BR TO CONSTANCE MALLESON, 4 MAR. 1919
BRACERS 19443. AL. McMaster
Edited by S. Turcon. Reviewed by K. Blackwell

<Garsington>
Tuesday evening. 4 March 1919.1 ^, 2

My dear One

The more I think over your letter,3 the more I realize how much it has done to give me a better frame of mind. Let us try to keep a close mental intimacy4 — The other is out of my thoughts. I will write you longer letters than I have done, and tell you as much as could possibly interest you of my thoughts and feelings about all manner of things.

Since I have been here, I have written a very long paper for the Aristotelian5 on “Propositions, what they are and how they mean”. There is very good stuff in it, but I am not satisfied with it, and shall probably re-write it. I have also written an article for the Dial6 on “Democracy and Direct Action”. I have read two books on Language, and am looking out for others. The book I wrote in prison7 was published today, and I got 5 copies.

Wittgenstein writes:8 “I don’t know your precise address but hope these lines will reach you somehow. I am prisoner in Italy since November and hope I may communicate with you after three years interruption. I have done lots of logical work which I am dying to let you know before publishing it. Ever yours.”

It will be a great event in my life seeing him again. I wonder whether the war has changed him in any way. Probably not.

Gladys9 wrote me a very worried letter10 about C.A.,11 so I am terribly anxious. If he wishes to see me I will come up. If so, could you find out whether Gordon Sq.12 can put me up? It doesn’t do to come up if one isn’t sure of a bed.

I now have Julian’s13 schoolroom for my own use till her holidays, which is a comfort. I work very hard. O.14 has been ill with a very bad cold, and I have seen little of her. I get on well with Philip15 — we play draughts. In the afternoons I go a solitary walk and listen to the thrushes. Life here is grey apart from work, but I like feeling that that is going well.

Wed. Many thanks, Dearest, for your dear little line16 this morning. I have written to Littlewood17 asking if he would join me by the sea18 somewhere in the summer. If so, you and I might go and look for places when you can spare the time. I should like Lulworth19 — Whenever you are not in work you could come there for week-ends? Lodgings, assuming nothing better is possible.

Dearest, do tell me as much as you can of your doings — your prospects and plans as regards work — what has happened about Hammersmith20 — who you see — anything you can — I don’t want to get out of touch — Everything interests me.

Gertler21 comes today and Middleton Murry22 tomorrow.

I will do everything that you desire — if you would like going away together, you would not find I should trouble you23 any more than Miles24 does. If you would like a country walk, I can manage it from High Wycombe any day except Sunday.

Dear One, I am full of gentle love — at last I am no longer fighting — I want to give you what comradeship is possible in this lonely time — I will write when you have written — Do write as much as you can. Goodbye — Bless you, My Darling.

B

Many thanks for the shaving stick,25 which is delicious.

Notes

• 1

  [document] Document 200433.

• 2

  [envelope] The Lady Constance Malleson | 34 Russell Chambers | Bury Street | London W.C.1. Pmk: stamp torn off.

• 3

  your letter Her undated letter at BRACERS 113178.

• 4

  to keep a close mental intimacy In a letter written a couple of days earlier (BRACERS 113178), Colette writes that she “fallen into a monastic mood”. For further information, see BRACERS 19422, n.3.

• 5

  paper for the Aristotelian BR gave this paper to the Aristotelian Society in joint session with the British Psychology Society and the Mind Association on 11 July 1919. It is 20 in Papers 8; the title begins “On”.

• 6

  article for the Dial 3 May 1919 (B&R C19.13; 6 in Papers 15).

• 7

  The book I wrote in prison Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy (B&R A30). BR gave Colette the manuscript for this book (RA Rec. Acq. 412).

• 8

  Wittgenstein writes: The postcard is dated 9 February 1919 (BRACERS 58623). It is published.

• 9

  Gladys Gladys W. Rinder (1882–1965). For information on her, see BRACERS 19044, n.5.

• 10

  very worried letter In the letter (BRACERS 19445), dated 3 March 1919, Gladys Rinder told BR that Clifford Allen had been taken to the Royal Free Hospital the previous day as he was seriously ill with bad chest pains and a high fever. BR sent it to Colette, although this letter does not indicate that he did. Colette had already informed BR of Allen’s hospitalization in her undated letter (BRACERS 113178).

• 11

  C.A. (Reginald) Clifford Allen (1889–1939). For more information on him, see BRACERS 19046, n.7.

• 12

  Gordon Sq. BR’s brother’s home at 57 Gordon Square.

• 13

  Julian’s Julian, Ottoline and Philip Morrell’s daughter (1906–1989).

• 14

  O. Lady Ottoline Morrell (1873–1938). For more information on her, see BRACERS 19077, n.5.

• 15

  Philip Philip Morrell (1870–1943), a Liberal Member of Parliament.

• 16

  dear little line There are no extant letters from Colette until December 1919.

• 17

  Littlewood John Edensor Littlewood (1885–1977), mathematician. He and BR shared a farmhouse near Lulworth during the summer of 1919. Littlewood had two children, Philip and Ann Streatfeild, with the wife of Dr. Raymond Streatfeild.

• 18

  by the sea In fact, when Colette had reacted negatively to taking over the Eliots’ home in Marlow, she had suggested in her letter of 7 February (BRACERS 115885) that BR consider taking a farmhouse by the sea.

• 19

  Lulworth BR and Colette had spent time together at Lulworth Cove, Dorset, from 16 to 19 October 1918.

• 20

  about Hammersmith In her letter of 28 February 1919, Colette had written that she was looking into getting a role in As You Like It at Hammersmith. This play did not get produced by Nigel Playfair at the Lyric Opera House in Hammersmith as planned because of the success of Abraham Lincoln, by John Drinkwater which was already playing there. Instead it started as a touring play in Brighton (“The Theatres”, Times, 5 May 1919, p. 16).

• 21

  Gertler Mark Gertler (1891–1939), painter.

• 22

  Middleton Murry John Middleton Murry (1889–1957), writer, who married Katherine Mansfield (1888–1923) in May 1918 after her divorce from her first husband. Murry worked in political intelligence in the War Office, 1916–19, and was an editor.

• 23

  not find I should trouble you BR means he would not trouble Colette for sex.

• 24

  Miles Miles Malleson (1888–1969). For more information on him, see BRACERS 19046, n.4. Colette had told BR that she stopped having sex with him in the summer of 1918 BRACERS 113178).

• 25

  shaving stick In his letter of 27 February 1919 (BRACERS 19439), BR asked Colette to send him a shaving-stick.