BRACERS Notes

Record no. Notes, topics or text
126932

"Another matter has just been brought to my notice: at the beginning of the Chapter on Spinoza in my History of Western Philosophy the date of his birth is wrongly given as 1634; it should be 1632. As a reprint of this book is in progress, I should be glad if this correction could be made."

126933

"I am grateful to you for pointing out the error as to the date of Spinoza's birth in my History of Western Philosophy. I had never noticed it and have now taken steps to have it corrected."

126934

Re G.D. Morgan's letter dated February 18, 1960 on John's mental illness and re legal statements on custody of his children. For a typed version see document .101563, record 116343.

126935

"I am no longer the president of the CND, having resigned because the Executive disapproved of Direct Action. I cannot, therefore, send you the literature that you desire."

126936

"I am very sorry that my work in England makes it quite impossible for me to come to the United States at any time in the foreseeable future."

126937

"It would be a pleasure to meet you sometime when I am in London, but at the moment all my time is filled up."

126938

"I am very sorry that I cannot accept your invitation to speak to the Students' Union as all my time in the near future is already booked."

126939

"I am sorry that it is not possible for me to go to India at the time you mention owing to engagements here, but I hope you will have a very successful session and I enclose a short message conveying my hopes."

126940

"I enclose a letter from California asking for information about our campaign. Could you or someone at the office find time to answer it and to send the material that is asked for?"

126941

"Contract > BBC".

126942

"In continuation of our telephone conversation I find that the Working Committee of the Committee of 100 is at this moment discussing cooperation with Direct Action in the matter of the Polaris demonstration."

126943

"The best arrangement for the forthcoming holidays seems to us to be that the children should go straight from school to their grandmother Dora in London and spend one week there, returning to us at the end of that week."

126944

"No > Cowie, World Affairs".

126945

"I look forward to coming to Birmingham on March 11 and shall be glad to make the opening speech, after the Chairman's, at that afternoon's session beginning at two o'clock."

126946

BR declines to address a meeting in Worsley Town Hall.

126947

"No > Koreans".

126948

BR's views on Christianity are set forth in Why I Am Not a Christian.

126949

BR is "sorry to say" he has never written anything "salacious".

126950

BR deals with Preston's various points raised on Communism, especially working with its adherents.

126951

A thank-you for "the very beautifully bound volume" of My Philosophical Development.

126952

BR sends his best wishes.

126953

"My best thanks to you and to the members of the North East Lancashire New Left Club for the very kind message conveyed in your letter of February 21."

126954

"My best thanks for your kind letter of February 20. Such letters are very encouraging."

126955

"To the best of my knowledge, I never received the formulary that you write about."

126956

"Thank you for your letter of February 23 and for the enclosed account of the association between Joliot-Curie and myself in 1955." BR does not think he will object to the publication of the two letters but asks if Biquard would send him copies of the letters before he gives a definite answer.

126957

"I look forward to seeing you again but, at the moment, as you will understand, I have so much business on hand that it seems impossible to plan to see my friends."

126958

"I am very sorry to learn of the difficult time that you have had in carrying out your work. I wish that I could do something to help, but my time is so completely taken up with anti-nuclear work that I have no time for anything else."

126959

"Many thanks for your "Tale of Two Deterrents" which I have read with a great deal of pleasure."

126960

"It would have been delightful if you had been present on February 18, but obviously your doctor was right to insist upon your absence and your name and support counted greatly, even in absentia."

126961

"I am sorry to learn of your painful mental state ... I am quite persuaded that nothing done by the living can have any effect upon the dead and I should like you to be also persuaded by this as it would diminish your suffering...."

126962

"I am sorry that press of work makes it quite impossible for me to sit for you or for anyone else, though if it were possible I should have gladly accepted."

126963

"I am entirely willing that you should make the slight verbal alterations that you suggest in printing my letter."

126964

"No—Secretary".

