BR TO CONSTANCE MALLESON, 1 JAN. 1943
BRACERS 19818. ALS. McMaster
Edited by S. Turcon. Reviewed by K. Blackwell

From Bertrand Russell.
Little Datchet Farm,
Malvern, R. D. 1 Pa., U.S.A.1
Jan. 1, 1943

Dearest Colette

Two letters from you have reached me in the last few days, one written 15 Sp, the other 22 Nov.2 I don’t know why the first took so long. It is a very great pity that the long letter you mention3 never reached me — Peter4 and I are both sorry the photograph5 didn’t arrive; we will see if we can send another in a safer way. Don’t bother about the small sum I sent you. I have quite forgotten how much it was, and it would do me no good to have it repaid in sterling. My brother’s 2nd wife Mollie,6 to whom I paid £400 a year, is dead at last, so I have money in England, but I can’t get it out.

As for our news: John7 is just finishing at Harvard — he gets his degree next month; then he goes to England, to the navy if possible, otherwise the army. He has written a most admirable thesis on the causes of the failure of democracy whenever it has failed — Greece, medieval Italy, modern France, etc. It shows really remarkable capacity. His opinions on almost all subjects are the same as mine, but independently arrived at — just as mine were the same as my father’s, though I did not know what his had been until much later. Kate8 is at Radcliffe (related to Harvard as Newnham to Cambridge). She always does as well as possible. She wants after the war to work in Germany with Quakers or such; German is what she specializes in at College. Conrad9 flourishes and is very intelligent. His governess, who had been with us five years, returned to England for patriotic reasons. Service is unobtainable, so Peter has to be nurse and cook and housemaid and everything.

Barnes, my employer, with whom I had a five-year contract, has suddenly illegally terminated it. I shall ultimately get damages,10 but in the meantime I have hardly any money. I think however that my publisher11 will help me out. We may leave this pleasant country farm and go to live in New York. When the war is over we shall go back to England. It now looks as if perhaps the war would end some day.

Everything you tell me about your life and circumstances interests me very much, but it seems useless to answer it, as the time is so long that things change before my answers arrive. I wish I had got your long “important” letter. Do try to re-write it. I hope we shall meet again when the war is over. This is a dull letter — I am harried by personal worries. It is a different world in which to have the care of children. Very much love. Ever your devoted

B.

• 1

  [document] Document 200824.

• 2

  one written 15 Sp, the other 22 Nov. Letters of 15 September 1941 (BRACERS 98442) and 22 November 1942 (BRACERS 98444).

• 3

  the long letter you mention Colette describes this letter as follows: “I ... have given up hope that my long important letter (June, July or August) ever reached you — nor the envelope, posted same time, with 2 last chapters of my book for your approval or vetting” (22 Nov.; BRACERS 98444). What survives in the RA is a letter of 7 July 1942 (BRACERS 98441) appended to the typescript of “Letters to Bertrand Russell from Constance Malleson, 1916–1969” that she wanted to include in her book. In that letter of 7 July, Colette writes: “I just airmailed a longish letter to you; but later, when going through a mass of papers, I came across ... the last chapter of my book ... will you look through these pages and alter or correct in any way you think fit” (BRACERS 98441).

• 4

  Peter Patricia (“Peter”) Russell, née Spence (1910–2004). She and BR were married from 1936 until 1952.

• 5

  the photograph A large recent photograph of BR which was sent with his 8 July 1942 letter (BRACERS 19817).

• 6

  brother’s 2nd wife Mollie Marion (“Molly”) Somerville, the daughter of George Cooke. She died on 14 August 1942. Mollie and Frank had divorced in 1916. BR assumed this debt in 1931 when Frank died although he acquired Telegraph House.

• 7

  John John Conrad Russell, born 16 November 1921 to BR and his wife Dora.

• 8

  Kate Katharine Jane Russell, born 29 December 1923 to BR and his wife Dora. Her surname changed to Tait upon her marriage.

• 9

  Conrad Conrad Sebastian Robert Russell, born 15 April 1937 to BR and his wife Patricia.

• 10

  Barnes ... ultimately get damages BR sued Barnes on 18 January 1943 for the earnings owing under his employment contract. The trial was held on 12 August 1943; the judge’s ruling in BR’s favour was issued on 16 November 1943. A transcript of the trial proceedings is in RA Rec. Acq. 1138.

• 11

  my publisher This is reference to BR’s long-time American publisher, Warder Norton. However, he left W.W. Norton in the spring of 1943 when Simon & Schuster offered a much larger advance for A History of Western Philosophy (B&R A79) than did Norton, and BR accepted it because of his dire financial difficulties.