The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1896-01-25
LITERARY SUCCESS HAS NOT
CHANGED OLIVE ScHREINER.
interesting Facts in the Life of tine
Young Author of THE Story Of an
African Farm"-How She Spent Her
EARLY Life In Cape Town.
ISIS Olive Schreiner
holds a unique po-:
sition in the world
of English letters.
Most people, says
Home Notes, con-
slider her the one
great writer pro-
duced by our col
onies, although 9TH
ers would probably
n19oo Tacna and

n
ers would probably
place Tasma and
Rolf Boldrewood by her side. The way
in which she is regarded is the more
curious, when we consider that her
tame has been entirely won by one
book, THE Story of an African Farm
written when the authoress was only
II, and a tale so strangely simple in it's
language that the youth of the writer
seems to shine out from every sentence.
Olive Schreiner, as most people would
guess from her name, is of German ex-
traction; but her mother was Miss Lin
dali, the daughter of an English clergy
man. The future novelist spent her
childhood in Cape Town, and in the
wild Karoo-those sandy plains sur
rounded by mountains-where she laid
the scene of her book.
Although she was one of several chill
dren, including much loved elder
sister, and brother. now a dis
tinguished South African barrister.
Miss Schreiner seems to have lived a
singularly absorbed life, communing
with herself and nature, and noting all
that went on in the Dutch farmhouses
round her home with a child's pitiless,
though often correct Judgment The
story of her adventure, as yet unpub-
1ished writer, is veritable romance.
She came to England with the man
uscript of "TheAfrican Farm" in her
trunk, with no literary friends to help
her with advice. Some happy inspira-.
tion led her to send her novel to Messrs.
Chapman & Hall, the publishers In
due course the MS. found it's way into
the hands of one of their then readers,
George Meredith, and he, himself in
many peoples estimation the greatest
! English novelist Of modern times, un-
hesitatingly declared his,high apprecia-
tion of the work. Nay, more, he sent
for Ralph Iron,' as the young lady
then styled herself, and discussed the
story with her, giving her the benefit Of
his long experience and knowledge. The
book, although only consisting OF one
short volume, created an immediate i'm
"a CoO1Ou> duO LII d Lew WtthS MISS O11NC
Schreiner became famous. But success
did not spoil her. She refused to be
lionized, and was only to be seen among
her small circle of friends, where her
solid, thoughtful mind was much appre-
ciated, for, unlike many authors, she
can speak as we'll asNshe can write, and
she is even more admirable as a woman
than as writer. Then followed some
years Of comparative inaction. Miss
Schreiner wrote constantly, but pub
lished nothing and her known and
countless unknown friends and admir-
ers had the disappointment of seeing
her go back to the Cape without having
published second book.
Quietly and unostentatiously she then
set up her household gods at Matjesfon-
tein, small village situated nearly
200 miles from Cape, Town. Her life
was simple in the extreme, and entirely
spent in reading, writing, and riding,
for as is always the case with a woman
brought up in the colonies, she is
splendid horseWoman, and is never so
happy as when in the saddle. A slight
description of her home as seen in those
now distant days, before she became
Mrs. Schreiner Cronwright, gives, as
nothing else can do, a glimpse of her
character and manifold interests. Fine
photographs and mezzotints of Dore's
paintings and of Watts "Love and
DEATH" hang in her sitting-room- study,
an apartment utterly devoid of all liter
ary apparatus and paraphernalia. She
wrote at large square table, and al
though in some ways recluse, was al
ways pleased to see any globe-trotter
who made his way from Cape Town in
order to pay his respects to the author
ess of can African Farm" vs.
Dreams" Miss Schreiner's second
book, a collection Of short stories and
allegories, was published after her re-
turn to Africa, and although it has not
in any way added to her great reputa-
ton, it cannot be said to have detracted
from it. #
Shortly after the publication of this,
her second book, her friends were sur
prised to hear Of her marriage to a
young South African gentleman farmer
whom she had known for some time,
and who had taken great interest in
all her literary work. Mrs. Schreiner
Cronwright, as she is now called lives
in charming Dutch homestead, an
idealized African farm. She writes by
fits and starts, and at times, in the in
tervals of work, she goes for a short.
brisk walk in the broad, silent Karoo,
coming back with her thoughts fresbS
and cnllected - EE.3