126965

"At the meeting in Trafalgar Square where you and I met, I had intended to make an announcement in favour of civil disobedience, but it was suggested to me that such an announcement might be an embarrassment to Cousins at Scarborough. I wrote to him to ask whether he felt this would be the case, and he replied that, on the whole, he thought it would be. It was for this reason that I postponed the announcement." 

126966

BR likes the idea of "an argumentative Trojan Horse".

126967

"Moreton Hall bills > Tylor".

126968

BR is sending Brown's drawings to the Direct Action Committee.

126969

BR sends copies of anti-war drawings by Brown. See record 126968.

126970

"I wish to congratulate you on the great success of your organization of the demonstration on February 18 … the smoothness and dignity of the occasion ... If we can continue as we have started, I believe that we can sweep forward in a great mass movement towards the abolition of war."

126971

"Gennaio > Foulkes".

126972

"In your issue of February 28, beneath an excellent cartoon <of BR being carried away by 2 big Soviet soldiers>, you quote the defence minister as advising me to squat in the Red Square. The advice is sound, but somewhat belated." In 1920, BR, on the steps of the Foreign Office in Moscow, shouted at the Foreign Secretary "I shall denounce you to the whole world as a murderer."

126973

"A Swiss artist named Hans Erni, whose work I much admire, has done a number of illustrations of my nightmare 'The Queen of Sheba'." BR would be glad if Unwin gave his permission for Erni to produce a limited edition de luxe to be sold to collectors. Two sentences are in BR's handwriting.

126974

"Cheque > Randle".

126975

"What I know about Claude Eatherly is derived partly from statements of his own which have been reported to me and partly from a correspondent <Gunther Anders> who is devoting much time and energy to the case." See record 126978.

126976

For BR's discussion of Peirce, see Wisdom of the West, p. 276ff., and BR's Schilpp article on Dewey.

126977

BR hopes Opitz's suggested visitors will see the chairman of CND.

126978

"I enclose a letter asking for information about Claude Eatherly...." See record 126974

126979

BR easily understands why he likes the Rev. Eva, though not why Eva likes him.

126980

"I am very glad that you are bringing out a paper-backed edition of Why I Am Not a Christian and I am quite willing to agree to your suggestions as regards finance."

126981

BR thanks him for his generous monetary contribution to the Committee of 100 and also for his approval of their work.

126982

"Formal No > Pandit".

126983

BR sends a statement of support of those partaking in the Harrington demonstration.

126984

"No > Worcester Academy, Massachusetts".

126985

"No > Ray—Radical Humanist of India".

126986

"I am sorry that I know much too little of the work of Dr Sven Hedin to be able to write about him."

126987

The Russells will complete affidavits as soon as possible.

126988

"Thank you for letting me see Lewis Mumford's letter which I have read with interest. I return it herewith."

126989

"Wood's income affidavit > West and Drake".

126990

"2 cheques and Jap dollar cheque > Child".

126991

"At a time when America had a monopoly of atomic weapons and offered through the Baruch Plan to internationalize the supply of atomic power, I thought this a wise and, at that time, generous suggestion. I thought and I said privately, though not publicly, that the United States would be justified in bringing pressure to bear on Russia to agree to the internationalizing of atomic energy and I thought that Russia would almost certainly yield to such pressure, since the Soviet Union had as yet no atomic arms of its own. If the Baruch Plan had been accepted, the world would not be in the dangerous position that it is in at present."

126992

"Sign and send Euthanasia letter".

126993

"Letter about Jap $100 cheque (income already paid in Japan) > Madams".

126994

"My dearest wish for the coming year is for agreed universal disarmament and the achievement of secure peace."

126995

"Would you be so kind as to let me have a copy of the last prescription for reading spectacles (Oct. 15 1957, I believe) that you gave me as I wish to have a spare pair in case of accident...."

126996

"I do not disagree with anything in your letter except that, before UN can be considered suitable as a World Authority, China must be admitted and the veto abolished."

