"Johannesburg, lust for gold, moral decay" Read the full letter
Collection Summary | View All |  Arrange By:
< Prev |
Viewing Item
of 1895 | Next >
Letter ReferenceSchreiner-Hemming Family BC 1080 A1.7/55
ArchiveUniversity of Cape Town, Manuscripts & Archives, Cape Town
Epistolary TypeLetter
Letter Date After Start: 1901 ; Before End: 1903
Address FromHanover, Northern Cape
Address To
Who ToHenrietta ('Ettie') Schreiner m. Stakesby Lewis (1891)
Other Versions
PermissionsPlease read before using or citing this transcription
Legend
The Project is grateful to Manuscripts and Archives, University of Cape Town, for kindly allowing us to transcribe this Olive Schreiner letter, which is part of its Manuscripts and Archives Collections. The year has been written on this letter in an unknown hand, perhaps by Ettie Stakesby Lewis. Schreiner was resident in Hanover from September 1900 to October 1907, after 1902 with visits, sometimes fairly lengthy, elsewhere. The Balfour plan was first mooted in 1901 but occurred after the death of Rebecca Schreiner in September 1903. Content suggests she had not died when this letter was written.
1 My own darling
2
3 I have just got your letter. Is the name of the people Smyth? Oh my
4darling I know what that tiredness is. There are long what it is when
5we desire only death. Oh that beautiful rest, dear one. It is so
6beautiful that death which in the time of ones strength & youth one
7instinctively drew back from because it was so cold, should come at
8last as the mighty comforter.
9
10 When all courage fails me & my knees give I think of that quiet
11mountain top at Krantz Plaats where I shall rest at last with my
12little baby beside me.
13
14 I long so to see you. I wonder whether it would not be possible for
15you to come & rest here for a few weeks.
16
17 Oh darling I am so lonely, so lonely, Ettie; it would be such joy to
18me to see you. There are only two things in earth I have still any
19wish for to see unreadable again & Father’s grave at Balfour.
20
21 ^Good bye my darling.
22 Your little Emmie
23
24 Give my love to dear old Theo. No one can understand that I can’t
25write letters any more. I can just struggle through my daily toil.^
26
27
28