BR TO W.W. NORTON & COMPANY, INC. / WARDER NORTON, [10 MAY 1940]
BRACERS 47329. ALS. Norton papers, Columbia U.
Proofread by K. Blackwell and A. Duncan

212 Loring Avenue
Los Angeles1
May 10 19402

Dear Warder

Thank you for your letter on the mysterious persons. I look forward with excitement to the day when the mystery can be cleared up. You must forgive me if I am a little prickly just now. To be suddenly reduced to the situation where I cannot support my children, and shall very likely have to risk their death by sending them back to England, is painful. As things stand, it seems unlikely that my income for the next 12 months will reach $1000. Every one fusses about the public issue; my personal ruin passes unnoticed. So I am apt to feel cross, and I mustn’t let it out on my enemies, I snap at my friends.

Yours sincerely
Bertrand Russell.

• 1

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

• 2

  [date] The date is partially obscured by Norton’s date-stamp indicating that the letter was received on 13 May.