BRACERS Notes

Record no. Notes, topics or text
124301

BR has admired the work of the WILPF since WWI. He wishes their forthcoming meeting(s) "all possible success".

124302

BR cannot meet with him and his only upcoming public meeting is in Manchester on May 1.

124303

BR is too busy to review the book that Meynell writes about.

124304

"No".

124305

BR is glad Simon approves his statement. Will he come to tea on April 19th? Khrushchev did not know that German Social Democrats oppose German nuclear armament.

124306

"RSVP".

124307

BR declines to speak to the Eton Political Society, although he would have liked to do it. BR would welcome another talk with Collins and suggests times.

124308

BR looks forward to seeing Foulkes on Easter Sunday.

124309

BR encloses (not present) a statement of his present views on induction to substitute "for one of the two older statements that you mention", and should supplant the quotation from The Problems of Philosophy. BR is sending the statement to Egner and Denonn, too.

124310

Re title: "I somewhat shrink from the word 'definitive', chiefly on the ground that I am not yet dead."

124311

BR sends his new note on induction.

124312

About a book by BR that is published only in the US.

124313

Foges is being sent the letter from the Times Educational Supplement and the reply (record 124312).

124314

"May's bill".

124315

BR provides Martin with "The Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly" and 8 headings for the different verses.

BR and Edith enjoyed Martin's visit with Miss Woodman.

124316

BR thanks Hyland for extracts from the Washington Post.

124317

BR sends 5 guineas to The Athenaeum.

124318

BR won't be reading his book on the laws of thought: "I have quite given up work on logic and my time is fully taken up with the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament."

124319

BR has nothing to add to the "Inconsistency?" appendix (on preventive war) in Common Sense and Nuclear Warfare.

124320

BR supports Simon's choice of Wayland Young to write a book (presumably on nuclear disarmament).

124321

"No".

124322

"Enclose message".

124323

"No".

124324

"No".

124325

"Third person refusal".

124326

BR will autograph Morel's Truth and the War, "but I make a point of not adding anything beyond my autograph on such occasions."

124327

"Russian letter about Common Sense and Nuclear Warfare".

124328

BR provides possible sources for a statement about a confessor and a nun (Pascal or Coulton).

124329

BR thanks her for her "admirable letter to the children's mother".

124330

A letter from Egner is to be sent to Unwin.

124331

BR refers Hacker to My Philosophical Development, to be published next month.

124332

BR is returning R.P.'s notebook, having nothing to add to what he has already published.

124333

BR will write a preface to Gellner's book, but probably not before June.

124334

"My time is completely taken up with work designed to prevent a nuclear war, and I have no time for anything else."

124335

BR declines to sign a "renewed declaration" re NATO. "It is not anything specific that I have to criticize, but I have come to feel that NATO is not the road to peace. I am not hostile to it, but I think what is more important is to promote a spirit of conciliation between East and West."

124336

BR and Wall could meet in North Wales in the summer.

124337

BR sends congratulations on "the immense success of the march from Aldermaston and especially of the final meeting in Trafalgar Square. I think this achievement has real importance."

124338

"£1 > staff of House of Lords".

124339

A highly critical letter on Wittgenstein. "His personal impact was so powerful that it tended to warp one's judgment."

124340

"As I have no medical knowledge I do not feel that I myself can give the advice that you ask for." [This may concern family planning.]

124341

"I think the best hope for a more comprehensive bibliography would be to appeal to Denonn who has, I know, continued his bibliographical work since 1943 when it was published in the Library of Living Philosophers."

124342

On issuing Feibleman's book on Peirce in the U.K.

Peirce "is very highly thought of by most philosophers in America and by some whose opinion I respect in this country."

124343

BR believes a three-day fast would not be particularly impressive. "Gandhi was willing to fast unto death and the mayor of Cork actually died of fasting in prison."

124344

BR could not have the bronze relief and manuscript that Willi wanted to give to BR, because customs demanded an enormous sum for them.

124345

"14/14 > Cadogan Estate".

124346

"See App. II of Common Sense and Nuclear Warfare".

124347

"Refer to Why I Am Not a Christian".

124348

"Book > Rosenthal > Cohen".

This may refer to BR autographing E.D. Morel's Truth and the War for Cohen.

124349

BR would be proud to have Holland's projected novel dedicated to him. (No such novel seems to have been published.)

124350

BR declines to write an article on the Arab-Israeli conflict: "I do not know the region concerned and do not feel competent to make a pronouncement. It seems clear that the frontiers of Israel should be very precisely defined and that both Israel and the surrounding Arab countries should be guaranteed against aggression by all the powers concerned." This, BR says, is "rather vague and general".

124351

"Autograph".

124352

BR does not feel competent to express an opinion on Cross's typescript.

