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Letter ReferenceOlive Schreiner BC16/Box2/Fold2/July-Dec1899/40
ArchiveUniversity of Cape Town, Manuscripts & Archives, Cape Town
Epistolary TypeLetter
Letter Date4 November 1899
Address FromKarree Kloof, Kran Kuil, Northern Cape
Address To
Who ToBetty Molteno
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. Schreiner was resident on the farm Karree Kloof from the end of August to early November 1899. The name of the addressee is indicated by salutation and content.
1 Nov 4 / 99
2
3 Dear Friend
4
5 I cannot help feeling sure that the independence of the Transvaal will
6yet be preserved
.
7
8 I have so much so much to tell you that I can’t tell you anything.
9Oh would I could see you & Miss Greene. I am writing all the time &
10have managed to send home two cables.
11
12 Dear Mrs Murray looks so beautiful but sad & tired. I shall stay here
13with my brother till New Year when they go to Kalk Bay, & my dear
14little sister in law has offered me their house here for January &
15February. So if you are there then you can always come & we can have
16long quiet talks under the fir trees. This is such a lovely quiet
17place. They have laughed so much in the English papers at my saying
18that 180,000 men will be required her to end this war, but before it
19is over with all the complications arising.
20
21 I am sending you copies of some of the cables I have sent please
22carefully return.
23
24 Have you read the Review of Reviews? Steads column there is splendid.
25
26//I have been seeing a good deal of military men here. They have hated
27this war from the beginning & are now very bitter at the way in which
28they have been misled & called into a shameful war unreadable in which
29there can be no glory.
30
31 I have just had a letter from an American publisher, he says he has
32published my appeal for peace ^as a book^ & that 10,000 copies sold at
331/- in a few days.
34
35 Good bye dear dear friends. Lies cannot triumph for ever. I hope I
36shall soon have finished my book soon & then I shall be able to return
37you the money even if the little house in Kimberley is destroyed, as I
38suppose it will.
39
40 Good bye.
41 Olive
42
Notation
The 'appeal for peace as a book' is An English South African's View of the Situation, originally published in the South African News over three successive days; see 'Words in Season. An English South African's View of the Situation' South African News 1 June 1899 (p.8), 2 June 1899 (p.8) and 3 June 1899 (also p.8). It was also reprinted in a number of other newspapers. It then was published as a pamphlet, then as a book. A second edition of the book was ready but withdrawn from publication by Schreiner when the South African War started in October 1899, so as not to profit from this.