"The Plaisance on the Midway at Jackson Park" "What you have written about me for your autobiography seems to me most generous...." Must be alive when war ends.

"Leandro Cottage, San Leandro Lane, Montecito" "Address til Sp. 15" "War would be worse than Hitler". [Difference between the coming war and the last one.] "This war will not be decided by manpower, and home will be as dangerous as the trenches." "Poor C.A.*! I felt absolutely nothing when he died."

*Clifford Allen.

"I don't mind in the least your using fragments of your book in periodicals."

"How strange you are going to Rodborough! The house is gone, and little is left of the beauty that was there in my parents' time." [The Amberleys]

"Leandro Cottage" "All that I have ever attempted, both personally and impersonally, seems to have failed. Nevertheless, somehow I believe that fearlessness and honesty must be worth while."

BR is writing big book on words and facts. "I think I know more than others do about the relation of words to what they describe."

He has back trouble.

"High Sierra Camps" "My Dearest Colette Thank you very much for your dear letter from Arjang."

There was no date originally written on this letter. Later Colette dated it as August 1939. The content of the letter is very similar to a letter Russell wrote to Warder Norton on 17 August.

"212 Loring Avenue" "Dearest Colette I was glad to get your little letter of Sep. 1."

"212 Loring Avenue" "Why did Mrs. Swanwick commit suicide? Was she suffering from cancer? I admired and liked her profoundly."

"212 Loring Avenue" Re Finland.

John comes to his lectures.

BR's chief English correspondents are Lucy Silcox, Gilbert Murray, Bob Trevelyan.

"We see a good deal of Judith Stephen, Karin's daughter, Virginia Woolf's niece, whom I used to teach logic to. She is very clever and very good; she has been at Bryn Mawr with a scholarship, but is now going back to England. I didn't know Virginia well, and didn't care much for her books, so her death was not a personal grief to me."

"Dearest Colette I have written you a letter today in answer to the second one from Sweden."

Jos. Wedgwood: "with that kind of vitality that old men only have when they are honest".

"This time I have nothing to say about public affairs that I think worth saying."

BR has heard from Nancy Pearn in answer to his own letter [BR's (old?) U.K. agent and Malleson's present] agent.

"Almost no real friendships here."

"Dearest Colette I got your telegram telling of your mother's death."

[Letter is not signed; the bottom has been cut off.]

Visitors (including Julian Huxley).

"I can't get articles published here, except sometimes by luck."

[Letter had been signed, but the signature was cut out.]

"[John] has written a most admirable thesis on the causes of the failure of democracy wherever it has failed ... it shows really remarkable capacity. His opinions on almost all subjects are the same as mine, but independently arrived at—just as mine were the same as my father's, though I did not know what his had been until much later."

"What fun about your sister Clare and the Duke! [of Bedford] I wonder if it will come to anything. I don't know him, and of course disagree with all his opinions, but obviously he is an honest man—'which, as the world goes, is to be one among ten thousand'." BR lectures once a week in New York. "My head is full of books I want to write, but I don't suppose I shall be able to afford to."

"2 Pennstone Rd." "BR is on the point of finishing my History of Philosophy, which has been a big job."

[On the Schilpp volume:] "I am amazed how little other philosophers understand me."

"My next book, if I have time to write it, will be on non-demonstrative inference."

"I have had enough of arguing—I want people who feel things the same sort of way as I do." "The deaths of Beatrice Webb and Jos Wedgwood made me very sad."

[Also numbered in K. Blackwell's hand, 710.104396.]

"(As from) Trinity College" "It is very nice being back at Cambridge and everybody is very nice to me. Wittgenstein has vanished, I don't remember where to. Last time he was patriotic; this time not, because partly Jew."

"John ... is all one could wish."

[Signature is on a strip of paper which was cut off the foot of letter.]

John is to learn Japanese.

The Russells are at Sidmouth, South Devon, by the sea.

"And I really think the war will end this year. I can't well write about political things."

BR provides his return address as "as from" Trinity.

"My Dearest Colette I have just got your letter of June 25, with a cheque in repayment of $75, which you really shouldn't have troubled about." BR prefers her handwriting to her typewriter.

Re Carr, Ratcliffe, Voigt, Metternich.

"Kate is just back from America, covered with academic glory."

"Peter and Conrad were, until last Saturday, in a boarding house, but I have bought a house and they are now in it." The History of Western Philosophy will be published in U.S. this autumn or next spring. BR does not write about the war because of censorship.

[Also numbered in K. Blackwell's hand, 710.104398.]

