A small Christmas card from Katharine Tait is attached.

There are corrections made by Edith Russell on this typed copy.

"We are even busier than usual. I made a speech in the Lords about the atomic bomb, which was a great success; and Peter is overwhelmed with work about starving Germans. The state of the world is unbearably painful, but I imagine that in America it is easier to forget about it than it is here." Kate is back in the U.S.

"I am being very busy and successful—I spoke twice in the Lords, I have masses of articles to do, plenty of money, and fewer worries than at any time since 1927." BR has bought a cottage at Festiniog; leaving here 31 July.

On religion. Patricia has gone to live in North Wales, and BR will only be together with her during Conrad's holidays. He rooms in college in the autumn. "As the family disintegrates, your affection is an increasing comfort to me."

Another letter written the same day. "I have just posted a letter to you but have since been rung up ..." (the remainder being embargoed).

"I am overjoyed that you have developed so admirably...." "I will write more when I have more leisure from earthquakes."

BR has written about two thirds of Human Knowledge. He is going to Switzerland to lecture. BR joins Patricia and Conrad at Portmeirion on 2 July.

The divorce from Dora was very unfortunate (for Kate and John).

BR has received a "most friendly" letter from Harriet. In England John will be away from lunatics. "Plotinus" is one of the chapters in History of which he thinks best. BR is very glad she is writing again. "My book on Human Knowledge is just finished, barring a few small corrections." Good weather. Address reply to Dorset House. (For Harriet's letter, see record 112904; Blackwell and Spadoni, Second Archives of BR, p. 283.)

Scheffer's book (?) on Eckhart was responsible for BR's first marriage, because BR had just finished reading it in 1889 when he met Alys. BR has finished Human Knowledge. Parts of it are difficult. "American philosophers will hate it. Now I have no further book in view except an autobiography." Give Harriet [Barry or Ward, although she was registered as Russell] kind messages from BR.

Kate now prefers Amiel to Charles Tait. BR finds "great pleasure" in teaching. Conrad hated Dartington. BR and Patricia teach him at home.

BR knows no influential Americans and is still not respectable there; in England he is about to become an O.M. BR "would sooner die" then become an American citizen. BR has only a temporary need of a typist-secretary, as there are "masses of old letters to be typed". He refers to "the Ph.D. business, with its pedantry and hatred of originality".

Working on his Autobiography is "interesting but special". BR goes to Paris for 3 days in September to a UNO educational conference, and Australia next summer.

BR could employ Charles Tait as a research assistant. "... the sales of my bestsellers are rapidly diminishing."

"I have accepted an invitation to lecture at Mount Holyoke next Oct., partly because it will give me a chance of seeing you if we are all still alive then."

"I have lived here now since April, all alone except during Conrad's summer holidays." On 1950/01/14 BR is to leave here and go to Richmond to share a house with John with a separate flat.

"Too much solitude is bad for me: I grow morbid, and reflect what a failure I have made of my life, as a husband and as a father."

"... but for work I should go melancholy mad."

"... Susan has an aptitude for poetry."

BR makes suggestions to whom the ms. of "The Free Man's Worship" might be sold: Haldeman-Julius or Culbertson.

The letter is a statement concerning BR's relationships with Constance Malleson and Patricia Russell. (There are more typed copies at RA2 710.106144.) See record 111859 for more information.

"... exert authority, but that is a thing I can't bring myself to do in marriage." He still has not moved into Richmond.

"I worked hard in the general election, in the only Labour constituency where there was a Labour gain (Conway, Carnarvonshire). The general result is the worst possible, and probably means a Tory victory within 6 months."

BR was very much impressed in Marseilles by Corbusier's flats. BR would like to have "2 or 3 well paid lectures after Holyoake". "Security troubles in America must be trying. I had thought them excessive, but now Americans can retort about Fuchs." Then he mentions Charles Tait trying to get a job.

"I am unbelievably busy with lectures, articles, and broadcasts. I went to Paris and saw numbers of bigwigs and was presented with an inscribed scroll by their equivalent of the Lord Mayor, and was thanked by Bevin for helping them to understand politics."

BR is moving to Richmond on 1 May. The Manchester Guardian "is a very good paper, accurate and interesting". "The witch hunt in America is disgusting and very stupid, but I gather MacCarthy [McCarthy] has a bit overreached himself."

