Olive Schreiner
English-South African Writer
1862 – 1920 A.D.

Olive Schreiner, an English-South African writer, born in Basutoland, daughter of W.P. Schreiner, a missionary. When about twenty years old she visited England, taking with her the manuscript of her Story of an African Farm, and in 1883 it was published, the author using the pseudonym of Ralph Iron. The book won instant success by its dramatic power, its revelation of naked truths that wrest the soul, and its masterly description of the African veld. About ten years later she brought out Dreams in which the awakening woman, and the yearning for truth are vividly portrayed. In Trooper Peter Halket (1897) she expressed sympathy for the Boers and arraigned the policy and methods of the Chartered Company in South Africa.

In her latest book, Woman and Labor (1911), she again voiced her strong feminist convictions.

Olive Schreiner’s vision pierces the central mysteries of life and death, and while at times her creed seems hopeless, she suggests light ahead, and by the awakened activity of woman, life shall become more worthwhile.

In 1894 Miss Schreiner was married to G.C. Cronwright, an Anglo-African resident of her native colony.

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Reference: Famous Women; An Outline of Feminine Achievement Through the Ages With Life Stories of Five Hundred Noted Women By Joseph Adelman. Copyright, 1926 by Ellis M. Lonow Company.