Special Announcement I – Schreiner Letters

Special Announcement I – Schreiner Letters

Please cross-post as much as you like!

Dear Colleagues,

Two pieces of news to share with readers of the Lives and Letters mailing list, the first concerning a really exceptional matter —– 

1. NEW OLIVE SCHREINER LETTERS FOUND!

Liz Stanley is exceptionally pleased to announce that well over 200 previously unknown Olive Schreiner letters have just become available and will be published as part of the Olive Schreiner Letters Online. This is one of the most exciting developments for Schreiner scholarship in recent times.

The letters are to Schreiner’s favourite niece, Lyndall (known as Dot) Schreiner. Dot clocked up a number of firsts in South Africa, as the first woman with a law degree to be called to the bar; while a student at Newnham she became involved in the women’s suffrage movement in the UK; she was later secretary of the Women’s Enfranchisement League in Cape Town at a crucial point in its history in ‘race’ terms; and later still she wrote about her experiences of VAD nursing in World War I. 

The content of these letters is full and rich, containing much about books, politics, women’s suffrage and many other matters that engaged Schreiner and consequently they stand out as among the most important of her letters that survive. This is incredibly exciting news for all Schreiner scholars. Transcription will commence shortly, and bulletins about progress of publication and also the contents of the letters will be issued at intervals. 

For more information on the collection, and for regular bulletin updates of progress towards publication, please go to http://www.oliveschreiner.org/ and click on the ** New Letters ** tab. 

2. WHITES WRITING WHITENESS – NEW TRACES

The other news item is that two new ‘Traces‘, discussions of letters and other documents accompanied by transcribed extracts and jpegs, have just been published. The ‘Traces’ are perhaps the most popular set of pages on the website, and these two new examples are an 1835 note of agreement regarding the indentures of the apprenticed labourer Anna, and a 1901 use of the ‘n word’ in a comment written onto a letter. We hope you will find them as interesting as we do. Also, please ‘watch this space’, for a new ‘Curiosity’ and another ‘Trace’ will soon also be published.

 

Last updated: 15 February 2016


ESRC_50th-ANNIVERSARY-LOGO-RGB-blue-white-gold

Recent Posts