BR's "as from" address: c/o Coward Chance and Co., 155 Fenchurch Str., E.C.3". He feels like a Rip van Winkel, "and wonder if my friends of other days will still remember me...."

BR wants so much to see Gamel; a lot has happened since Savernake.

Peter is lonely, and it would help for her to see the Brenans.

Dated "Good Friday, 1945", i.e. 30 March 1945.

BR has BBC engagements on April 23, May 14 and June 14.

Re memory as "a gradually increasing weight". The destruction of the garden at Pembroke Lodge. "But thank God I am still capable of passionate feeling about present things...." His feeling of love "has acquired a more impersonal setting".

On his lack of sophrosune [sophrosyne].

Tea and dinner on May 14.

"The Brains Trust for next week is off, owing to 'Victory'." "This 'Victory' is dreadful. Hatred of everybody by everybody, Germans to be houseless and starving, Russia already taking on the role the Nazis were playing, the next war already clearly in prospect. I have not at any time felt more unhappy than now. Peter is sunk in almost hysterical gloom, which does not make things easier."

Re a new meeting date, June 8, at the hotel.

"Throughout these days I have thought constantly of you—there has been so much to feel that my capacity for feeling is almost exhausted. I see very little hope for the world.

There is no point in agreements not to use the atomic bomb, as they would not be kept. Russia is sure to learn soon how to make it. I think Stalin has inherited Hitler's ambition for world dictatorship. One must expect a war between USA and USSR, which will begin with the total destruction of London. I think the war will last 30 years, and leave a world without civilized people, from which everything will have to be built afresh—a process taking (say) 500 years.

"It is difficult, with these expectations, to feel that anything is worth doing except to eat, drink, and be merry...."

"There is one thing, and one only, which could save the world, and that is a thing which I should not dream of advocating. It is, that America should make war on Russia during the next two years, and establish a world empire by means of the atomic bomb. This will not be done."

BR would like to believe that glorious moments are forever part of the universe, but that is "mysticism and folly".

"I should like to end gloriously and greatly like a Shakespearean hero; it is shocking to think that as the bomb bursts I shall be wondering how to find the money for next month's bills."

The ms. note below may belong with this letter.

Ms. note, in BR's hand, expresses his profound love for Gamel. This is the "strange eyes" text. See record 51531.

"... we are both much occupied in the movement [Save Europe Now] to get Germany fed." BR is seeing Gollancz.

"Comforting to have found something to do that is important, and in which results can be obtained."

"Yes, I found the map for my new book, and am busy writing it in the intervals between atomic bombing and starving Germans." His History is to appear here in spring. He changed a reference to the library at Monte Cassino to the past tense. (History, 1946, p. 397.)

BR's health: "... I am full of beans."

Hotels are impossible to get in London, so the Russells plan to get a pied-a-terre. Grosvenor Lodge is sold, with possession next July.

"I am glad you think I am at the height of my powers."

"In this desperate world every moment of leisure feels like sin, but one can't work all the time."

BR would like to see Gamel on Feb. 11: "I can't get a room in a hotel owing to UNO and shall be staying with Julian Huxley probably: so it is a question of a restaurant."

BR is very busy. "... so is Peter, who is organizing a big meeting for 'Save Europe Now'. Being busy is the only way to endure this beastly world. I hate the Soviet government too much for sanity. We have bought a derelict cottage in Wales, and hope ultimately to retire from the hubbub. I want to write a system of philosophy and an autobiography, and then die."

"Peter has been sent to a nursing home in London and wants me to be with her during the time I can spare in London. Quite private. She attempted suicide and very nearly succeeded...."

"Slavery to housework has caused her [Patricia] to feel a gradually increasing envy of me...." "... she had a serious nervous breakdown...."

The police came to question BR but were persuaded it was an accident.

They will live in the same house only during Conrad's holidays, probably.

"... a married couple (with twins) [the Wragge Morleys], who are friends of ours, have moved in, and relieve me of housekeeping."

"When Peter left for the nursing home in London I was worn out and retired to bed, but I am recovered, though some weight will continue to oppress me for a long time, and I keep wondering if I acted wrongly."

BR has a BBC engagement on March 11, ending at 3:30.

During the Easter term, from April 23, BR will be much more free, and even freeer in the autumn.