124353
124354
124355

On Lion Phillimore's entertaining of Labour politicians and foreign journalists at the expensive Ritz Hotel during the war.

124356

"But I am beginning to think that I made a mistake in concentrating so exclusively on the memory of Bertie, when I might have been enjoying life with a fresh partner or partners! I sent you my Fabian talk, but please don't judge the English style. Talking and writing require different styles, and anyhow my voice is my chief asset, and my success comes from that, and it doesn't matter what I say. Now Bertie's talks are really lectures and quite different."

On Roosevelt.

124357

"Yes, Bertie's style and his clear thought are inimitable, but his radio voice is not as good as mine, tho' his enunciation is perfect. As you say, he is very popular, indeed adored by young people, but his wife quite the reverse. She [Patricia Russell] is very hysterical, and so unable to cope with life that he can seldom leave her."

Alys asks for inexpensive ultra-Italian hotels in Sicily, mentioning Taormina, Syracuse and Girgenti, as she has a friend who wants to go there.

Beatrice Webb and Joseph Chamberlain.

124358

"I am busy writing another broadcast talk, but can't rival Bertie's output—he is speaking on Einstein tonight."

124359

Alys has been poorly, but must live until the publication of her mother's letters and Gathorne-Hardy's "masterpiece" about Logan.

124360

Thomas Mann's Dr. Faustus is "a profound book and a terrible study of German mentality!"

124361

"Isn't it splendid that Bertie has been awarded the O.M.? A far cry from his prison sentence of 1915 [sic]."

124362

"I hear a rumour that Bertie's wife [Patricia Russell] has left him, and that he is greatly relieved."

124363
124364

She refers to Berenson's autobiography.

She reread The Christian Secret of a Happy Life and thought it well written and sensible.

124365

"Yes, Bertie's output is very remarkable, and he is the acknowledged leader of thought here. But that picture book [by Leggett] about him is rather vulgar. I wonder with whom he is spending his Xmas? I hear his separated wife [Patricia Russell], has the boy [Conrad], who is preparing for an Eton scholarship."

124366

"Trevy lunched here and told me that Bertie is thankful his hysterical wife [Patricia Russell] has left him, but the custody of their boy [Conrad] is disputed. He is much spoiled, and had to be taken away from that crank school at Dartington and sent to a tutor. Bertie has retired to his Welsh farmhouse, and is writing his autobiography, like you."

124367

Alys is in touch with Flora Russell.

124368

Alys urges Berenson to speak on the BBC. The microphone would be sent to his study, as the BBC does with her.

124369

"T.S. Eliot ranks higher than Bertie, by everybody as well as by the Queen, and I rather agree with the slightly debunking article about Bertie in yesterday's Lit. Supp. [TLS]. He is too much a Victorian liberal to suit the young."

(BR's Order of Merit was announced on 9 June 1949.)

124370
The rebel (book) is going well.
124371

Roger is at his "crank school".

124372

Alys is trying to write her memoirs. She has a whole shelf of books written by her parents, Logan and Mary, her daughters, and Berenson and "Bertie".

124373

"I am better than I was last summer, and have more interest in life now that I am trying to write my memoirs." She has a whole shelf of books by her parents, Logan and Mary and her daughters, and Berenson and "Bertie".

She is due to talk on the BBC about the visit to Tennyson that she and Mary made in 1885.

124374

Alys mentions once again the general praise among her contacts of Berenson's autobiography.

124375

"I have given your autobiography away (and would like another copy) to of all people—Bertie! He came to lunch today, and said he wanted to read it, so I gave him my copy, and he will probably write to you about it. He looks older, though not as old as Trevy and his other contemporaries, and is very fine looking, and unspeakably clever and amusing. For 39 years, I could not bear to meet me [sic], as the thought of [sic] threw me into an abyss of utter misery, but now 'all passions are spent', and when he separated from his wife, I wrote to congratulate him on his O.M. He answered, suggesting an interview, and we had a long friendly talk about everything except his wives. He had just been to France for 3 days of lectures and receptions, sent by the Foreign Office to lecture on British politics in French! Think of it—Bertie, the outlawed jailbird!"

124376

Alys bemoans the deaths of Leon Blum and Harold Laski ("a teacher rather than a thinker"). "You and I manage to keep alive, and Bertie is always perfectly well, and looks 10 years younger than his 78."

124377

"I have missed 40 years of a similar one [happy years of congenial companionship], but I hope I have Bertie's friendship now. I will give him your message, and lend him my copy of your book on aesthetics...."

124378

"I have no news, but am living in hopes of another visit from Bertie, after he has completed his move to Richmond."