"I give up my rooms in college at Christmas, and shall then live at Grosvenor Lodge; it is rather far to walk, but there is a bus every 12 minutes."

BR has received the Barnes money — "quite a sum".

"Events in Greece and Italy perturb me. I do not like the prospect of the post-war world."

"Grosvenor Lodge, Babraham Rd" "As to politics, I enclose a rough draft of a letter which appeared, somewhat altered, in the Times." (Rough draft not present.)

(The previous letter to have appeared in The Times was B&R C45.21, "Mass Deportations", 23 October.)

"I am very busy, in my spare time, with the atomic bomb and the feeding of starving Germans and others."

Finland is likely to be a war area again. John was sent to Washington.

BR is lecturing weekly (on Thursdays) at University College, London in addition to BBC and "occasional House of Lords". Heraclitus: "When I came to look into him closely I found he was a Fascist and anti-scientific, so, though I still like him, I felt I mustn't praise him."

BR is engaged every Thursday and on Feb. 11 and 12.

BR wants Colette not to stay in Finland: "I feel the Russians will make it impossible to do any good in Finland."

On Kapitza: "The Russians kidnapped him, gave him a fine lab, and ordered him to work for them. (The atomic bomb was already in prospect.) The Royal Society made a tremendous fuss, in vain."

In praise of BR's son Conrad.

"Dearest Colette It was a very great joy to see you again after such a long time, and to find it so possible still to talk intimately and to feel a still vital relation."

BR has been ill "almost continuously" since they met — flu and bronchitis.

"Her [Patricia's] illness, which was very serious, drained me of vitality and brought on my illness." She is now in North Wales.

"Dearest Colette Every moment of my visit to you was a joy."

BR offers her 3 of his books that he has in duplicate.

"Saturday Dearest Colette Thank you for your telegram." BR has looked through the ms. of In the North and has no change to suggest in the passages about himself.

"I have just found some fragments on notes for an autobiography which I wrote in 1931. I send two pages which please return."

"My Dearest Colette I have been thinking of you constantly and wondering how you have been getting on."

"Your rock-like quality has always profoundly impressed me." "I have just been to Switzerland for a fortnight's lecturing — the people were kind and pleasant but not exciting."

"John plans to marry an American girl whom I don't know — aged 19, has a husband, and a child by another man, and a child by John on the way. It doesn't sound too good...." "John ... has been going through complicated spiritual crises, and will need lots of talk."

The cottage they have bought [in Ffestinog] may be habitable by Christmas.

The letter as published in SLBR has one transcription error.

"My Dearest Colette—I was very glad to get your letter of July 31st about a week ago."

John is going to adopt "his young woman's child".

"The state of the world is so dreadful that it seems almost useless to think of it. Here, sea and mountains help one to keep one's mind on less transitory matters."

For political reasons, BR tells her it would be better to live in Sweden rather than in Finland.

Their meetings must "be limited to what would not cause too much domestic friction." After Christmas BR will not be at Trinity but with Patricia in a tiny flat in London.

"The future has never looked so black as now — another big war, much worse than the last, seems nearly certain."

Because of History of Philosophy, BR is "richer than at any time for the last 40 years". Has Colette read The Dark Side of the Moon (anon.) about "very horrible" Russian doings in Poland?

BR will be in Cambridge one night in every week during term.

On those who hate BR's anti-Soviet politics.

He refers to "the re-birth of our mutual affection which began last year in London".

"People vexed with me about Russia: Haldane and Bernal Ostentatiously turned their backs on me at a party; Kingsley Martin treats me as a Victorian parson would have treated a son become a freethinker; the Williams Ellis's carefully avoid politics when we meet; and so on and so on. I had a stand-up public argument with G.D.H. Cole, in which we glared at each other, and felt ourselves on opposite side [sic] of the barricades.

Feeling both ways grows more and more bitter. Unfortunately the slightest taint of liberalism is, in America, regarded as evidence of pro-Russian disloyalty; a heresy hunt is being got up, and will no doubt do untold harm."

"In some circles I am very popular. The BBC loves me; so do some Bishops. I am thick with Gollancz, who is now very anti-Soviet."

BR's various troubles of a year ago have cleared up. "And my work goes well, and in the matter of the atom bomb I have some influence. 6,000,000 people heard my broadcast on it." BR goes to France in June and perhaps to Germany in October — in both cases to lecture.

"The winter was very trying — great cold, with a shortage of light and heat, and a depressing feeling that the Government was muddling things."

BR, St. Augustine and chastity. Re Kapitza making atom bombs.

"My Dearest Colette Your letter of May 19 came very quickly—it was a pleasure to see your handwriting, which seems more you than typescript."

