BRACERS Record Detail for 115361
To access the original letter, email the Ready Division.
This letter has not been matched to an original letter, unlike all other letters in this "C" grouping.
This letter was originally numbered "8"; that is crossed out and replaced with "9". It is described as a copy because all other letters in the file are copies.
In the letter BR writes: "I have read 'Black 'Ell" and think it splendid—". There is an exchange between Russell and Colette in early October 1916 where Miles Malleson's plays are mentioned. He forgot to get them from her before he left for Abinger Common for the weekend.
The date has been assigned based on its sequence in the numbering of this "C" group of letters. However, the sequence numbering is sometimes out of date order. Thus the day of the month is tentative.
BR TO CONSTANCE MALLESON, [2 OCT. 1916]
BRACERS 115361. TL(TC). McMaster
Edited by S. Turcon. Reviewed by K. Blackwell
Only1 , 2 one word of love, my dear one — because things have descended upon me and I have not a moment until evening. Yes, I feel every word of your letter. I have read Black ’Ell3 and think it splendid4 — but quite illegal. I love Miles5 — he is wonderfully unselfish and gentle through and through.
My love, my dear one —
B.
- 1
[document] Document 201109. Letter number 8, renumbered 9, in a series of Colette’s typed transcriptions of letters. Unlike the other typed letters in the sequence, the original cannot be found.
- 2
[date] Based on its placement in the sequence of letters the date of 2 Oct. could be assigned.
- 3
Black ’Ell A play by Miles Malleson published with another play as ‘D’ Company and ‘Black Ell’ (London: Hendersons, 1916). The book seems to have been published in mid-October 1916. Hendersons’ bookstop was raided on 26 October and all copies confiscated. Miles was identified as the husband of Lady Constance Malleson (“A Forbidden Play”, Weekly Dispatch, London, 29 Oct. 1916, p. 3). Suppression of the book was raised in Parliament, to no avail. In a deleted passage in his “Open Letter to President Wilson” (December 1916), Russell wrote that “It has even been declared illegal to suggest a hope that some days wars will cease” (2 in Papers 14: 567). This is an allusion to the suppression of Black’Ell, for it contains this suggestion.
- 4
splendid Typed in red by Colette.
- 5
Miles Colette’s husband. For further information on him, see BRACERS 19046, n.4.