"Labour govt. on the whole I think very well of it. I had long been in favour of nationalizing the things they have nationalized, and I am glad they managed it without an upheaval. They deserve credit for the fact that everybody, however poor, has enough to eat. The health service is admirable, though naturally while it is new some things want amending. In foreign policy Bevin deserves credit for being anti-Russian, but I agree that he has been too cautious about Western Union. The really great thing the Govt. has done is the settlement with India: a rare case of the victory of good sense over pride. And it has borne fruit in a genuine friendliness on the part of India."

"I am very much surprised the Embassy won't employ you; I should have thought your being my daughter would outweigh Charlie's being American." "I think a conflict between England and America is a complete impossibility, as England could not last a week owing to famine."

BR is getting as many lecture engagements as he wants. He starts for Australia on 19 June. "It is very nice living here—we have a lot of good talk, and I love the children." "Don't believe American propaganda about England. The majority of the population have never been as happy as they are now. I will explain nationalization when I am less busy."

Enclosed is titled "Man's Peril from the Hydrogen Bomb".

On letterhead of Drummond Arms Hotel.

On fear—BR has suffered from it as "general anxiety". Imagine various probable misfortunes: "I could bear that." John is lost to BR "and Conrad will always be his mother's child". Advantages of growing older. Children take you out of yourself.

A false, second start was made in entering this 3-sheet autograph letter of 1947/01/16. Record 52607 was used, and the letter was given the date of 1946/01/16 but the same box no. There was nothing in the Notes field. Record 52607 is being reused.

Actual letter has not been given a document number.

BR has no inclination to find fault with Kate. Trinity has offered BR a Fellowship and lectureship, which "heals the old wound of 1916".

BR will be at Smith College on 27 and 28 March. Re the Court of Chancery and leave for Kate to stay in the U.S.

Kate and Amiel van Teslaar took risks. BR lectures in Chicago on 22 March and could spend 24-27 March in Cambridge, Mass.

Defying the Court of Chancery means prison for all around. Kate will need to go to England in June and do some form of national service, like Pam [Campbell]. BR is not unsympathetic, "but in wartime horrible things happen to most people".

BR is in New York every Tuesday and Wednesday night. "... God knows, they [arguments of prudence] never affected me when I was in love, but they ought to have."

Kate has decided to go home to England.

BR has lectures at Chicago ending 22 March. "I am frantically busy, which means that I am earning good money."

BR sends Kate addresses to use in Urbana (Max Black) and Chicago (Richard Mckeon). BR recalls Jessie Whitehead: "Her mother always favoured the boys, which I thought unfair." BR would like to see Kate's thesis. "Mankind are strangely insane."

Re Kate's expenses. BR has to "borrow to meet my passage and Peter's and Conrad's living after I sail". "We have this house till June 15." BR may sail any day. "The time of uncertainty is disagreeable."

"I should have been sorry if you had become American in feeling."

Patricia is making nice rooms for John and Kate. Money from the Oppenheims.

Re friction between Kate and Patricia.

BR asks for some reconciliation between Kate and John and Patricia and gives 4 reasons.

BR has to be at the BBC, 18 Dec., 1-3 p.m. [The reason is unknown.] He also wants to see John and Kate and also Pam [Campbell], Daphne Phelps, and David Bryson.

BR wants a modus vivendi between Kate and Patricia.

BR recommends Dr. Gillespie, a psychiatrist. Earlier BR had the flu.

"... I should be delighted if you got a job in Germany." "Your story about Germans being made to walk barefoot on broken glass is horrifying. The business of Buchenwald etc. is dreadful. I think the facts must be known, but the effect is very bad. There is an increasing tendency to condemn all Germans. I hope it will pass. I gather Amiel only hates SS men, which is justifiable."

Referring to psychiatrists, BR states that it is "the regular rule with such men to make themselves colourless and merely receptive".

"I agree very strongly with your reflections on Germany, and I am glad you have come to think people not quite so vile as they used to seem to you."

"I think hatred of Germany will give way to hatred of Russia. Conflict with Russia grows more and more imminent. But it is painful to think that the way to cure one irrational hate is to substitute another."

"... perhaps things will go better when the new Govt. is established, and if not, perhaps I can prod them. I hope you are as pleased as I am by the landslide." (Re Labour and the general election.) "His [Amiel's] gloomy account of Germany is no doubt correct." "I must get hold of Koestler's book" [The Yogi and the Commissar]. The Russells go to Portmeirion 11-25 Aug.