"Emily Hobhouse, Women's International League for Peace & Freedom" Read the full letter
Letter Reference | Olive Schreiner BC16/Box3/Fold2/1903/3 |
Archive | University of Cape Town, Manuscripts & Archives, Cape Town |
Epistolary Type | Letter |
Letter Date | 19 March 1903 |
Address From | Hanover, Northern Cape |
Address To | |
Who To | Betty Molteno |
Other Versions | |
Permissions | Please 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 name of the addressee is indicated by salutation and content.
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1
Hanover
2 March 19 / 03
3
4 Dear Friend
5
6 Don’t send any fruit please. It’s got so bitter cold here, heavy
7frosts at night that one doesn’t need fruit as one did in the hot
8weather, & it is nearly certain to be spoiled before it gets here. I
9am sending you my Soul of a People. Perhaps you & Miss Greene will
10wonder at at at my liking it so. It’s slept under my pillow or close
11at my side every night since I got it. No one can quite explain why
12certain books like certain person’s touch us so deeply. I have a
13sweet little friend, Mrs Fred Reilly, in England, & she always says I
14have made all life different & more beautiful to her, & I never can
15understand what I have ever said or done to help her. I suppose I must
16just have come to her at some moment in her life when she needed me
17which was so little, nothing that I know of. It’s the greatness of
18the need which makes the help. I wish you & Miss Greene had seen her
19when you were in England you would have loved her so. I would like to
20meet your sister Minnie. If only my health would let me come to Cape
21Town ^to live^ how lovely it would be.
22
23 I have just had notice from the woman to whom this house belongs to be
24out of this house by the 1st of May. There is no other place in
25Hanover where I can get even a room, ^so I shall have to leave Hanover^
26But where shall I go? I have been fighting against a feeling of
27depression all day. It means there is no place in Africa for me to go
28to: I suppose I shall
29
30^think of some place where I can go to at last. Prince Albert wont do
31for the winter. They say its damp just like Cape Town & Matjesfontein
32in the winter. I am just beginning to get better & doing a little bit
33of writing. ^
34
35 Good bye dear one
36 Olive
37
2 March 19 / 03
3
4 Dear Friend
5
6 Don’t send any fruit please. It’s got so bitter cold here, heavy
7frosts at night that one doesn’t need fruit as one did in the hot
8weather, & it is nearly certain to be spoiled before it gets here. I
9am sending you my Soul of a People. Perhaps you & Miss Greene will
10wonder at at at my liking it so. It’s slept under my pillow or close
11at my side every night since I got it. No one can quite explain why
12certain books like certain person’s touch us so deeply. I have a
13sweet little friend, Mrs Fred Reilly, in England, & she always says I
14have made all life different & more beautiful to her, & I never can
15understand what I have ever said or done to help her. I suppose I must
16just have come to her at some moment in her life when she needed me
17which was so little, nothing that I know of. It’s the greatness of
18the need which makes the help. I wish you & Miss Greene had seen her
19when you were in England you would have loved her so. I would like to
20meet your sister Minnie. If only my health would let me come to Cape
21Town ^to live^ how lovely it would be.
22
23 I have just had notice from the woman to whom this house belongs to be
24out of this house by the 1st of May. There is no other place in
25Hanover where I can get even a room, ^so I shall have to leave Hanover^
26But where shall I go? I have been fighting against a feeling of
27depression all day. It means there is no place in Africa for me to go
28to: I suppose I shall
29
30^think of some place where I can go to at last. Prince Albert wont do
31for the winter. They say its damp just like Cape Town & Matjesfontein
32in the winter. I am just beginning to get better & doing a little bit
33of writing. ^
34
35 Good bye dear one
36 Olive
37
Notation
The book referred to is: Harold Fielding Hall (1898) The Soul of a People London: R. Bentley & Son.
The book referred to is: Harold Fielding Hall (1898) The Soul of a People London: R. Bentley & Son.