BR TO W.W. NORTON & COMPANY, INC. / WARDER NORTON, 7 JAN. 1934
BRACERS 47079. ALS. Norton papers, Columbia U.
Proofread by K. Blackwell and A. Duncan

<letterhead>
Deudraeth Castle Hotel
Portmeirion Peninsula
Penrhyndeudraeth, North Wales1
7.1.34

Dear Warder

Thank you for your letter and draft contract. I am very glad indeed that American optimism has revived, but I doubt whether any permanent recovery is possible so long as the profit motive remains. Roosevelt pays people not to grow cotton and wheat; I don’t say he is wrong as things are, but obviously an economic system which demands such things is fundamentally insane. I am hoping he will gradually move to the left, but I fear that at some point the forces of reaction will revive. — I haven’t seen the book by Morrison and Commager2 that you mention.

Re contract, one or two minor points.

Clause 1: 150,000 to 200,000 words.

Clause 8: Would not 2 years be soon enough for a cheap edition? There is no need to alter the contract if I know that two years is the minimum time you contemplate. But I don’t see who is going to buy the first edition if a cheap one is likely so soon.

Clause 11: I have promised Gilbert Murray, out of friendship, to do a little book for the Home University Library. Otherwise, i.e. as regards proper books, I have no objection to this clause.

One other point. I have been so materially assisted by Peter Spence in the work that I see no way of adequate recognition except to have on the title-page:

by Bertrand Russell
in collaboration with
Peter Spence.

I hope you do not see objections to this plan.

With regard to title, I dare say “The Nineteenth Century: Freedom versus Organization” would do. But there is still time to think about this.

None of these points need be noted in the contract, if I know from you that you agree.

All goes well with me. Tell Polly I am glad to have been instrumental in spreading a knowledge of the Scriptures in your country! All good wishes.

Yours ever
B.R.

P.S. I am distressed from the contract to learn that you have become neuter. When did this sad accident occur?

• 1

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

• 2

  Morrison and Commager Probably Samuel Eliot Morrison and Henry Steele Commager, The Growth of the American Republic (1930).