126997

"I do not see how the fact that human life will probably cease some day bears on what is desirable meanwhile. If you knew you had exactly thirty years to live, you would rather they were happy that <than> that they were spent in agonizing toothache." BR recommends his book Mysticism and Logic

126998

BR has had a request for any literature that the Committee of 100 has published from Henry John Lawson-Smith. BR asks if Randle could send him this as well as two copies of all their literature.

126999

"I have asked the secretary of the Committee of 100 to send you their literature."

127000

"Guinea > H of L Sports Club 'from Earl Russell'."

127001

BR answers various questions regarding nuclear disarmament. "I see no point in principles which result in there being no human beings to hold them." BR refers him to Herman Kahn's On Thermonuclear War.

127002

"The broadcasts that you enquire about are published in Portraits from Memory and the rights belong to Allen and Unwin."

127003

A statement. BR explains his refusal to resume the Presidency of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament as it stands.

Record 127004 is related.

127004

"I was very glad that the conference passed the resolution that it did urging that I should again become President of the CND; but I think the Conference did not adequately realize the formal aspects of the situation...." Record 127003 is related.

127005

"Your proposal is attractive and I feel much inclined to accept it, but, since you suggest a meeting to explore it, I think I had better not reach a definite decision until after such a meeting."

127006

"I have had a letter from Sir Stanley Unwin which I hope Erni will find satisfactory."

127007

"I am sorry to say that, as things stand, I do not feel that it would be possible for me to appear on the same platform with Canon Collins." BR enumerates the reasons.

127008

"If you should happen to be in North Wales in the near future, I should be very happy to see you here. If not, we shall have to wait until I am next in London...."

127009

"Browns of Chester—where is material".

127010

"The question about my biography is a little complex to answer and, if the idea is to be pursued, I think it would be desirable for you to visit us for a day or two at some time convenient to you and us."

BR addresses him as "Mr. Brown", replacing "Mr. Spencer-Brown".

127011

"No part of the world is safe while nuclear weapons exist, but we should be safer if neutral than as a member of NATO."

127012

"No > World Parl. Ass"

127013

"Who's Who in America filled in".

127014

"Swedish tax > Unwin".

127015

"You will find all I have to say about solipsism in Part III, Chapter II, of my Human Knowledge."

127016

"I had myself already read Kahn carefully and written an article contrasting him with a Russian armament expert. It is possible that you may be interested in this article and I send it to you herewith on the chance." BR does not want a communist to publish it.

127017

"I am very sorry that, for reasons of health, I shall not be able to come to the discussion in Vienna to which I had hoped to come." BR is told he must limit his activities.

127018

"I very well remember your book on The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Science which I found very interesting."

127019

Re the health of her husband, Lewis Jones.

127020

"Telephone to Tylor re Dora's extraordinary legal doings in regard to children". There is a 2nd sheet headed "Tylor to jot down these points".

127021

"Mullock—gardener—No < ER".

127022

"I should like to do an article on civil disobedience such as you suggest for the Blaetter, but I should like to know how soon you would have to have it and what is the minimum length that would be satisfactory."

127023

"Paper > Isely".

127024

BR is unable to come to Sweden because of prior commitments. "The subject that you write about is one of great importance, and I enclose an off-print which states briefly what I think on the matter."

127025

"I think it would be a very good thing if people were to adopt your three proposals...." BR refers him to the War Resisters of Canada.

127026

"Harveian—No < Secretary".

127027

BR has no changes to make to the enclosed draft <not present> and has signed it. "I enclose an article in which I spoke of Eatherly and a short critical letter which it evoked and which I hope you will write an answer for the New Statesman."

127028

"I have every sympathy with the objects of the Congress that you mention and I wish that I could be present at it, but, owing to age, I have to limit my activities...."

127029

"No > N.K. Datta".

127030

"No > National Union of Students".

127031

"Tax in re Dora > Meyers, Clark & Co"