Olive Schreiner
South African author and pacifist (1855-1920)
Person · Open Library
- Born
- 1855
- Died
- 1920
- Works
- 138
Top works
- Peter Halket van Mashonaland
- A few minutes in the confessional
- The silver plume
- The African Boer
- Three Dreams in a desert
via Open Library + Wikidata
Listeners · Last.fm
- Listeners
- 4
- Total plays
- 12
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Article
Olive Schreiner (24 March 1855 – 11 December 1920) was a South African author, anti-war campaigner and intellectual. She is best remembered today for her novel The Story of an African Farm (1883), which has been highly acclaimed. It deals boldly with such contemporary issues as agnosticism, existential independence, individualism, the professional aspirations of women, and the elemental nature of life on the colonial frontier.
Since the late 20th century, scholars have also credited Schreiner as an advocate for the Afrikaners, and other South African groups who were excluded from political power for decades, such as indigenous blacks, Jews, and Indians. Although she showed interest in socialism, pacifism, vegetarianism, and feminism amongst other topics, her views escaped restrictive categorisations. Her published works and other surviving writings promote implicit values such as moderation, friendship, and understanding amongst all peoples, and avoid the pitfalls of political radicalism, which she consciously eschewed. Called a lifelong freethinker, she also continued to adhere to the spirit of the Christian Bible and developed a secular version of the worldview of her missionary parents, with mystical elements.
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1855 births1920 deaths19th-century pseudonymous writers20th-century pseudonymous writers20th-century South African novelists20th-century South African women writers20th-century South African writersCape Colony novelistsCape Colony women writersCape Colony writersCommons link from WikidataFreethought writers