"I am 75, and though I feel as young as ever, I have to try to realize that I must do things soon if at all...."

Persian Browne: "is now fat and middle-aged and Minister of Education. He came originally because I had written against Russian doings at Tabriz; recently, he says, their doings have been just the same at the same place".

"I was chosen to be the first atheist allowed to express his atheism at the BBC; it happened the night before last."

"When [Human Knowledge] is done I shall devote myself to Autobiography, which I have always reserved for my dotage." "It seems I shall not be going to Germany in the autumn." Perhaps he will go to Sweden in June to lecture.

Miles Malleson.

"I think there will be a third world war within a few years, in which most Europeans will be wiped out."

"I haven't been very quick with my book. I began it in 1943." Re Human Knowledge.

"As for next June, nothing is decided yet. The British Council started the plan, suggesting only Norway; but it seems that June is a bad month...."

BR is mostly tied up during Conrad's holidays: about Dec. 20 to Jan. 15.

"Dearest Colette Your letter of Aug. 22 came this morning." BR has sent £20 to Miss Fish.

BR is in Cambridge every Thursday from Oct. 9. Back to London at the end of September. He states: "We are now in Wales: Ffestiniog, N. Wales is the address."

"My Dearest Colette Your disappointing letter came yesterday."

In Sweden BR "would lecture or broadcast or write for a newspaper or magazine".

"Miles's Jewish wife is beautiful, silly, and sentimental." "Kate is engaged to a man I dislike."

Hansson has written BR satisfactorily about going to Sweden. Re Susan: "I like the wife, chiefly because she loves John."

"My Dearest Colette I was so glad of your lovely letter." For Sweden Hansson needs to get BR an invitation to lecture to a university or learned society.

"Yes, Lynton does seem long ago! I feel a Rip van Winkel—I remember minutely the Queen's first jubilee, 60 years ago, and dimly the Russo-Turkish war, 70 years ago."

"When I think of the world I suffer almost beyond endurance. One suffered in 1916, perhaps more acutely, but less utterly. It all makes me the more eager to be with you."

Re 1916: "But oh dear what hopes for the world one had then, and how illusory they have proved!"

"I wonder whether you heard my broadcast in Swedish on the Communist Manifesto, by the B.B.C." [In U.K. on 1948/05/04.] BR expects to be in Sweden May 21-31. "One must hope the Russians will not occupy Sweden before that date." "Don't stay much longer in Sweden. If you do, the Russians will get you."

"I am in with everybody in this country who does things about refugees etc. The business in Czechoslovakia has opened people's eyes, and opinion is immensely changed."

The letter contains a version of BR's reply to the Polish Ambassador's invitation to a reception to meet the Polish delegates to the congress of democratic lawyers. The substance of the letter is the same but the wording is often different.

See record 63356 for BR's copy of his reply, dated 1948/02/27.

"My Dearest Colette It is now fixed that I arrive at Stockholm air port at 6.15 p.m. on May 21 (Friday) and leave on the 31st."

No engagements after the 27th, BR has told Hansson.

A printed card announcing BR's lecture on "Mind and Matter" in Stockholm, 24 May 1948.

"My Dearest Your lovely letter reached me this morning—thank you for it 1000 times."

After their 10 days together in Sweden. "... I always remember outdoor things best."

"I had no difficulty at the customs, partly because the man who dealt with me was the same who dealt with me when I landed from America in 1944, four days after D Day."

Re Peter's suggestion of a visit from Malleson.

BR walked through Skye region with Crompton Ll. Davies in 1907.

BR will be in Amsterdam August 11-18.

"I can't help hoping you won't be able to get what you want in Scotland, and will then try N. Wales.... It would be wonderful to have you for a neighbour."

"[Kate's husband] is shy, scholarly, and very learned — he can explain the 17 cases of Finnish nouns. I like him and Kate is very happy."

Their cottage is so small that the Russells put visitors at the hotel, "which is quite tolerable".

BR is due in Oslo Oct. 1; Berlin afterwards. He is due in London Oct. 27. "How stupid of Hansson to get such a bad translator!"

BR describes the location of Festiniog relatively to Blaenau Festiniog and Port Madoc (Portmadoc). The inn is the Pengwern Arms. The Russells' cottage will not be found on the map, but the big house next door, Bryn Llewelyn, will be.

"British Embassy" "My Darling Colette It was lovely to find your dear letter here when I arrived today."

"In a world where everything is going to pieces, it is doubly comforting to find something that survives."

"British Embassy" "My Darling Colette Thank you for your lovely little letter."

