BR TO PATRICIA RUSSELL, [9 APR. 1939]
BRACERS 20343. ALS. McMaster. Russell 33 (2013–14): 101–42
Edited by M.D. Stevenson. Reviewed by K. Blackwell

pmk/? April, Cleveland |HOTEL CLEVELAND, CLEVELAND, OHIO1
Easter Sunday 〈April 9〉, 1939.

My Darling Love

No telegram, so I assume nothing drastic has happened. I doubt if you know my itinerary:

        Apr. 10           Dayton
                  11            Travel to Baltimore: address
                                 c/o L. Emmett Holt Junr.,2
                                 6 Boulder Lane, Baltimore Md.
                                  There I see Freda. I shall be there 2 nights.
                 13.            At Alice Crunden’s,3 one night.
[Don’t      14.           New London: address
sleep                         c/o Prof. Frank E. Morris,4
here]                         Connecticut College, New London, Conn.
                  15, 16.     c/o Mr. David K. Niles,5
                                   Ford Hall Forum Inc., Little Building,
                                   Boston, Mass.
        April 17.            Bryn Mawr.
                  18, 19       c/o Prof. Henry T. Moore6
                                   Skidmore College,
                                   Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
On the 19th I return to New York and stay with the Crundens.
On the 26th, as early as possible, I start home — where you and Conrad are home.

I have a day here with nothing to do. Last night I was interviewed by a lady journalist7 and dined with a Jewish family, but today I am supposed to be gone to Dayton. Although solitude is boring, I prefer it to company. The Jew was chairman at my meeting, which went off well. It was the same Club8 which years ago told me I could speak freely as it was men only, and then, as I started, said it would be broadcast.

Lecturing does seem to me a silly business.

I keep on alternately hoping and worrying about John and Kate. If war holds off till they come, I have hopes of being able to keep them. But the whole European stage is set for war more than ever. I try not to realize it except intellectually, but I don’t succeed all the time.

Dear Heart I want to be with you. Thank God we have Conrad safe.

B.

• 1

  [document] The letter was edited from ??. The letter was published in Michael D. Stevenson, ed., “‘In Solitude I Brood On War’: Bertrand Russell’s 1939 American Lecture Tour”, Russell 33 (2013–14): 101–42 (at 125–7).

• 2

  L. Emmett Holt Junr. Pediatrician Luther Emmett Holt, Jr. (1895–1974) specialized in child nutrition; he worked at Johns Hopkins University from 1922 to 1944 before moving to New York City as the Director of the Children’s Medical Service at Bellevue Hospital.

• 3

  Alice Crunden’s BR apparently conducted an affair with Alice Crunden (née Tweedy, 1892–1951) during his 1924 lecture tour that formed the basis of a “valuable friendship” (see SLBR 2: 265, 286, 286 n.5). The daughter of a wealthy Milwaukee railway magnate, she married Walter M. Crunden, a St. Louis businessman, in 1914 and generously supported BR’s Beacon Hill School by donating $1,000 in 1929 (see Dora Russell to BR, 11 Oct. 1929, RA2 710).

• 4

  Prof. Frank E. Morris A Yale-educated philosopher, Frank E. Morris (1889–1963) taught at Connecticut College for Women, a private liberal arts school in New London, from 1917 to 1954. After admitting men for the first time in 1969, the institution shortened its name to Connecticut College.

• 5

  Mr. David K. Niles David K. Niles (1888–1952) played a prominent role in the administration of the Works Progress Administration during the 1930s and served as an administrative assistant to Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman from 1942 to 1951. The Ford Hall Forum was established in 1908 and featured regular lectures by public figures, many known for radical or controversial views. Niles became the Associate Director of the Forum in 1921 and later served as its Director.

• 6

  Prof. Henry T. Moore  Henry T. Moore received his doctorate in psychology from Harvard University in 1914 and served as the President of Skidmore College from 1925 to 1957. Founded in 1903 as a women’s institution, Skidmore became a four-year liberal arts school in 1922 and did not admit men to its regular undergraduate programme until 1971.

• 7

  lady journalist Regine V. Kurlander (1896–1987) was a journalist for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Her engrossing two-part interview with BR — reprinted in several outlets in the US and Canada — appeared in the Plain Dealer on 15 April (“You Can Be Glamorous If You Try”, p. 14) and 17 April (“You Can Be Glamorous”, p. 12).

• 8

  Club  BR spoke to the City Club of Cleveland, formed in 1912.