BR TO CONSTANCE MALLESON, 28 OCT. 1928
BRACERS 19765. ALS. McMaster
Edited by S. Turcon. Reviewed by K. Blackwell

<letterhead>
Telegraph House
Harting, Petersfield.1
October 2, 1928.

My dear Colette

Your letter of Sp. 62 came yesterday. I did write to you3 just before you went to S. Africa,4 and since then I have had your circular letters5 but nothing else. It was painful about your play;6 but many very eminent people have failed in that line — e.g. Henry James.7 You don’t tell me what your problems are;8 if you tell me, I will write all I think about them. I have been reckoning that you would be home about Xmas, and that then I should see you again. My recollection of the day you were here9 is as vivid and exciting as it was at the time. Is there any reason why we should not see each other often10 when you get home?

All goes well with the children and the school.11 I enclose a photo of Kate jumping off a rock into the sea12 in Cornwall, which I thought rather lovely. John13 is as dear as ever. My dear love, my Dear.

B.

• 1

  [document] Document 200771.

• 2

  Your letter of Sp. 6 BRACERS 113234.

• 3

  did write to you BR’s letter of 18 April 1928, BRACERS 19764.

• 4

  before you went to S. Africa Colette had sailed for South Africa on Friday, 20 April 1928 on a theatre tour organized by Sybil Thorndike and Lewis Casson. An entire chapter of After Ten Years (London: J. Cape, 1931) is devoted to the tour. She did not return to England until 17 February 1929.

• 5

  your circular letters One of these letters is extant in Colette’s papers (22 Aug. 1928, BRACERS 98478); there are others in the Carrie Webster papers (Rec. Acq. 1620, BRACERS 122745).

• 6

  painful about your play  The Way had been staged by the Arts Theatre in London and received a poor review in The Times on 26 March 1928. Colette had written: “You could hardly imagine how difficult it was for me not to go under, after the failure of my play” (6 Sept. 1928, BRACERS 113234).

• 7

  Henry James (1843–1916), an eminent novelist who had only minor successes as a playwright.

• 8

  what your problems are Colette had written: “Africa is full of problems impersonal and personal” (6 Sept. 1928, BRACERS 113234). Part of her problems were financial, but that information was in a circular letter of 22 August 1928 (BRACERS 98478) which presumably BR had seen. Her reply to this letter, written on 22 October (BRACERS 113235) made no mention of problems but hinted that she might remarry.

• 9

  the day you were here 4 March 1928.

• 10

  we should not see each other often Colette indicated that if she did remarry she would be living in either Ireland or Africa, which would prevent any meetings between them (22 Oct., BRACERS 113235).

• 11

  the school Beacon Hill School, which was founded in September 1927.

• 12

  photo of Kate jumping off a rock into the sea The full photograph shows his daughter Kate as well as others on the shore including BR; there is also a cropped version that shows only Kate. Presumably it was the latter one that BR sent to Colette. Although the photograph is not extant in Colette’s papers, both photographs are in BR’s own collection (Box 6, file 7). One of the photos is in Ronald Clark, Bertrand Russell and His World (London: Thames and Hudson, 1981), p. 75.

• 13

  John His son, John Conrad Russell, born 16 November 1921.