BR TO W.W. NORTON & COMPANY, INC. / WARDER NORTON, 31 MAR. 1933
BRACERS 47066. TLS. Norton papers, Columbia U.
Proofread by K. Blackwell and A. Duncan

47, Emperor’s Gate,
S.W.7.
31st March 19331

Dear Warder,

Thank you for your letter of March 23rd. I stick to it that the troubles of the world are psychological, and that if the whole American nation believed that Roosevelt could save them, then he would, in fact, save them whatever he did. Meanwhile, as far as I can judge from the papers, his actions appear very wise.

Thank you very much for the life of Carlyle that you promise me. I know a great deal about Carlyle,2 of whom at one time I made a careful study. He is part of the mediaevalist movement, of which the Ancient Mariner, the pre-Raphaelites, and Papal Infallibility are other branches. His Nietzschean philosophy is that of a dyspeptic eunuch.

I have not yet received the second volume of James Truslove Adams. I thought the first volume a quite delightful book. At the moment I am still occupied with democracy before 1848, or perhaps, when one is dealing with America, one might say before the Civil War.

I have been consulting Unwin, and I think he will be consulting you,a as to the way to manage the book. I have written up to now 58,000 words, and I find that this is not much more than half of what I have to say about the world before 1848. I have taken these 58,000 words to Unwin for him to read. I enclose a Table of Contents3 of the whole book, and the 58,000 words so far done cover only Sections A and B of Part I. I cannot tell whether Sections C and D will be equally long, but in any case Part I will run to about 100,000 words. I have begun to think that after all it may be best to bring out Part I as a separate book without waiting for Parts II and III. It will take me a long time to complete the book, for I am getting a historical conscience and find that I cannot bring myself to write about a period until I know something about it. Unwin seemed to think that a one volume book, dealing with the earlier period, would be more saleable than a three volume book, dealing with the whole period. And, of course, from the point of view of my finances, if I wait three or four years until the whole job is completed without publishing the book, I shall have to write the later parts in the Workhouse, where, I understand, the facilities are somewhat inadequate.

The fact is that the undertaking is a much larger one than either you or I realized. The book has a life of its own, and I cannot control it. I think you would agree, if you saw what is already done, that it is not long-winded. I enjoy writing history so much that I feel prepared to continue doing it for the rest of my natural life. I do not expect any answer from you on these points until you have heard from Unwin.

On the 22nd of April I am leaving England for two months, and going to live on a mountain in the South of Spain. I want to get away from the telephone, and from people who ask me to take the Chair at meetings, and from Hindoos who do not wish to waste my time but are aware of my great sympathy with oppressed races. My address will be: Yegen, Ugijar, Granada, Spain.b

Best wishes to all.

Yours sincerely,
Bertrand Russell.

• 1

  [document] Proofread against a microfilm printout of the original.

• 2

  Carlyle BR did not publish the study, but archives have a brief outline of a book on him (as noted at BRACERS 68100).

• 3

  enclose a Table of Contents There are detailed tables of contents slightly later in the file.

Textual Notes

• a

  you after deleted with

• b

  , Spain inserted