BR TO OTTOLINE MORRELL, 18 MAY 1913
BRACERS 17913. ALS. Morrell papers #779, Texas. SLBR 1: #206
Edited by N. Griffin. Proofread by A. Duncan and K. Blackwell

Sunday night. 18 May ’131^, 2

My Darling Love

Sanger is gone, after an early dinner — everyone else is dining, so I am in peace. I have had a busy time — Sanger arrived at four yesterday, and except while I was lecturing I was occupied with him till bed-time. This morning he went across to Moore and I got on with my writing — in spite of him I am still 10 pages ahead of my average. Then I had Moore and McT and Wittgenstein to meet him at lunch — Sanger likes Wittgenstein very much. I had some philosophical talk with Moore, which I very seldom have now-a-days — he is very good, and really helpful, in discussion. Then Tagore3 and a Hindoo protégé arrived unexpectedly to tea — I liked Tagore much better than I had once — the saintliness was less aggressive. He was quite witty and amusing about America, where he has just been. In the middle, Miss Stawell arrived, and I had two hours terrific discussion with her4 — we were both utterly exhausted at the end, but she is coming back at 9 tomorrow morning to continue it. She hasn’t much aptitude for philosophy, but she thinks so hard that it partly makes up. I found that I like her very much indeed. When Miss Reynolds5 is not there, it is quite a different thing. I am exhausted with so much talking, all the more as the wish to be writing keeps worrying me the whole time. Happily Mildred is off to France on affairs of the school, so I don’t have to move tomorrow. But next day I lunch with the Whiteheads — What I am writing will all have to be re-written, I think; I am going ahead full steam, to get the skeleton done — then I can fill in at my leisure. I have more to say than I thought, and ideas that come later make earlier parts want alteration. I am surprised to find how much I have to say, and how clear the problems become. Probably by the time I really finish it it will be a great big book. But I shall write a popular Logic before I re-write this. I feel so bursting with work that I hardly know how to wait for the days to roll themselves out — I want to write faster than is physically possible. I haven’t had such a fit for ages — it keeps me as happy as a king. It is delicious disentangling a complicated jumble of facts, and laying the separate ingredients side by side.

I am afraid you have been having a very bad headache and feeling very ill. I do hope you are better now. Has Julian enjoyed her birthday?6 And what have you done with her today?

I am so immeasurably happier than I was a year ago. — Now this must be posted. Goodnight my Darling Love. All my love is with you every moment — my thoughts are never away from you for one instant. All my soul is yours my Dearest.

Your
B

• 1

  [document] Document 000779. Proofread against a colour scan of the original.

• 2

  [envelope] A circled “779”. The Lady Ottoline Morrell | Hôtel Riche-Mont | Lausanne | Switzerland. Pmk: CAMBRIDGE | 10.15 PM | 18 MAY 13

• 3

  Tagore Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941), the Bengali poet.

• 4

  Miss Stawell arrived, and I had two hours terrific discussion with her Melian Florence Stawell was a classicist at Newnham. She had come to discuss The Problems of Philosophy with BR.

• 5

  Miss Reynolds Probably one of Stawell’s students.

• 6

  Has Julian enjoyed her birthday? Julian’s birthday was 18 May — the same day as BR’s.