"Sunday" "Dearest O. So the Kaiser is gone!"

[Letter no. is not on letter.]

"Sat. My Dearest O—Thank you for your letter."

[Letter no. is not on letter.]

"(In train going to see Allen) This letter is a cry of distress and an appeal for help. I find it utterly impossible for me to do any work or endure life if I live in London, and I know I can't live alone. I must find some way of enduring life, or else give it up."

"The truth is I am worn out. I need looking after, and some one to see after the mechanism of life and leave my thoughts free for work. Since I quarrelled with Alys I have never found any one who would or could take me away for holidays when I am tired or take care of me and now I find without something of the kind I am no good."

[Letter no. is not on letter.]

"Dearest O Thank you for your letter."

"My Dearest O.—A thousand thanks for the lovely Keats which came this morning."

[Letter no. is not on letter.]

"Wed. My darling. I am sorry not to have written all this time but I have had literally not one minute—various crises have come one on top of the other—"

BR TO OTTOLINE MORRELL, [8 JUNE 1917]
BRACERS 18708.

"Friday My Darling—I wrote to you after Leeds* and I don't know why you didn't get the letter."

*3 June 1917.

[Letter no. is not on letter.]

"Sat. My Darling—I haven't had a moment to write, and now I am just off to Leeds—I wonder what will happen there—all the hotels have refused to take delegates so I suppose we shall walk the streets all night singing the Red Flag."

[Letter no. is not on letter.]

"Sunday My Darling—I was very glad of your letter en route for I. of W. [Isle of Wight]"

"Tuesday My Darling—I was very happy at Garsington."

[Letter no. is not on letter.]

"Wed. My Darling—Thank you, I will come at Whitsuntide* unless something unexpected prevents me, which isn't very likely."

*7th Sunday after Easter (8 April) = 27 May.

[Letter no. is not on letter.]

"Thurs. evg. My Darling—I was glad to get your letter."

[Letter no. is not on letter.]

"Friday My Darling—I loved our talks Tuesday and Wed."

"Sat. My Darling—I loved our talks more than I can say—I was very happy in them—and I am so thankful we got things straightened out—"

[Letter no. is not on letter.]

"Friday My Darling I was very glad to get your letter this morning—I am not surprised you feel rather dead and depressed—"

"Thursday." "The Morning Post has been attacking me in a leader—I have sent them a reply*. Probably I shall get into trouble over my letter to Wilson. I enclose a letter from an unknown officer...."

"I have been elected substitute chairman of the N.C.F. for the period of Allen's imprisonment."

*"The Pacifist at Large. Mr. Bertrand Russell Explains Himself." Morning Post (Lon.), 15 Jan. 1917, 9.

[Letter no. is not on letter.]

"Sat. night. My Darling—I have been all day (10 till 10) in the chair at N.C.F. committee.—Your card reached me just as I was starting, and your telegram when I got home—tomorrow it goes on again."

"Sat night. I have just got your little letter about Nicod—I had not heard a syllable till he appeared on my doorstep yesterday—the proposed law under which he was to have been re-examined was defeated so he is safe."

[Letter no. is not on letter.]

"I am coming to Oxford to speak on Feb. 4."

[Letter no. is not on letter.]

"Tuesday I was glad of your letter, and glad you have decided to try the cure."

"Monday Dearest O—I am hoping to see you on Thursday for tea and dinner—when and where? and then to go on to Mrs Hamilton's party."

[Letter no. is not on letter.]

"Monday mg. My Darling—What you told me yesterday was very painful."

[Letter no. is not on letter.]

There are no dating clues for this letter. It is located with letters from both 1917 and 1918 as well as other undated ones.

[1917 or possibly 1918.] "Tuesday My Darling—I got your dear dear letter yesterday."

"Monday mg Dearest O. I am sorry I was such a dismal person the last week—I was feeling ill and weary but I shall be better after a holiday."

[Letter no. is not on letter.]

"Lemon's Farm, Abinger Common [Dorking] Sat. My Dearest O.—I was glad to get your letter this afternoon."

"Thursday." Got her letter from Isle of Wight. Miss Mackenzie: can't do much for her.