On the Trondheim incident, "the 19 people trapped and drowned close by", and the greatly increased success of BR's tour.

"British Embassy" "My Dearest Colette Your letter about Finland came just after I had written to you."

"I have already as many journeys abroad arranged as are compatible with my work at Cambridge."

"I am sorry I did the wrong thing about the Duchess of Atholl—I was careless and thought her corrections were unimportant." "Utterly overwhelmed with work".

"Berlin was most interesting, and the people I saw seemed to me very courageous. But the problem is one that has no solution tolerable to them."

BR has to see pupils, "largely German".

[Malleson is at Ffestiniog.]

BR has been near a breakdown, but the cause is unspecified. [They were soon to spend about 10 days together.]

Frances has given notice, leaving only Mrs. Roberts in the mornings.

If service can't be managed, "... I must go to the Pengwern for part of that time, as there are things I need for my work."

"Dearest Colette I am sorry you are having such domestic upsets."

BR will arrive at 6.40 on March 11, possibly then the next day.

"Dearest Colette Peter is in bed with a temperature and gets agitated over your difficulties at the cottage."

BR wants Malleson to write to Patricia about the difficulties, although she is ill.

"Dearest Colette Peter is ill, so I am writing to thank you very warmly for the really lovely salt cellars and pepper boxes."

BR asks Malleson to arrange for the Pengwern Arms to meet BR at the station with a car.

"Dearest Colette Peter adheres to her plan of letting the cottage."

Malleson's annotation: "First letter to reach me after BR left Ffestiniog on 17 March 1949"; the letter is undated.

"Patricia is in the London clinic, Devonshire Place, W.1...." Malleson can write to BR c/o Miss Daphne Phelps, Casa Cuseni, Taormina, Sicily.

"I am sorry I was so perturbed while I was in Wales, but even so it was lovely to be with you."

The typescript of the Autobiography is mentioned.

"Destroy the envelope".

(Malleson states that the package containing the typescript was sent by "Ella", BR's Norwegian lover, aka Nalle Kielland.)

[c/o Miss Daphne Phelps Casa Cuseni] "Dearest Colette Peter came out here unexpectedly and by mistake was given a letter of yours before I got it. There has been an immense upheaval...."

"Dearest Colette I have had a letter from you, for which I am grateful."

BR thinks the break with Patricia Russell will be permanent. "All plans are in abeyance." Conrad and he leave on the 19th and reach Dorset House on the 20th.

"Hope visit you Wednesday late please bring Norway typescript love".

(The "Norway typescript" is unidentified here, but in Malleson's book of letters she reveals that it is the Autobiography. "Norway" refers to Nalle Kielland.)

"My Darling Colette A thousand thanks for your very dear letter."

Malleson's improvements at Penralltgoch, Festiniog.

BR expects to be alone there at least until late August. "I am feeling happy like a man let out of prison."

"My Darling Colette Your letters are a great joy — thank you for all you say."

"I am having a peaceful time, and getting my nerves rested. Peter seems reasonable, and an amicable separation is being arranged."

BR's "wealth" is fast vanishing.

"My Dearest Colette Thank you for your two lovely letters." "Conrad says he won't ever see me again unless I promise never to see you." "I am upset about Conrad, with whom I have just had an angry talk on the telephone."

"The prohibited-area feeling".

"Dearest Colette Two very dear letters have come from you — thank you for them with all my heart."

Conrad might come around if Malleson writes an apology.

"My Dear Bertie I am sorry Conrad saw the letter I wrote you, and I regret having written it."

[This letter is in BR's hand and marked "Draft"; he drafted the letter for Malleson to copy.]

"I am sorry Conrad saw the letter I wrote to you, and I want to say how more than sorry I am for the pain it caused him." This letter is based on the draft made by BR. It is not the finished version; there is as much handwritten material as there is typed.

"My Dearest Colette First, my very warmest thanks for the lovely things you have given me for my birthday."

[Bottom lines of letter are cut off.]

"Dearest Colette It will be quite all right, until Sp. 20, for you to send letters via Phyllis, provided she puts them in fresh envelopes and addresses them (your typewriter is distinctive)."

Re the letter BR suggested Malleson write. BR does not want to have to choose between Conrad and her.

"I am enjoying having a rest to my nerves, and finding complete solitude what I need."

"1949 summer Conrad will be here from the 25th July till the 20th Sp. After 20th Sp., my address will be [don't know]".

(This post card is written in both ink and pencil. Malleson wrote it in ink leaving parts blank. BR filled in the dates and the address and returned it to her. The post card is cut in half with the bottom part missing.

