BR TO W.W. NORTON & COMPANY, INC. / WARDER NORTON, 20 FEB. 1935
BRACERS 47126. ALS. Norton papers, Columbia U. SLBR 2: #414
Edited by N. Griffin. Proofread by K. Blackwell and A. Duncan

Address Telegraph House.1
<letterhead>
Hotel Monopol
Puerto Cruz Crotava Tenerife
20 Feb. 1935

Dear Warder

Your letter of Jan. 21 has been forwarded to me here, where Miss Spence and I have come for a rest. The contest with my late wife for my share in the custody of the children, coming immediately after finishing Freedom and Organization, wore us both out. So, on doctor’s advice, we came away for 2 months: we shall be back at the end of March.

Your proposal as regards Mysticism and Logic is financially generous, but for various reasons I do not think I can agree to it. I have come to dislike “The free man’s worship”: it is too solemn and melodramatic, it believes in objective ethical values, and it is more materialistic than I now think justifiable. These are not small matters of detail. Since I wrote it, and people apparently wish to read it, I do not feel that I should exercise censorship over my past self, but I do not care to give prominence to this essay, as would be done by altering the title of the book.

I am practically certain of being able to offer you a book of essays2 in time for autumn publication, so, if you don’t mind, I would rather stick to that plan. I am willing, later, to revise Mysticism and Logic, but I should not like to change the title to “A free man’s worship”. The essay has a Victorian quality (it was written the year after that good lady died), and even in style is not what I now like.

Best wishes to you both.

Yours sincerely
Bertrand Russell.

• 1

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

• 2

  book of essaysIn Praise of Idleness (1935).