S. Sassoon: "His statement is impressing everybody and is getting widely known." Will get 12 days' holiday at beginning of August.

"I wrote a leader for the Herald* this week on the German situation, and am going to do things fairly often for them on foreign affairs. It seems likely I shall be elected to this Workers' Council...."

"They could have done great things if they had been bold after Leeds, but now it is all grown cold."

*Probably "The Fall of Bethmann-Hollweg", Herald, no. 905, (21 July 1917), 9.

"Sat." The Times and a lot of other newspapers printed S. Sassoon's statement.

[Letter no. is not on letter.]

"Tuesday I hate myself for having given you so much pain when we talked—I did not really know what was at the back of the feeling I had put into my letter—"

"Monday." During C. Allen's imprisonment; he is about to disobey another order.

Attached: "The International Outlook"* by Russell; tscc, 4 pp. This does not belong with l.; written after 4.08.18. *"The International Situation", The Tribunal, no. 68: 26 July 1917, 2.

[Letter no. is not on letter.]

"I have heard from Withers about lectures* in London and am very keen to get to work on them."

*On the Analysis of Mind.

"I have been reading (for review) Dean Inge on Plotinus*...." Has also read: Beavans's book on German Socialism during War, Drinkwater's A. Lincoln, Cannan's Mummers.

*An unsigned review by BR appeared in the Nation, 24:25 Jan. 1919, 491-2.

"Dearest O—It was sad leaving Garsington and I hated going—but I must have a place for books and papers—"

[Letter no. is not on letter.]

"Dearest O.—Thank you very much for your letter—which I got yesterday."

"The search for a place by the sea ended very successfully."

"I had great difficulty getting started writing my lectures, but now they are going all right."

"Who is 'S' in the Athenaeum?"

Has read Barbellion: "I loved him at first, when he was full of observation of nature; then I only pitied him."

"My Dearest O.—Thank you very much for your dear birthday letter which came yesterday—"

"This next Sunday I go for the day to see the Whiteheads at Oxted."

"I have been working like a black, writing my lecture each week, as well as reviewing and articles ... the Athenaeum and the Dial quite suffice, with my lectures, so that I am by no means poor any longer."

[Letter no. is not on letter.]

"My Dearest O.—I am very sorry, Monday evg. is quite impossible."

"Newlands Farm" "My Dearest O.—I am so dreadfully sorry you have been suffering such great pain—every Dr. you have always makes you endure horrible things—but I hope it will do you so much good as to have been worth it."

[Letter no. is not on letter.]

"Newlands Farm" "Also a book about China, for the Athenaeum."

Katherine Mansfield.

"Newlands Farm" "My Dearest O—Thank you very very much for your letter—I can't bear to think of your feeling lonely, and it is not nearly so true as you think."

"Newlands Farm" "I have read a big book on Russia by Masaryk".*

*BR's review of Masaryk's The Spirit of Russia appeared in International Review (War and Peace), 2(3): Sept. 1919.

"Newlands Farm" "My Dearest O.—Thank you many many times for your letter."

"My Dearest O.—It was delightful to get a letter from you from Achill Island—"

[Letter no. is not on letter.]

"Dearest O.—I wish very much that I could come Friday but I have a business meeting all day that I must be at."

"Hotel des Deux Villes, The Hague" "My Dearest Ottoline—I have much to tell you that is of interest. I leave here today, after a fortnight's stay, during a week of which Wittgenstein was here, and we discussed his book every day. I came to think even better of it than I had done; I feel sure it is a really great book, though I do not feel sure that it is right. I told him I could not refute it, and that I was sure it was either all right or all wrong, which I considered the mark of a good book; but it would take me years to decide which. This of course didn't satisfy him, but I couldn't say more. [Kierkegaard.]

