Yaffa Draznin's interest in the life of South African feminist author, Olive Schreiner, led her to the HRHRC in 1979 to begin work on Schreiner's biography. However, during the course of Draznin's research, the need for a different approach to Schreiner's life emerged, culminating in the 1992 publication of . This compilation of transcribed and annotated holograph letters from the HRHRC archive provides the only volume of its kind published to date.

The collection described here represents Draznin's extensive research materials gathered and used in the preparation of her book. The arrangement corresponds to Draznin's original order and folder descriptions. Her file folders are retained to preserve her descriptions and emendations.

The collection is divided into six series. The first, "Documentary Material," comprises letter annotations; a typescript draft of the text portion of the book; handwriting specimens; editing and progress notes; and a roster of all the OS/HE letters in the HRHRC collection, numbered and listed in chronological order. The subseries "Transcriptions and Support Documentation" contains all the edited typescripts of the holograph letter transcriptions which Draznin calls "typescriptions." Supporting documentation in the form of corresponding letters from other published sources are also attached to these transcriptions.

The second subseries, which Draznin called "semi-documentation," includes related OS/HE correspondence with others, bibliographies, transcription of Ellis's , and information about OS from works by Schreiner's husband, Samuel Cron Cronwright-Schreiner; Ellis's literary executor, François Lafitte; and Schreiner's friend, Karl Pearson.

The second half of the collection contains Draznin's administrative correspondence with booksellers and libraries, surveys of library holdings, OS biographers, biographical sources, copies of Schreiner's works, information on South Africa, OS chronologies, and card file transcriptions of OS/HE letters.

This collection also contains two reels of microfilm containing Havelock Ellis Papers (1875-1890) from the State Library of New South Wales. The papers cover Ellis's Australian period, including his diary, poems, Common Place Books I-VI (1875-1885), and letters to his parents (1867, 1875-l877). The State Library granted permission for these reels to be retained in the HRHRC microfilm collection. Permission has also been given for reference copies of specific pages to be supplied to researchers. Inquiries concerning reproduction of the complete reels should be referred to the State Library of New South Wales.