"Lately I have had only just enough energy to get through necessary work in spite of difficult circumstances, but I hope that is going to be better."

BR is ill and in bed.

Dated by BR's reference to going to Switzerland "on Thursday 13th". Re a meeting.

Dated by BR's reference to having to lecture next Wednesday to the National Book League, which date was Oct. 23; "the following Wednesday, Oct. 30, would suit me."

Re Brenan visiting him in Cambridge.

BR wants ardently to see Gamel, and Patricia has acquiesced in it. He hopes she can again get "that very nice place in Cheyne Walk". He would go to Cambridge by train at 10 p.m. "... the unsaid things accumulate...." In all ways BR prospers—"an extraordinary change from the bleak years in America."

On the prospect of warm weather, "like an American spring. May we survive till then!" Re upcoming broadcast on the atomic bomb: "Whenever I am compelled to think about it I become more or less insane."

Wales April 9-23.

"Yes, there is a feeling like the feeling when France fell, but to me it is worse, because the prospect of disaster is more world-wide."

"I have lived a great deal, but am not yet sated."

Patricia's mood has changed for the better.

BR is not coming to Cambridge again until October; June 7-21 Paris and Marseilles, then London for a while; then N. Wales. "My French lectures are written out, and I have no work in prospect except my big book, which I itch to finish. After that I think of starting on my autobiography. I am 75, but do not feel mortal. I have had an active time, with broadcasting and Lords in addition to regular work. I think broadcasting well worth doing; the BBC estimates that six or seven million people heard the atomic broadcasts. No book except the Bible comes anywhere near it."

"... I know what to do with the years that remain."

"Things are always occurring to me that I want to say to you and to no one else."

Dated by reference to a meeting on "Tuesday 5th".

Patricia has had an operation.

BR will be in London in the last half of January.

"I find it more and more difficult to shake off the obsession of world disaster. I find the people who know most are the most gloomy. The prospect takes the savour out of everything. While I was writing a big book it served as an anodyne, but now I have nothing to distract me."

Letterhead: Hotel des Pays-Bas, Amsterdam.

BR will be at Dorset House after Oct. 12 "all through the winter, except for a brief visit to Berlin if there is no war."

BR is in Amsterdam at a "very depressing" philosophical congress.

Tomorrow he returns to Festiniog.

Patricia Russell has added a comment to the letter. "This is typical of Bertie's letters. I never expect more myself." BR says "The whole time at Churriana was delightful".

Written on the letterhead of the Ullswater Hotel.

Not a letter but an envelope addressed to BR at the Hotel Gramercy Park, New York. The contents are not in this file.

BR writes: "No virgins should be allowed to teach."

Letterhead: "White Star Line. On Board S.S. Adriatic".

Enclosed biographical sketch of BR was sent to BR by Woolf and was amended by Christopher Farley.

Attached to the letter is a company memo instructing recipients to read the letter before a scheduled meeting.

BR encloses his article, "What America Could Do with the Atomic Bomb" for personal reading by Luce even if he does not wish to publish it. "The point of view is not quite the usual one, and I think the matter of great public importance."

Luce sent BR's letter (and article?) to several editors, "to be read by them before attending the M.E. lunch today."

Crider is Luce's assistant. He will bring BR's essay to his attention upon his return from China.

On pacifists refusing to pay their income taxes to support war preparations.

BR's signature is cut out. Note at the end of the letter: "Autograph cut out before arrival at SCPC 4.66". Attached is a typed copy of the letter.

BR encloses literature concerning the BRPF and Atlantic Peace Foundation.

Not a letter but a press release by Muste titled: "International Panel Is Set for Paris War Crimes Tribunal".

Not a letter but ts. copies from the Peace News, titled "Peace News Discussion on International War Crimes Tribunal".

Subtitles are: "What Is a War Crime? Peace News—November 25, 1966"; and "Peace News. December 2nd, 1966. Page 4. The War Crimes Tribunal: Ralph Schoenman Replies".

Not a letter but a mimeographed ts. by BR titled: "The Western Press and U.S. War Crimes".

Re BR lecturing at Bryn Mawr.

There is a postscript by Edith Russell to Paul Weiss.

Attached is a ts. copy of the letter. The copy is dated incorrectly.

"I am glad a testimonial to Dr. Dewey is being prepared in such a useful form." BR is legally unable to contribute.