I had felt in his book a flavour of mysticism, but was astonished when I found that he has become a complete mystic. He reads people like Kirkegaard and Angelus Silesius, and he seriously contemplates becoming a monk. It all started from William James's Varieties of Religious Experience, and grew (not unnaturally) during the winter he spent alone in Norway before the war, when he was nearly mad. Then during the war a curious thing happened. He went on duty to the town of Tarnov in Galicia, and happened to come upon a book-shop, which, however, seemed to contain nothing but picture post-cards. However, he went inside and found that it contained just one book: Tolstoy on the Gospels. He bought it merely because there was no other. He read it and re-read it, and thenceforth had it always with him, under fire and at all times. But on the whole he likes Tolstoy less than Dostoewski (especially Karamazov). He has penetrated deeply into mystical ways of thought and feeling...."

"My Dearest O.—Your two letters and Plotinus all came yesterday—"

Sends her "Dreams and Facts".

[Letter no. on letter.]

Sends her a lecture syllabus.

On Norton: "The Appeal Tribunal was impressed by Whitehead's testimonial, and agreed to let him off if the Master would endorse what Whitehead said, but the Master seems unwilling."

"Wed. mg. My Darling I have just seen Goldie,* who seems to realize that he was foolish in refusing your invitation."

*[G. Lowes Dickinson.]

"Tuesday" "Wittgenstein has given away every penny he possesses" [this in the context of the queerness of mankind]. Einstein.

[Letter no. is not on letter.]

"My Dearest O.—Thank you for your telegram and letter."

"Sunday. My Dearest O.—I answered your letter from Achil Island practically by return but the strike held it up—I suppose you will have got it by now."

"Tuesday. My Dearest O—I do hope your operation is going on well and will do you good."

"Monday. My Dearest O.—C.A.* will come either Thurs. or Sat.—he will write himself to say which. I will get him to bring Gorky."

*[Clifford Allen.]

[Although written on Overstrand Mansions letterhead, Russell was at Newlands Farm at this time.]

"Monday."

"I have just come from a long visit to the Whiteheads—I hope it may be possible to have some real friendship with them again; I can't bear the snapping of old ties. And now with [the] war ending I must stop seeing only pacifists."

[Letter no. is not on letter.]

"Wed. Dearest O—I am sorry about Lulworth but not angry—you are wrong in thinking, though, that I don't need you—it is a second-rate happiness, nine tenths pain—I was not born for happiness, worse luck—"

The letter is an answer to Ottoline Morrell's letter of 7 October, record 114761. 

"Friday Dearest O.—Thank you, I will come about 6:30 on Sunday so as to get time to talk before dinner."

[Letter no. is not on letter.]

"Cottage Hotel" "My Dearest O.—I forgot to say in so many words that of course anything that happens with regard to Dora Black will not interfere with our friendship in any way whatever—I do not believe in restrictive things and would not enter upon them."

[Letter no. is not on letter.]

"Friday My Dearest O.—May I come to dinner Sunday evening?"

[Letter no. is not on letter.]

"I have just returned from Scotland—I spoke in Edinburgh, Clydebank, Paisley (!), and twice in Glasgow—on the lines of the lecture I gave you to read...."

"Passport Office Monday Dearest O—I am off to Barcelona on Wednesday [24 March 1920] to lecture on philosophy—Miss Black will come too—probably there will be time to see something of Spain and it ought to be very delicious."

"Hotel Fondo della Marina, Soller" "Dearest O.—My lectures in Barcelona (which is a horrid place) are finished and I am here for a few days with Miss Black."

"I also have to write a paper for the Aristotelian Society."

Re Russian trip arrangements.

"Sat. Dearest O.—Unexpectedly I have had to hurry my departure for Russia so as to arrive there with the Labour people (C.A.*is one of them)."

*Clifford Allen.

"Hotel Continental" "Dearest O. Various difficulties about steamers etc. have held us up, so we don't leave here till Saturday."

[Letter 1566 is written on envelope. There is, however, another letter 1566. There is no 1562. Since this letter occupies the allotted space on the microfilm for 1562, that number has been assigned to it.]

"I am here at last, in this city which has filled the world with history, which has inspired the most deadly hatreds and the most poignant hopes."

This was number 5 in a sequence of eight Russia letters. In the Autobiography, however, it became number 2 as the letters that Colette wrote are not published there.

The city he is referring to is Petrograd, Soviet Russia, although the actual letter was not written from there or on the date written on the letter. It was written after his return from Russia on 30 June 1920.

