BRACERS Record Detail for 130725
To access the original letter, email the Ready Division.
On the scope of Wisdom of the West. See Foulkes' response on 26 July 1957 (record 85611) to the letter BR actually sent (it must have been similar or BR would not have preserved the fragment in his publishing files).
A fragment of a letter. It is in BR's hand with a deletion line on both sides of the sheet, which is numbered 2.
BR TO JAMES FISHER / RATHBONE BOOKS, 23–25 JULY 1957
BRACERS 130725. ALS. McMaster
Proofread by K. Blackwell
In my History, I tried to preserve the same standard of importance in modern as in earlier times, and to include only men who had some new idea, good or bad. For this reason, I included Darwin but not Herbert Spencer. One tends to have a lower standard for what is recent.
If you feel strongly about the people I have ignored and whom you wish to include, some adjustment will be necessary. I will not do the work myself, but there might be a suggestion of its being done by you or any one approved by the editors, provided due acknowledgment was made and due financial compensation provided for the parts not derived from my book. I see, however, grave objections to such a course; the whole thing could no longer be announced with only my name in the title. It is quite a new suggestion that people not in my “History” should be included. I was promised that very little work would be required of me, and signed the contract on this understanding. I shall be glad to hear your views.
Yours sincerely
Bertrand Russell.
