BRACERS Record Detail for 115507
To access the original letter, email the Russell Archives.
"I was very glad to get your letter of March".
Extracts from the letter is on pp. 285-6 of a ts. carbon titled "Letters from Bertrand Russell", sent to Russell by Colette with a covering letter on p. 289 (same document number, record 98441). The ribbon copy was sent to her then publisher, Jonathan Cape.
The original of this letter is not extant. Part of this letter was published in In the North, pp. 140-1, beginning "I hope this letter will reach you." By that time Colette had reworked the text of her book, and thus this letter does not appear in the grouping with two other letters as it does here.
BR TO CONSTANCE MALLESON, 25 JULY 1940
BRACERS 115507. TS(TC,CAR). In the North (B&R H34), p. 140
Edited by S. Turcon. Reviewed by K. Blackwell
<Fallen Leaf Lake, CA>1
July 25, 1940 2
I was very glad to get your letter of March3 and to know what was happening to you. I hope this letter will reach you, though it is doubtful whether it will. We feel instinctively ashamed of being out of everything at this time, but it is obviously better, with three children.4 It is difficult to think of anything but the war, and doing nothing is maddening. For my part, I have just finished the book5 I wrote to you about before, and have incidentally settled, to my satisfaction, my ancient puzzle about egocentric particulars.6 The book will be out in America at Xmas. I wish I could send it to you, and see your book7 about Finland. But in these days both are difficult. We are having a holiday in heavenly country8 — lakes, mountains, and forests of glorious giant pines. We should be very happy but for the war — I think a great deal about you and how you helped me to live through the last war. But this one is much worse. Goodbye with much love.
B.
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[document] Document 052526. It is a typed carbon titled “Letters from Bertrand Russell” and paginated 285–89. The original letter is not extant. In her letter of 7 July 1942 on the last page of which, p. 289, she wrote that she “came across the airmail copy of the last chapter of my book (the top copy of these pages were the ones I sent to Jonathan Cape instructing him to airmail you for your approval.)” The book was In the North published in 1946 by Gollancz. (The published version omits text.)
- 2
[date] The date is given in the typescript, although not in the transcription itself.
- 3
your letter of March Colette’s letter of 29 March (BRACERS 98426).
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three children John, Kate and Conrad.
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finished the book An Inquiry into Meaning and Truth (1940; B&R A73).
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ancient puzzle about egocentric particulars They appear in An Inquiry into Meaning and Truth, Chapter 7. He had discussed them with Colette in April 1918 and included the topic as emphatic particulars in “The Philosophy of Logical Atomism” (1918; 17 in Papers 8).
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see your book In the North (London: Gollancz). It was not published until 1946.
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holiday in heavenly country Fallen Leaf Lake in California.