The number 5 does not appear on the letter; that number comes from copies of the letter. It is number 1563 in the numbered sequence of letters to Ottoline Morrell, although the number does not appear on the actual letter, only at the top of the microfilm print. It somehow ended up in Ottoline's possession. In the Auto. Russell writes that this and the other letters were "antedated letters to Colette", i.e. Constance Malleson. When Julian Vinogradoff (Ottoline's daughter) wanted to publish this letter in 1955, Russell refused permission, writing that "these were not personal letters to your mother, but were sent to various people." (Document .053309, record 13763.)

There are four transcriptions of this letter:

Document .052467, record 99953 (ribbon copy)
Document .200649, record 19654 (carbon copy)
Document .052458, record 99934 (different typing)
Autobiography chapter "Russia", document .007050f2, pp. 149-50, record 116401.

"My Dear—This is a strange world into which I have come, a world of dying beauty and harsh life." This was number 6 in a sequence of eight Russia letters. In the Auto. however, it became number 3 as the letters that Colette wrote are not published there.

The strange world he is referring to is Petrograd, Soviet Russia, although the actual letter was not written from there or on the date written on the letter. It was written after his return from Russia on 30 June 1920.

The number 6 does not appear on the letter; that number comes from copies of the letter. It is number 1564 in the numbered sequence of letters to Ottoline Morrell, although the number does not appear on the actual letter, only at the top of the microfilm print. It somehow ended up in Ottoline's possession. In the Auto. Russell writes that this and the other letters were "antedated letters to Colette", i.e. Constance Malleson. When Julian Vinogradoff (Ottoline's daughter) wanted to publish this letter in 1955, Russell refused permission, writing that "these were not personal letters to your mother, but were sent to various people." (Document .053309, record 13763).

There are four transcriptions of this letter:

Document .052468, record 99954 (ribbon copy)
Document .200650, record 19654 (carbon copy)
Document .052459, record 99935 (different typing)
Autobiography chapter "Russia", document .007050f2, pp. 149- 50, record 116402.

"On the Volga. Our boat travels on, day after day, through an unknown and mysterious land."

This was number 8 in a sequence of eight Russia letters. In the Autobiography, however, it became number 4 as the letters that Colette wrote are not published there.

The letter was not written from the Volga or on the date written on the letter. It was written after Russell's return from Russia on 30 June 1920.

The number 8 does not appear on the letter; that number comes from copies of the letter. It is number 1565 in the numbered sequence of letters to Ottoline. It somehow ended up in Ottoline's possession. In the Autobiography Russell writes that this and the other letters were "antedated letters to Colette", i.e. Constance Malleson. When Julian Vinogradoff (Ottoline's daughter) wanted to publish this letter in 1955, Russell refused permission, writing that "these were not personal letters to your mother, but were sent to various people" (document .053309, record 13763).

There are five transcriptions of the letter:

Document .200651, record 19656 (ribbon copy)
Document .052461, record 99939 (carbon of .200651)
Document .052469, record 99955 (ribbon)
Document .200652, record 19657 (carbon copy of .052469)
Autobiography chapter "Russia", document .007050f2, pp. 151-2, record 116403.

There is also a handwritten version of the letter with the tense changed in The Problem of China at the end of Chapter 1 (ms., Rec. Acq. 1027, box 7; record 116404).

"Hotel Continental" "Dearest O.—I have got this far on my return but boats are very full and it may be a week before I reach England."

"My Dearest 0.—Thank you very much for your dear letter which I found when you got home."

"My Dearest O.—A thousand thanks for your dear letter which came this morning."

"Wed. Dearest O.—I haven't read any of the books you mention—they sound just right."

"As to the book, it is hard to find time, and if I do it there will be signs of haste about it. I have written a certain amount of it but I feel doubtful."

[Early August] "Monday My Dearest O.—I wonder if you could do me a kindness—I shall want books in China and I suppose one can't get them there—and I haven't time to attend to getting them—rather solid books, especially history and biography, are the sort I could read—I don't want books one gets through very quickly."

Dora Black's "people are coming to the station to see us off and give the family blessing! They accept me as if I were a son-in-law, though they are in no way advanced."

