Lives & Letters News Flash: December 2017
Dear Colleagues,
Happy Holidays from all of us at Whites Writing Whiteness! We have several pieces of news to share…
Olive Schreiner Manuscripts
We are pleased to announce that a number of ‘genetic’ transcriptions of Olive Schreiner manuscripts, some of them of previously unpublished work, are in process of being published on the Olive Schreiner Letters Online website. These show in detail the unfolding of the writing process that she engaged in, for her deletions, editions and amendments are highly legible. Currently four manuscripts are available and the list will be added to at regular intervals. A downloadable PDF for each manuscript is provided, together with a detailed commentary on its background, composition and other relevant matters. For more information, please go to https://www.oliveschreiner.org/ and click on the Manuscripts tab.
New Traces
Traces: texts in action
Clearly there are many ways in which documentary, textual and other traces of the past can be analysed. The approach taken to this in WWW research draws on the work of feminist sociologist Dorothy Smith, who has theorised and analysed institutional texts of a range of kinds as part of the ruling relations that help organise how social life unfolds. To read more about this, please visit the Traces: http://www.whiteswritingwhiteness.ed.ac.uk/traces/texts-in-action/
From John Montagu, Colonial Secretary, 14 February 1844
This trace concerns around a copy of a business letter from Montagu involving routine and rather dull matters. To read more about this, please visit the Traces: http://www.whiteswritingwhiteness.ed.ac.uk/traces/from-john-montagu/
Two messengers (kaffirs)… waylaid and killed, 13 March 1852
In 1852 it is wartime on the Eastern Cape frontier, the middle of the Eighth Frontier or Xhosa War. The trace concerns a business letter from Robert White and also a message he added before sending it. To read more about this, please visit the Traces: http://www.whiteswritingwhiteness.ed.ac.uk/traces/two-messengers-waylaid-and-killed/
The 1820 Settlers arrive, 15 & 16 May 1820
An 1820 Settler party from Somerset in England to the Eastern Cape was led by George Southey. The two letters for discussion here are ‘a set’ on their own, as the second letter comments on the first. Their addressee is John Southey in Wellington. The first is a letter from his grandson William, and the other immediately following is a connected letter from John’s son George, William’s father. To read more about this, please visit the Traces: http://www.whiteswritingwhiteness.ed.ac.uk/traces/the-1820-settlers-arrive/
New Curiosities
Whose collection is it?
A curious question has arisen around WWW work on the Henry Francis Fynn letters – whose collection is a collection? A quick example here is that the May Hobbs collection in the South African National Archives in fact consists solely and entirely of letters written by Jan Smuts to her; there is not a shred of writing by her in the collection, nor in the main Smuts collection either. To read more about this, please visit the Curiosities: http://www.whiteswritingwhiteness.ed.ac.uk/curiosities/whose-collection-is-it/
Fresh from the Blog
St Jerome sits writing
St Jerome sits writing in this well-known painting by Caravaggio. It’s in St John’s Co-Cathedral in Malta, which is ornate and magnificently baroque. It represents a moment of calm almost austere concentration amidst the florid gold around it in the rest of the Cathedral. The blog examines details of the painting and provides context for these. To read more about this, please visit the blog: http://www.whiteswritingwhiteness.ed.ac.uk/blog/st-jerome-sits-writing/
When the seer is a reader
The Monastery of St Augustine in Valletta, Malta has an inner Gallery. The Gallery includes portraits of many of the senior figures associated with the Monastery since its late sixteenth century inception, just under 30 of them. Some of these men are holding books, more of them are holding a letter, the contents of which are clearly visible by walking before each of them, down one side and up the other. But originally, they were spread around the different parts of the Monastery. Why are there letters in the portraits? To read more about this, please visit the blog: http://www.whiteswritingwhiteness.ed.ac.uk/blog/when-the-seer-is-a-reader/
The manly art of letter-writing
This blog concerns letter-writing advice found on the ‘Art of Manliness’ website. Discussion gives an overview of the advice proffered and also considers some interesting points the advice implicitly raises. To read more about this, please visit the blog: http://www.whiteswritingwhiteness.ed.ac.uk/blog/the-manly-art-of-letter-writing/
Last updated: 21 December 2017