124379

"Bertie is working like a nigger, on 3 foreign broadcasts, and articles for The New York Times and other papers, but anyhow can stay comfortably at home. He lives with and adores his son John, aged 30, and his daughter-in-law—Vachel Lindsay's daughter. He is now called 'revered' by the press, and may soon be expected to take orders and be called 'reverend'!! So time changes."

124380

"So Alfred Whitehead has died, aged 86 and 10 years older than Bertie. Ralph [Barton Perry] reported that he had lost his memory." "I hope you liked Edith Finch's Life of Carey."

124381

"Yes, that was a stupid review of Bertie's book in the Lit. Supp. [TLS], obviously by a Catholic. He had a fierce controversy with the Australian Catholics over birth control, but in the end the Bishop of Sydney has to make him a public apology for stating that he had been refused an American visa—it was refused to Frank Russell for having been a bigamist and in prison. I hope Bertie sent you his book."

Alys quotes from her letter of 2 years ago from Bernard Shaw. She was interviewed by the press for her Fernhurst reminiscences of Shaw.

"Bertie is now lecturing at Mt. Holyoke, and then seeing his daughter in Washington. She is married to a young Harvard Cambridge don, who has a govt. job at the moment. Her young half-brother (born when Bertie was 64) is a very brilliant boy with a scholarship. But I believe he [Conrad] is hysterical, like his hysterical mother, who left Bertie 1 1/2 years ago."

124382

"I have much enjoyed Bertie's Unpopular Essays, which he is sending you I believe, and enclose [not present] Raymond Mortimer's review of the book. He doesn't understand the philosophy, but appreciates the humour, and indeed the final obituary notice is very amusing."

The gas strike has been very inconveniencing.

124383

On BR receiving the Nobel Prize. Alys quotes from newspapers. "I only hope he will keep the prize money to help to pay his alimonies, to 'Dora' and 'Peter', and, until recently, to one of Frank's widows, aged over 90."

She will give BR Berenson's "sympathetic" telegram when he gets home next week.

124384

"I have heard from Bertie that he likes the Australians and his work, except the Roman Catholics who are fighting him about birth control; and he enjoyed a holiday trip of 1,000 miles to see a coral island, but he is of course dreadfully worried about Corea [Korea], and the drift towards war."

124385

"Bertie is coming to dinner tomorrow to say goodbye before flying to Australia for the summer—I shall miss him, but I don't envy him that dreadful country."

124386

"Poor Bertie got off to Australia on Monday, and I fear he will have a strenuous and tiring two months there, a lecture or two every day and those awful outsiders to associate with. I can hardly wait for his return."

124387

BR is settling into Richmond with his family. "... I am deliriously looking forward to his 78th birthday party here on the 18th. If only you and I were as strong and vigorous as he is, never any signs of weakness nor illness, not even colds."

124388

Re BR's birthday at Alys's home in Chelsea, "a great success". "He talked brilliantly for 4 hours, and my young people were enthralled.

And they showed up well in argument with him, as they are all clever. So was his son John, a civil servant aged 29, and a very sweet and engaging personality, the exact image of his grandfather, Lord Amberley [Amberley]. The Vachel Lindsay wife was a disappointment, defiant and uncouth, middle west tho' rather pretty and distinctly clever."

"Bertie is flying to Australia soon for 8 weeks of lecturing. He is broadcasting tonight on 'Punishment', but will not recall his own days in prison."

124389

"Bertie dined here this week (3 hours of blissful talk for me!) and said he had enjoyed your autobiography." "He thanked you for suggesting he look at the aesthetics, but said he had no feeling for aesthetics nor for the visual arts. His interests are purely scientific, philosophical and political, and they keep him occupied. He is separated from Patricia, tho' not legally, but has to pay her alimony, as well as to Dora, his second wife and mother of his two older children. Until recently, he also paid alimony from Frank's estate to Frank's second wife, who lived till 90! Fortunately, he doesn't need to pay me anything, tho' he offered to in 1911!"

124390

The photocopy of two of the pages is very poor quality. Edith refers to Alys as "Aunty Loo".

124391

BR offers to write a preface for her book on China. He will not be able to begin until May as he is "just beginning a book of 90,000 words which has to be finished in April, and I have not yet the vaguest idea what I am going to say in it."

124392

BR asks her to give her sister Dorothy Dudley the enclosed extant fragments of Heraclitus.

[These items (letter and ms.) had been received from the A.J. Berg collection (New York Public Library) as photocopies and are located in Recent Acq. 27.]

124393

"£59.17.11 > Brian Walker".

124394

"Ellis shameful questionnaire reply > Rotblat".

124395

"Who's Who authors writers etc."

124396

"£1.14.6 > Paul".

124397

The best thing to do about "The Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly" is to "chuck it out".

124398

"German thing > Rotblat".

124399

"£7.7.4" is to be paid.

124400

BR declines to take part in a Tom Paine meeting on June 7.