BR TO CONSTANCE MALLESON, 25 FEB. 1920
BRACERS 19625. ALS. McMaster
Edited by S. Turcon. Reviewed by K. Blackwell

<letterhead>
70, Overstrand Mansions,
Prince of Wales Road,
Battersea, S.W.1^, 2
Wed. 25. 2. 20.3

My Darling

I was sorry to get an unhappy letter from you today, and to hear that your disease is so bad.4 O my Heart, I do love you and want you to be happy — the more you suffer the more I love you. I wish I could do more to make you happy, but I am powerless — I am looking forward eagerly to your typescript5 —

If I go to Russia,6 I shall write from there the letters we spoke of,7 and you can answer them. I have made things up with Miss Black8 and she will go with me unless the Govt. prevents it, but she will not relieve the loneliness of spirit that I shall feel there — no one does that except you — and the letters will be a comfort — In every other way, it will of course be extraordinarily interesting and I am sure it is the right thing for me to do this summer if it can be managed — Spain is off,9 as the man who wanted me10 has got the sack for his liberal opinions.  So there is not the same hurry.

My dear Love, you know my tender thoughts are always with you, and I would do anything to bring you comfort.  All my heart goes out to you Beloved —

B

• 1

  [document] Document 200618.

• 2

  [envelope] Miss Colette O’Niel | c/o F. Forbes-Robertson Esq | “Mice and Men” Co. | Ulverston. Pmk: BATTERSEA SW11 | 11.45 PM | 29 FEB 20

• 3

  [date] Colette did not receive this letter until 1 March; she assumed BR had forgotten to post it, which he had (“Letters to Bertrand Russell from Constance Malleson, 1916–1969”, p. 360).

• 4

  your disease is so bad In a letter written on 24 February from Blackburn, she notes that her “old trouble” has flared up, causing her to doctor herself. All right when working, she wrote that she found herself quite irritable when she wasn’t (BRACERS 113198).

• 5

  your typescript Presumably of “Letters Posted and Unposted”, the letters she was writing for the English Review. For information, see BRACERS 19580, n.3.

• 6

  go to Russia BR went to Russia in May, returning near the end of June.

• 7

  I shall write from there the letters we spoke of BR did write four letters for their joint letter-project, but he wrote them upon his return from Russia, although three were dated as if he were there and one was dated before he had left. For more information, see BRACERS 19585, n.6.

• 8

  Miss Black Dora Black (1894–1986). She and BR were married from 1921 until 1935. For further information on her, see BRACERS 19056, n.5.

• 9

  Spain is off In fact, Spain turned out not to be off and BR went to Barcelona to lecture and then on to Majorca to vacation with Dora Black from 24 March to 19 April 1920. See Jaime Nubiola, “Russell, Crexells, and d’Ors: Barcelona, 1920”, Russell, 14 (1994): 155–61.

• 10

  the man who wanted me Eugenio d’Ors, of the Institut d'Estudis Catalans.