BR TO PATRICIA RUSSELL, 9 OCT. 1935
BRACERS 20308. ALS. McMaster. Russell 31 (2011): 115–17
Edited by M.D. Stevenson. Reviewed by K. Blackwell

From Copenhagen1
Wednesday, 9 October 1935

My Darling —

No letter came from you yesterday and as yet I have had none this morning. Probably this is due to Sunday.

Yesterday I lunched with Niels Bohr, who has a grand house built by a brewer for himself, and given, on his death, to be the residence of whoever should be the most distinguished of Danish professors.2 The brewery still supports the university, so the dons drink beer as a public duty. Bohr’s brother3 was there, and I verified the story of him and Littlewood4 quarrelling over the accounts at the end of a walking-tour, because neither could do the sums.5 He said it was quite true, but they were drunk at the time. All through lunch, except for this interlude, Niels B. talked about Juan6 in America and his brother about Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.7 Niels B. has a nice wife,8 who must have been good-looking, and 3 nice children.

After lunch, I having said I couldn’t understand his present controversy with Einstein,9 he took me up to a blackboard and lectured for 1½ hours, brilliantly. I at last understood, and became entirely persuaded that he is right. The matter concerns causality, and is grave. Bohr has no theological arrièrepensée, like Eddington:10 it is all straightforward science. The result of his lecture is that what I had prepared on Determinism and Physics won’t do.11 Bohr is completely delightful — a simple-minded enthusiast, with no egoism, setting forth the merits of men much younger than himself.

In the evening I lectured to the students on R v R — a great success.12 I met Mrs Bredsdorff, tall, closely shingled, rather good-looking, an artist, and (I should say) a trifle formidable. The chairman13 was a man who reminded me of Papineau.14 [N.B. Both the Bohr’s have noses that beat creation for vastness15 — they are not Jews.]16 After the lecture they had a supper with speeches; I got home at midnight, and fell asleep very quickly. Now I am expecting a Spaniard who has translated 2 of my books;17 then I go to lunch with a Professor of Psychology18 — then I must sweat up my speech to the Anglo-Danish Society, and then give it. I am very well, but you would certainly find the fatigue killing.

Goodbye my Darling. I shall be glad when a letter comes. I hope all goes well with you. I keep looking at your picture, and extracting what comfort I can from it. All my Love.

Your B

• 1

  [document] The letter was published in Michael D. Stevenson, ed., “‘No Poverty, Much Comfort, Little Wealth’: Bertrand Russell’s 1935 Scandinavian Tour”, Russell 31 (2011): 101–40 (at 115–17).

• 2

  grand house built by a brewer … the most distinguished of Danish professors This house was constructed by Jacob Christian Jacobsen (1811–1887), the founder of the Carlsberg Brewery. Jacobsen’s will had stipulated that, after the death of his son, Carl, the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters would select an eminent Dane to reside in the house; Niels Bohr lived there from 1932 to 1962.

• 3

  Bohr’s brother Harald Bohr (1887–1951), Danish mathematician, was also a gifted athlete, participating on the Danish national football team in the 1908 summer Olympics.

• 4

  LittlewoodJohn Edensor Littlewood was the first Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge from 1928 to 1950.

• 5

  quarrelling over the accounts at the end of a walking-tour, because neither could do the sums A published account of this anecdote concerning the inability of two mathematics geniuses to perform simple arithmetic cannot be located in the Collected Papers of Harald Bohr, J.E. Littlewood, and G.H. Hardy (Littlewood’s primary academic collaborator). Similarly, the autobiographical accounts published by Littlewood and Hardy (A Mathematician’s Miscellany and A Mathematician’s Apology, respectively) and their correspondence with BR located in the Russell Archives do not mention the incident, which probably occurred in 1912 or 1913 while Bohr stayed in Cambridge to work with Littlewood. It is entirely possible that Littlewood or Hardy told BR the anecdote directly; BR knew both men very well, and he had lived with Littlewood during the summer of 1919 at Newlands Farm in Lulworth.

• 6

  Juan Unidentified.

• 7

  Gentlemen Prefer Blondes Anita Loos published this novel in 1925; a film version (now lost) was released in 1928. The book served as the basis of a 1949 Broadway musical and the more famous 1953 Hollywood film starring Marilyn Monroe.

• 8

  Niels B. has a nice wife Bohr had married Margrethe Norlund (1890–1984) in 1912.

• 9

  controversy with Einstein After Heisenberg proclaimed his uncertainty principle in 1927, Bohr and Einstein engaged in a protracted dispute about the nature of quantum mechanics. Bohr’s position was published under the same title as the earlier paper authored by Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen in 1935: “Can Quantum-Mechanical Description of Reality Be Considered Complete?”, Physical Review 48 (1935): 696–702.

• 10

  Eddington Arthur Stanley Eddington (1882–1944), British astronomer and physicist, wrote several popular books linking religion and science, including The Nature of the Physical World (1928) and The Expanding Universe (1933). BR demonstrated professional restraint in published evaluations of these books; privately, however, he labelled Eddington’s views as “hogwash” (quoted in SLBR 2: 297).

• 11

  The result of his lecture is that what I had prepared on Determinism and Physics won’t do. BR’s views on this subject that were polished during his Scandinavian tour appeared as “Determinism and Physics”, Proceedings of the University of Durham Philosophical Society 9 (March 1936): 228–45; Papers 10: 68–80. The following passages were written on leaves inserted into BR’s manuscript and seem to be a result of BR’s Copenhagen interaction with Bohr: Papers 10: 41–69: 33; 70: 41–71: 36; 76: 41–77: 29; 78: 7–19; 79: 35– 80: 13. Perhaps some of the passages were inserted in further revisions to the paper before publication. There are revisions also to the pages that BR brought with him for the tour.

• 12

  lectured to the students on R v R — a great success Bredsdorff reported the lecture at length as “Patriotismen ødeloegger den civiliserde Verden; et glimrende og aandfuldt Foredrag i Studentersamfundet af Bertrand Russell” [Patriotism Destroys the Civilized World; Bertrand Russell Gives a Glittering and Brilliant Lecture at the Students’ Society], Politiken, 9 Oct. 1935.

• 13

  The chairman Peter P. Rohde (1902–1978), left-wing author and cultural historian.

• 14

  Papineau Papineau was a former boyfriend of Peter’s. He is referred to in a letter of hers of October 1931 (710.106222) and in BR’s letters of 10 and 12 December 1931.

• 15

  Both the Bohr’s have noses that beat creation for vastness This observation about noses is consistent with BR’s use of nasal analogies in his published works. See K. Blackwell, “The Wit and Humour of Principia Mathematica”, Russell 31 (2011): 156 n.27.

• 16

  they are not Jews Niels Bohr’s mother, Ellen Adler, was Jewish, one of several reasons why Bohr fled Nazi-occupied Denmark in 1943.

• 17

  Spaniard who has translated 2 of my books Probably Julio Huici Miranda. The electronic catalogue of the Biblioteca Nacional de España in Madrid lists Miranda as the only translator of two of BR’s books by 1935 — The Conquest of Happiness and On Education.

• 18

  Professor of Psychology Edgar Rubin (1886–1951), professor of psychology at the University of Copenhagen. The reasons for Rubin’s willingness to sponsor BR’s Scandinavian tour are unclear; no correspondence between the two men is found in the Russell Archives.