BR TO LUCY M. DONNELLY, 24 JAN. 1911
BRACERS 58507. ALS. McMaster
Edited by M. Forte. Proofread by K. Blackwell

<letterhead>
Trinity College,
Cambridge.1
Jan. 24. 1911

My dear Lucy

Many thanks for your letter. I was sorry not to hear sooner, and feared you must be having a bad time. I am glad you have again become “well and cheerful and busy”. I do not believe in the existence of the future occasion on which you will not pull through.

Our elections were very satisfactory, particularly here in the Eastern Counties. Now there is every reason to hope that great things will be accomplished in the near future. It is a good time to be alive in.

I got very little holiday at Xmas, as I had to finish the writing of the end of our big book. In Term time, there are so many interruptions that original work is difficult. The interruptions are pleasant in themselves — lecturing, and talking to pupils, and so on — and if one gives oneself up to them they make an easy life compared to writing. But if one tries to write at the same time, they make life difficult. So I only try to write regularly in the Vacation.

I do not get any “echoes” of my Philosophical Essays, beyond a very nice letter from Santayana which reached me this morning. Such reviews as I have seen have been not unfavourable, but very stupid. Otherwise I have heard very little either in praise or blame. Yes, I remember Mrs Franklin; I hope you will receive your volume back some day. The big book will of course get very few reviews, and those probably not for a year or so. I don’t envy the reviewers. The second volume is half printed, and ought to be out in June.

I am glad you and Helen were able to speak your minds to each other without harm. I had a charming letter from her not very long ago. I hope Simon has recovered properly. I don’t wonder you mind Helen’s giving up her writing, but I believe she ought to.

Caedmon’s jokes about the monks are totally unknown to me. Were they among the 37 Proto-Aryan jokes classified by the Oxford don? I thank God I don’t have to read Anglo-Saxon literature.

We are in lodgings this term, as Bagley Wood is still on our hands. I do all my work in College, but I miss the evenings of talk, which I enjoyed last term. I am tired, and inclined to think ill of my work, but otherwise all goes well with me. Write again as soon as you can.

Yours affectionately
Bertrand Russell

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