Edith thanks Amethe for book gifts. 

Transcription provided by Nicholas Marlowe Rare Books.

The original of this letter's image was for sale at the time of record entry on eBay.ca by Markus Brandes Autographs. A carbon copy is at record 40501. 

A grocery list was inserted at p. 455 of Newman Ivey White's Shelley, vol. 2 (Russell's Library, no. 372). The list consists of: loaf of bread, bacon, eggs, and matches.

BR expresses support for democratizing Hull University by structural reforms and includes extracts from his Principles of Social Reconstruction  (1916), as a contribution to the campaign. 

The letter along with the extracts was published as Bertrand Russell on Student Power as a mimeographed Institute for Workers' Control pamphlet in 1968.  A digital copy is provided by the "Splits and Fusions" website, 17 January 2025, accessed 12 August 2025, https://splitsandfusions.wordpress.com/2025/01/17/the-institute-for-workers-control-and-the-workers-control-conferences/. Only one other copy of the pamphlet (B&R A147A) is known; it is in the possession of the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation.

The carbon is filed at record 71333.

 The text of a cable, provided by Colette, is attached to a letter from Malleson to Fish, 27 Feb. 1943, with the instruction to send the cable "(as below)":

RUSSELL LITTLE DATCHET FARM MALVERN-R-D-I PENNSYLVANIA (USA)
COLETTE ENDLESSLY GRATEFUL LETTER FIRST JANUARY ARRIVED END FEBRUARY SENDS INFINITE SYMPATHY AIRMAILING REPLY TODAY
PHYLLIS FISH AXBRIDGE ENGLAND

"We had a long talk about Prisons. Whitehead has not read it yet and tells me he doesn't expect to be able to get through it—anything ethical bores him. Mrs. Whitehead criticized it very severely—not the ideas, which she agrees with, but the style. She says it is dull—the most severe criticism there is. She says it appears voulu; that the emotions spoken are not spoken of so as to be felt; and that the intellectual and emotional parts don't belong together. The gist of the matter is that being written when I was happy it fails to appeal to those who are not so—not that she put it that way.

I knew in my instincts she would not like it. She says the beauty of the "Free Man's Worship" is lacking.

It is rather a blow. I shall show it to Dickinson and see if he says the same. I feel you knew so well what I meant that you could hardly tell if I had conveyed it to someone who didn't already know; otherwise I should trust your judgment. I don't know yet whether it isn't that what I wanted and meant to do is something that would not interest Mrs. Whitehead, or whether it really is a failure. She takes no interest in philosophy, which is a relevant fact."

Dominic Winter Auctioneers had the letter for sale.

On the verso of Wall's letter.

Dominic Winter Auctioneers had the letter for sale.

On the verso of Wall's letter. "I am sorry that I cannot write an article on 'my advice to young people' in spite of the fact that, as you say, it has been popular with philosophers. Leibniz advised them not to give up washing when they married. Most other philosophers have been less concrete."

Dominic Winter Auctioneers had the letter for sale.

"My Beloved, this is to welcome you back to London."

A draft, showing much reworking of what she had to say.

The letter is dated 1904/07/11 at the foot of p. 7. BR ms. that came with it is titled "Rémarques sur la Logique Mathématique de M. Couturat." The date is assumed to be that of the letter.

BR is grateful for Davies' kindness and indicates he has given Davies' letter to Lucy Russell so that she has all the details.

An invoice from the London Library was left in Russell's copy of Roy Pascal's The Social Basis of the German Reformation (Russell's Library, no. 1251). The invoice is likely for the delivery of books.

BR thanks Davies for sending a copy of his letter to The Observer concerning John Strachey and Herman Kahn. BR was encouraged to see it.

BR commented on Stout's paper, "The Object of Thought and Real Being".

Patricia is writing from the Commander Hotel in Cambridge, Mass. Most of the letter discusses the type of setup BR prefers for lecturing, but includes a note that Mr. Cantrell has found a house for them. A note in Patricia's hand indicates the first lecture is 2 Jan. 1941, 2:15pm. 

Accompanying the original letter is a typed copy.

"On April 24, Bertrand Russell himself wrote a brief note to Inge agreeing to start private instruction the next day at 11:00 and asking her to let him know after his lecture if she was coming.14  Evidently, she  had  decided to  do  what one  typically  did when aiming for the mathematical Tripos— hire a private tutor. She presumably chose Russell because she already knew him both privately and as a lecturer. However, their collaboration did not last long. In mid-May, Russell wrote to her again, this time to express  his  understanding that  she  did not  have  the time  required for intense work with a private tutor. “I can quite see that under the circumstances, you wouldn’t have time to do any work for me. If next year or the year after you have more time I shall (so far as I can see) be quite able and willing to resume the lessons then”, he wrote.15" (Hanne Strager, If I Am Right, and I Know I Am [New York: Columbia U. P., 2025], p. 82. 

The later letter is at record 135573.

Sold by RR Auction in 2023. Source: Bertrand Russell Typed Letter Signed | RR Auction.

Catlin's secretary thanks BR for his letter and for sending the manuscript of his "Philosophy and Politics" address. Catlin will not be back until May.

Catlin returns the "Philosophy and Politics" manuscript. He is just leaving for Canada and Vera Brittain is in Switzerland, but hopes that when they are both home they might see BR and Peter towards the end of November.

Catlin quotes Patricia Russell extensively to Denny from her letter to Catlin (1940/04/08, record 120459). He goes on to offer his support for BR, who has been put out of action for his views on sex. Catlin seems to imply that BR wrote Marriage and Morals "under the undue influence of a former wife". (That can only be Dora Russell.)

