BR TO PATRICIA RUSSELL, 20 APR. 1939
BRACERS 20350. ALS. McMaster. Russell 33 (2013–14): 101–42
Edited by M.D. Stevenson. Reviewed by K. Blackwell

MRS. GERARD H. COX, 136 EAST 64TH STREET, NEW YORK1
20.4.39

My Darling

Now I will try to write a proper letter in answer to all yours. It was so delightful getting them, I have hardly been able to pay attention to things here. I loved the account of Conrad’s monologues, and I loved the photographs. You look so lovely, Darling — you put other women completely in the shade. And Conrad enjoying his train is too delightful. I showed them to Alice, in addition to her two, to prove you had made good use of her money. She discovered I still have the dressing gown you bought me when we stayed with her, so she is giving me a new one. See the advantages of my penuriousness.

I have had no letter from the U. of C. but I will try to deal with the residence question2 without that.

Edwina took me a walk in Central Park this morning to explain the situation. Her heart is not really very bad. I had avoided the subject, as her mother said E. didn’t know; she introduced it, saying it was a joke that her mother told everybody of this awful secret, which is a delusion. Alice was horrified when Crunden (after she had divorced him) married again;3 she is jealous of Edwina, and tied to Dr. Cox by drugs. I think all this is true, as I observe the jealousy, and incoherence from drugs. At moments Alice is her old self, but most of the time she is a wreck, morally and every way. It is most tragic. Sinus trouble is the excuse for the drugs, chiefly cocaine.

I am sorry you have no money. You can get money from the deposit account in Chicago. I enclose a letter you can complete, sign, and send.4

I won’t write about war. We will talk about it. I feel that you need me, you get so unhappy. I long to be with you and give you the sort of comfort that comes of being together and feeling alike. But it will be some little time before I can start working.

About Sturgis:5 if possible I should like something in writing from U. of C. before writing to him. But if you think that too rude you can write now.

Glad you smoke a pipe. In the picture with it you look quite professional.

I have lots more to say but must get ready for dinner. I ache for you and Conrad. Bless you.

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 135–7).

• 2

  residence question BR set in motion the matter of extending his family’s residency permits during the final days of the tour.

• 3

  Crunden … married again Information on Walter Crunden’s second marriage following his divorce from Alice was not located. Crunden apparently had little personal regard for BR, calling him “a rather sneaky little cad” (undated letter [but before his divorce from Alice] from Crunden to Rockwell Kent, Kent Papers, Archives of American Art, on-line collection at http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/rockwell-kent-papers-9557/more).

• 4

  I enclose a letter you can complete, sign, and send. The enclosed note, on Mrs. Cox’s letterhead, stated: “Dear Sirs | Kindly transfer the sum of      from our deposit account to our current account at      | Yours faithfully | Bertrand Russell.”

• 5

  Sturgis George Sturgis (1891–1944) was the nephew of American philosopher George Santayana, who used Sturgis as the intermediary to send BR £1,000 per year beginning in September 1937 (see SLBR 2: 352–3) to assist him in overcoming his financial difficulties. Although BR knew that Santayana was his benefactor, he continued to maintain the fiction that the donation was anonymous. In February 1939, while BR was still at the University of Chicago, Peter Russell wrote to Sturgis asking if Santayana’s assistance could be continued if her husband turned down academic employment to allow him to concentrate full-time on philosophical work (RA2 710). Sturgis replied on 10 March, indicating that Santayana would be willing to make payments of $5,000 in two installments during 1940, but that it would be “imprudent to count on them after 1940” (ibid.). After he returned to California, Peter contacted Sturgis to inform him of BR’s three-year appointment at UCLA: “Will you please tell his anonymous friend that he can be independent, and convey to him my husband’s great gratitude, and my own, for assistance which made a very great difference in our lives” (2 May 1939, ibid.). “I told you from the first that he is an absolutely honest, fanatically honest, man …”, was Santayana’s response to Sturgis on 21 May 1939 (Letters of Santayana, 6: 240).