"In the Indian Ocean" "Dearest O.—All goes well so far with this voyage—except that the heat in the Red Sea was rather terrible—but now it is better."

"Between Hong Kong and Shanghai" On Saigon: "a nightmare place". "Tomorrow morning we arrive at Shanghai and leave the steamer." Liang translated their writing on Russia into Chinese.

"I have to go [stet] a place a long way up the Yiangtse where they are having an educational conference—in the province of Hu-nan."

[Letter no. is not on letter.]

Encloses "a sort of diary* which [you] might send to any one who wants it"; "send it to Massingham and say he can print extracts if he wants to. But if not, I can send him something more interesting later, which I should prefer."

*The "diary" was printed as "The Happiness of China", The Nation, 28: 8 Jan. 1921, 505-6.

[Letter no. is not on letter.]

"Since landing in China we have had a most curious and interesting time, spent, so far, entirely among Chinese students and journalists who are more or less Europeanized." "The day after I landed they gave a vast dinner to us.…" "I have delivered innumerable lectures—on Einstein, education, and social questions."

This is the "diary" enclosed with letter no. 1576, which BR indicates she should send on to anyone who wants it.

There are three transcriptions of it:

Document .201209, record 111671.
Document .201210 (the carbon of .201109), record 116712.

"Dearest O.—I got your letter of Sp. 10 a few days ago—I wonder if you are in France—I 'remember France' (you remember Lamb's letters?)."

"Wednesday" "My Dearest O.—I loved every moment at Garsington."

[Letter no. is not on letter.]

"2 Sui an Po Hutung" "Dearest O.—I have had a letter from you of Oct. 8, but as yet nothing later." "A good deal of writing articles in Chinese and Japanese papers."

BR says he's sending a few photos. [These must be the photographs on the microfilm between documents .001584 and .001585. They were not viewable. Now (October 2015), good scans of the photos have been obtained from Texas, albeit with their logo imprinted in the centre. For printouts, see Recent Acquisition 1745. The captions are by BR.] "I study Einstein".

[Date: possibly 28 Aug. 1920] "Saturday. Dearest O.—We are held up here by delay in the sailing of the steamer from Marseilles, and shall probably be here another week."

[Letter no. is not on letter.]

"Monday Dearest O.—It would suit us very well if it suits P. to fetch Dora by the 4.45 from Pad. arriving 5.55."

[Letter no. is not on letter.]

"2 Sui an Po Hutung" "My Dearest O.—Your New Year's eve letter came a few days ago, and I was very glad to get it, though it seemed sad."

Dewey is discussed.

"German Hospital" "Dearest O.—I am just able to write again so I want to tell you how profoundly you have been in my thoughts all this strange time."

Enclosure ms. of his delirium dream was dictated to Dora.

[On the microfilm this letter is followed by several photos that are unviewable. BR actually sent them with his letter of 1920/12/17, record 18787. Good scans (plus the HRC logo) have been obtained from Texas; see Recent Acquisition 1745.]

"Dictated. German Hospital" About Dora's poem as printed in The Nation. BR is indignant at the editing of her poem.

"German Hospital" "Dearest O.—I am now much better, indeed quite well except for a tiresome aftermath in the shape of inflammation of the vein of a leg."

"My Dearest O.—I was very glad to get your long letter which reached me the other day from Lausanne."

Pulse is often over 100.

"Dearest O.—Today I got your good long letter from Lausanne—I was very glad to hear—I was afraid you had been ill—how maddening to have all your time in Italy ruined by that dreadful neuralgia."

[Letter no. is not on letter.] For 3 months today wore only pyjamas.

"Dearest O.—Thank you very much for your letter which I found when I got here last night."

"Dearest O. I was very glad to get your letter from Kirkby Lonsdale." [Letter no. is not on letter.]

"Dearest O.—Thank you for your letter." A long letter about the unkindness of friends, especially Clifford Allen.

[Letter no. is not on letter.]

"Wed. Dearest O.—I am sorry I wrote you such a depressed letter yesterday, and I don't want Allen to be blamed as he didn't at all realize the inconvenience he was causing."

"Sunday Dearest O.—Thank you very much for your two kind letters."