(Dated from Malleson's book of letters, 2: 122.)

"My draft of letter for BR to send Conrad. (I shall not write it till latest possible date.)"

"I am very sorry indeed that [Conrad] saw my letter to you, and [I] want to say how more than sorry [I] am for the pain it caused him."

[Letter is torn.]

"Dearest Colette—The draft letter you sent is quite satisfactory to me, and is all I asked for." Its arrival is urgent.

"I won't again attempt to live in any domestic situation with a woman. I don't seem able to make a success of it." "I have just been seeing the King. He was pleasant, didn't stammer, and didn't seem stupid. It was fun."

Conrad is likely to quarrel with Patricia Russell as soon as he has love affairs, "so it is important that I should keep on terms with him".

The letter as published in SLBR has one transcription error: "keep" for "bring".

A very important letter — on what they are to each other, BR's failure as a parent, Patricia Russell wanting him back.

The letter as published in SLBR has one transcription error: "your love" instead of "our love".

"My Dearest Colette Two letters from you this morning were a great joy—and the Crawshays had telephoned your telegram, too."

The marriage of the Crawshay-Williams "is certainly happy, and this has limited their experience and capacity for understanding."

Re Kenneth Walker and the male genitalia.

BR does not want to be divorced, the reasons being Conrad and income (for Dora and for Patricia Russell, and Conrad and help for John).

"Approximate wording of letter from Conrad Russell to Colette (original was sent by Colette to his father)."

"I regret to say that I have not been able to find any of your detestible [detestable] presents up here."

For the original letter, see document .104972, record 118751.

"Dearest Colette I have just heard that you are in England."

Patricia Russell may have detectives after BR.

"I mind so much about him [Conrad] that I feel my life purposeless and empty. I have a paralysing sense of failure." But BR has "recovered" John.

"The worry, weariness, and disgust of the sordid squabble with Peter and the terrible injury to Conrad has left me half dead emotionally...."

"My Dearest Colette Your letter of Monday reached me safely."

BR has received the prison letters.

The Crawshay-Williamses said Malleson had gone to Russia.

BR is to be in London Dec. 3-7. They cannot meet in a way that is "liable to scandal".

"Russell Baldwins Hotel Dover Street W1 = Carrie +"

Malleson was using Webster's address in Hull even though she was staying in London with her sister. This telegram contains the information sent by BR in a telegram to Malleson, c/o Webster, document .200892, record 19884.

"My Dearest Colette Your letter was a terrible shock to me and a complete surprise. My feelings about you are just what they were, and I had been looking forward most eagerly to seeing you tomorrow. There has been a chapter of accidents which I haven't been able to unravel."

Re the Dec. 6 meeting that BR had agreed to: he had a lecture in the morning [at the Imperial Defence College].

He does not know why Malleson went to Russia.

He discusses his relationship with Conrad.

"Sheer old age is gradually making me less and less capable of passionate love, such as I used to feel constantly, and still feel in moments of physical vigour. But there remains always a profound affection...."

(The letter BR refers to is available only in draft in Malleson's book of letters, 2: 138-9. See record 107293.)

"My Dear Colette I must accept your decision. Your letter makes me aware how much I have been to blame, and I will not attempt any defence. You knew me at my best; since then I have deteriorated. For all the pain I have caused you I am sorry. So this must be goodbye, with love always. B."

"Dear Miss Fish Thank you for your letter."

BR encloses a letter for Malleson, document .200894a, record 19887. "Her letter to me lists my sins, and they are many."

"Dear Miss Fish Thank you for your letter."

BR will be grateful for the photographs.

"Could you give me news of Colette?"

"Dear Miss Urch, Thank you for your letter of January 20."

"Dearest Colette Nalle sends me news of you that makes me very sad: that although the doctors had had hopes about your deafness, they have none any longer."

"(As from) 41 Queen's Rd Richmond Surrey" "My Dear Colette I was very much touched by the present of 'sweet lovely roses' that you gave me for my birthday."

Letter is pmk. St. Fillians; letterhead of Drummond Arms Hotel.

"Dearest Colette Thank you very much for the lovely roses."

"Dearest Colette Thank you very warmly for the 'sweet lovely roses' that you sent for my birthday."

BR invites Malleson to visit him and Edith at Hasker Street.

"Dearest Colette Warmest thanks for your birthday wishes and for the sweet lovely roses, which gave me very great pleasure."

"My present wife would like to know you."

"My wife Edith has an extraordinary capacity for affection and makes me very happy."

Where does Malleson's hackwork appear? [Answer: "in stupid magazines—unsigned by me".]