by him, while on the reverse is the paragraph beginning 'I long so to see the stars', which he has not crossed through. This is one of the very last letters that Olive Schreiner wrote; she died in the early hours of 11 December 1920.