"I'm working so hard to get all my things done to take to England, I like Rudyard Kipling, his letter of thanks to OS" Read the full letter
| Letter Reference | Karl Pearson 840/4/2/94-95 |
| Archive | University College London Library, Special Collections, UCL, London |
| Epistolary Type | Letter |
| Letter Date | 29 June 1886 |
| Address From | The Convent, Harrow, London |
| Address To | |
| Who To | Karl Pearson |
| Other Versions | |
| Permissions | Please read before using or citing this transcription |
| Legend |
The Project is grateful to University College London (UCL) and its Library Services for kindly allowing us to transcribe this Olive Schreiner letter, which is part of its Special Collections. The date has been written on this letter in an unknown hand. Schreiner was resident at the Convent in Harrow from mid May to the end of September 1886.
|
1
Dear K.P.
2
3 I am telegraphing to know whether you are not coming this afternoon My
4reason for doing so is that I have an idea Rev. Mother has a letters
5for me she has not given me that I do not get all my letters at once.
6I got a letter with the Harrow post mark four days old the other day.
7Don’t regard the telegrams as a further invitation, you miss
8something unpleasant if you don’t come today. I got last night a
9letter that distressed me & I am more stupid & unpleasant than is
10usual even with me. I have been very pertinacious about your coming
11(I’ve never in my life humbled myself so before a man before!) but
12when you were reading your paper in the club there was such a look
13^about your hands!^ of frailty, & high nervous tension & I thought of
14suffering, that a kind of horror came over me that you would die like
15Willie Bertram & I would have lifelong regret, that I had not seen you
16again. You remember ^what you told me that night at Blandford Sq
17
18Olive S.^
19
20 ^K.P. ("Idiots these women are"). but I’m not a woman, I’m a man, &
21you are to regard me as such.
22
23 Ach! You are as well as anything, I will be dust & years in my grave
24when you are still living & working. I don’t care.^
25
26
27
28
2
3 I am telegraphing to know whether you are not coming this afternoon My
4reason for doing so is that I have an idea Rev. Mother has a letters
5for me she has not given me that I do not get all my letters at once.
6I got a letter with the Harrow post mark four days old the other day.
7Don’t regard the telegrams as a further invitation, you miss
8something unpleasant if you don’t come today. I got last night a
9letter that distressed me & I am more stupid & unpleasant than is
10usual even with me. I have been very pertinacious about your coming
11(I’ve never in my life humbled myself so before a man before!) but
12when you were reading your paper in the club there was such a look
13^about your hands!^ of frailty, & high nervous tension & I thought of
14suffering, that a kind of horror came over me that you would die like
15Willie Bertram & I would have lifelong regret, that I had not seen you
16again. You remember ^what you told me that night at Blandford Sq
17
18Olive S.^
19
20 ^K.P. ("Idiots these women are"). but I’m not a woman, I’m a man, &
21you are to regard me as such.
22
23 Ach! You are as well as anything, I will be dust & years in my grave
24when you are still living & working. I don’t care.^
25
26
27
28
Notation
The paper Pearson had read is most likely his 'A Sketch of the History of Sexual Relations in Germany', given at the Men and Women's Club in June 1886.
The paper Pearson had read is most likely his 'A Sketch of the History of Sexual Relations in Germany', given at the Men and Women's Club in June 1886.