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Letter ReferenceOlive Schreiner: Katie Findlay MSC 26/2.14.31
ArchiveNational Library of South Africa, Special Collections, Cape Town
Epistolary TypeLetter
Letter DateApril 1898
Address FromThe Homestead, Kimberley, Northern Cape
Address To
Who ToHudson Findlay
Other Versions
PermissionsPlease read before using or citing this transcription
Legend
The Project is grateful to the National Library of South Africa (NLSA), Cape Town, for kindly allowing us to transcribe this Olive Schreiner letter, which is part of its Special Collections. The month and year have been written on this letter in an unknown hand. Schreiner was resident in Kimberley from early August 1894 to November 1898, with visits, sometimes extended, elsewhere over this period.
1My dear Hudson
2
3I was very glad to have that little peep at you & Fred. Dear old Fred
4I knew before, but you are a new possession to me. I think what draws
5me so much to you is that life has been such a serious matter to you
6since you were a child I always tell Cron there are sides of life he
7can’t understand, because till he was 21 he lived surrounded with
8every comfort & luxury.
9
10June 4th
11
12Dear Hudson
13
14I began this letter to you the day after I got back from Johannesburg,
15but it never got any further. Please drop me a line if you have any
16news of your mother. Cron writes me that he very much enjoyed his
17visit to you. He is much in love with Bessie’s mother. He quotes
18about her his favourite line for Witman’s poem; “The young are
19beautiful , but the old are more beautiful than the young.” I wish I
20had seen her when I was in Pretoria.
21
22Cron is still at Johannesburg. He has been gone only a fortnight today,
23 & it seems to me he has been gone two months. Give much love to my
24boy Fred.
25
26Your small aunt
27Olive
28
Notation
The poem referred to is in: Walt Whitman (1855) Leaves of Grass New York: Brooklyn.