BR asks if Davies might be able to recommend a secretary. There follows a list of desired qualifications.

BR thanks Davies for the report on his recent visit to the US.

There is sticky tape residue on the letter.

BR thanks Davies for his letter which he has passed on to the BRPF. One of the staff will be writing to him in the near future.

BR sends a prospectus for Beacon Hill School and provides additional details.

The enclosed prospectus (B&R A52.2a) is annotated with revisions in secretary Olive Harrington's hand in a number of places. Fees are filled in.

BR  (being "very hard up") cannot lend him any money, but wishes him success and good travels in Spain. 

“I hope enclosed will do. I have just avoided writing it on the tenth anniversary of Pearl Harbour!” 

BR was touched by his letter and enjoyed his visit. He invites Neville to bring Miss Hocken if he would care to bring her.

BR indicates he will produce a book of 70,000 words or more for Liveright. If he chooses to write something shorter, neither side would be bound to this agreement.

BR requests they direct the cheque of £500 for The Conquest of Happiness to him at Beacon Hill School or to the Westminster Bank, Petersfield, where the school account is kept.

BR thanks them for the advertisement proof, which he "like[s] very much". The Conquest of Happiness has sold 12,000 copies.

BR is grateful for the cheque of £684 6s 8d and that his emendations to Pell's telegram were correct.

A cheque for The Conquest of Happiness for $32.72, cancelled by the Midland Bank Ltd, Festiniog, 1949-06-13.

BR encloses the two autographs that were requested as well as an American stamp. 

This is a cancelled cheque for $172 in royalties for The Conquest of Happiness and other titles listed to the left of the cheque proper.

BR thanks him for the letter and invitations, but doubts he will have time to use them.

BR thanks her for her reminiscences of Kirkby Lonsdale and wonders if she is the granddaughter of "Herbert Rix, a Unitarian".

In dictation the surname looks like Lechmere-Olsted, but when typed it became Lechmere-Oertel . Presumably Edith Russell, the typist of the letter, took a closer look at the surname. See the dictated copy at record 12664.

She is probably Margaret Haywood Lechmere (1882–1969), who married a German, F.A. Oertel (1862–1942), in 1903.

BR returns the photo she had sent, now signed.

BR thanks her for sending him her husband's posthumous work. BR had a "high opinion" of Moritz Schlick as a philosopher.

Added on a different typewriter: "I am afraid I did not know Bradlaugh personally. Einstein is, without doubt, a very great man."

BR thanks him for his letter and encourages him to join a peace organization in the United States or contact Linus Pauling to continue the struggle against nuclear war.

BR thanks him for his letter and encloses some literature and his autograph as requested. The signature on the letter is secretarial.

"I do not possess Chrome Yellow and therefore have been unable to look up the passages concerned. The chief passage was one repeating my remark that I liked the underground because nothing visible in it was created by God. This was said as a joke but Huxley's character said it in deadly earnest."

BR thanks him for his letter and looks forward to receiving the cuttings. The letter was annotated by BR to indicate the cuttings had arrived.

Visit from her and Eric Neville. Her very kind present gave BR much joy.

The letter was found for sale by L'Autographe Auctions, London, lot 173, auctioned on 29 July 2024, and again on 24 Nov. 2025. Not sold.

BR thanks Salzmann for his book of drawings and apologizes for the delay.

1961 is the year on the letter, but the reference to BR's imprisonment makes it really 1962.

Alys is looking forward to her interview with Lady Russell.

The copy of this letter was replaced with the original in 2026.   

Ms., in BR's hand, titled "Whitehead's Notation for Multiple Relations", is presented as letter 188.

"Thursday evening", followed by "Friday morning" and further down, "2.30 p.m."

The copy of this letter was replaced with the original in 2026. 

Celeste Marie MacFadden (1900–1974) was first married to Jack Holden and was the mother of Jackie Holden (1924–), a pupil at Beacon Hill School. Celeste in 1932 married "Kohler of Kohler, Wisconsin, supporter of McCarthy", as a note by BR states. He was Walter J. Kohler, Jr. (1904–1976), like his father a Governor of Wisconsin. Celeste in 1946 became Mrs. C.M. MacFadden. Her full maiden name was Marie Celeste McVoy.

She donated her Russell letters to McMaster. With them she included several items of her correspondence with the University of Chicago Library.

"Thursday after lunch"

"It is silly to write again, & I have nothing to say..."

The copy of this letter was replaced with the original in 2026. 

"After breakfast at thy desk".

Alys wants to find the address in Paris of a flower painter named Rivoire.

The copy of this letter was replaced with the original in 2026. 

"Wednesday evening"

The copy of this letter was replaced with the original in 2026. 

A two-page letter entitled "On the Date of our Marriage". This letter was found with BR's 1894 letters to Alys; thus it is assumed Alys is the intended recipient. It is unclear if Alys received this letter.

BR thanks Madej for his interest and encloses some literature about the Peace Foundation.

The carbon for this letter is available at record 38042.

BR thanks Simpkins for his kind letter and wishes him "every success for the future".

Included with the letter is a clipping about the sale of the archives to McMaster University.

The carbon for this letter is available at record 40734.

BR notes a discrepancy between the amount of a cheque and the amount stated in a letter.

Alys writes to express her sympathies on Philip Morrell's election loss.

"So far as I am concerned, I am quite willing you should reprint the passages you mention. But you will have to ask the publisher, who has the legal rights."

Hockney describes himself as a great admirer of BR's work and would be pleased to donate a print or drawings.

The original of the letter was included with artwork in an auction to raise funds for the Atlantic Peace Foundation, March 2026. 

The copy of this letter was replaced with the original in 2026.