BR TO CONSTANCE MALLESON, 21 JULY 1944
BRACERS 19821. AL. McMaster
Edited by S. Turcon
Proofread by K. Blackwell

[As from] Trinity College
Cambridge.
July 21, 1944

My Dearest Colette

Your letter of June 41 reached me soon after I got home, which was in June. I hope it will be much less difficult to write and hear from you now that I am in England. And I really think the war will end this year. I can’t well write about political things — Carr2 is now odious but in youth was pleasant in a satirical vein. <remainder of page excised>3

It is very nice being back at Cambridge4 and everybody is very nice to me. Wittgenstein5 has vanished, I don’t remember where to. Last time he was patriotic; this time not, because partly Jew. Littlewood6 is much as ever, and Mrs Streatfeild7 persists. I met a Mrs Hill at Princeton who said she was an Annesley,8 but if so she was no credit to the family. — John9 has been set by the navy to learn Japanese, which he thoroughly enjoys. Probably he won’t have any actual fighting. Kate10 is not yet home, but will be very soon. Conrad11 flourishes, except for occasional illnesses. We are at the moment by the sea, at Sidmouth, S. Devon, which he enjoys. John has developed most satisfactorily; he is all one could wish. And Kate always does amazingly well in her work. <remainder of page excised>12

Notes

• 1

  Your letter of June 4 This letter is not extant. In the editorial comments, “Letters to Bertrand Russell from Constance Malleson, 1916–1969” it is noted that “she wrote Russell of her misery, rather expecting a quick and sympathetic reply. But he did not write until July 21 — a holiday letter from Sidmouth, Devon: not the sort she expected at all” (p. 82).

• 2

  Carr Edward Hallett Carr (1892–1982), historian. From 1941 to 1946 Carr served as an assistant editor with the Times, with a definite pro-Soviet slant in his editorials. In his letter of 4 April 1943, Russell had mentioned that he had “got pleasure from [his] books” naming three of them (document 200825, record 19819).

• 3

  vein. <remainder of page excised> The letter has been cut in half. Only the top-half of the paper which is written on both sides remains.

• 4

  back at Cambridge Russell was in Cambridge briefly, staying in rooms at Trinity College. He spent much of the summer in Sidmouth, Devon with his wife Peter and their son Conrad. In the fall the whole family moved to Cambridge and he began his lectures on “Non-Demonstrative Inference”.

• 5

  Wittgenstein Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951), eminent philosopher and former student of Russell’s.

• 6

  Littlewood John Edensor Littlewood (1885–1977), mathematician. He and Russell shared a farmhouse near Lulworth during the summer of 1919.

• 7

  Mrs Streatfeild Mrs. Streatfeild, the wife of Dr. Raymond Streatfeild, had two children, Philip and Ann, with John Edensor Littlewood.

• 8

  an Annesley And thus a relative of Colette’s who was the daughter of the 5th Earl Annesley.

• 9

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

• 10

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

• 11

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

• 12

  work. <remainder of page excised> The letter has been cut in half. Only the top-half of the paper which is written on both sides remains.