A series of 6 questions regarding the Labour Party, in which BR has doubts.

"... Spencer Brown has had considerable contact with me in regard to his work in mathematical logic, which I believe to be extremely good and of much value. ... He is undoubtedly a man of great ability."

"Ralph and Edith and I had a long discussion about <Robert> Maxwell and my doings in regard to the Labour Party. In the course of this discussion Ralph telephoned to you and conveyed your opinion to us. We all felt the force of your arguments, but, in the end, we decided that I had better send to The Times the tentative letter about the defects of the Labour Party which you saw when you were here."

BR thanks him for the enclosed typescript which he has looked at, but not in any detail. "My trouble is that a), I am quite stale as regards mathematical logic and, b), I am so busy that I cannot find time to give a great deal of attention to it." BR will have time to spare after June 16 in London.

"I understand that Dr. J.P. Hodin is a candidate for election to the Athenaeum. I wish to add my name to those who second his election."

"I have written to the Athenaeum telling them that I am willing to second your election."

"Dear Mr. Madams". There is no text.

"I am glad that you sympathize with the aims of the Foundation that I am sponsoring and I am grateful for your offer of help, should help be needed."

"Many thanks for your letter of June 1 and for Myra Buttle's Dirge which I think is excellent."

"My best thanks, in which Edith joins, for your very kind letter."

"American Express"

"Eames | Niemöller—advisory Council | Brandt".

"There is no need to include the Appendix to German Social Democracy. This list of principle [sic] works consulted should be printed at the end rather than at the beginning. I enclose with this the prefatory note...."

"So far as I can remember I am not the author of the quip concerning which you write. I wish it to be attributed to me." [The typed versions of this letter say: "I do not wish it to be attributed to me." See record 121124.]

"Please accept my warm thanks for the photograph of a rose and for the kind note that you sent with it."

"Thank you for sending me the additional pages of Mark by Mark and for your letter and the article 'Voice of a Teenager'." BR agrees to using first names and calls him David (see record 10947).

"We much enjoyed the visit of your friends the Eameses and were sorry that we were too busy to see more of them. Their liberal opinions gave us much pleasure".

"I was very sorry that during my recent time in London I was unable to get to the Book Fair. I hear that your part in it was very impressive and I should have enjoyed seeing it...."

BR thanks him for the enclosure of A World Centre. "I do not remember what I said on pp 50-56 of Understanding History which is a book I do not possess, but I doubt whether I have changed my opinions since writing it."

"... In the first part of my life, my aim was to extend knowledge; in the second part, I tried to prevent mankind from committing collective suicide. So far, the latter has proved the more difficult task."

"I never had an 'idol'. I do not approve of idols. I did wish to equal in achievement the people whom I admired, though I thought it very unlikely that I should attain to this."

"I never heard of the association or the man concerning which you inquire. They must be obscure and unimportant."

"It is a long time since I have been concerned with Frege's writings and I doubt whether I should have anything more to say about them than I said in the appendix to Principles of Mathematics."

"I am not persuaded by your arguments that the 'Who Killed Kennedy Committee?' is not likely to be useful. I wholly agree with you that disarmament is the main question, but I think that the exposure of something scandalous in the assassination of Kennedy would be extremely useful." "Mark Lane is a very efficient campaigner".

"Thank you very much for sending me your poems which I think admirable. They represent the despairing bewilderment of our age." BR offers to help secure publication.

"Many thanks for your letter and for the very interesting dissertation on War by your grandfather." BR has not "penetrated Ian's <Bedford's> practices."

BR would not go to Jamaica without Edith. "If your invitation could include her and I for a fortnight, December 1 to December 15, I should accept it with great pleasure.... I should wish my time in Jamaica to be a time of holiday involving no interviews or speeches or parties." BR would sit in the sun and contemplate Frenchman's Cove.

BR would be glad to sign the book he mentions. "I do not remember to have ever written a book with this title, but sometimes publishers publish my books with their own titles."

On socialism and the power of officials. "A democratic constitution is not necessarily a safeguard if the democratic control is somewhat distant."

"It would be a great pleasure to me to have a talk with you about the Foundations when you are next in England."

"I am sorry that I have no letters from Frederic Harrison beyond those published in the Amberley Papers and I do not know where any letters of his are to be obtained."

"I have been distressed during the past months to learn from the many Americans who write to me and who come to see me that my books concerning nuclear warfare published by you are not known to exist by them.... It appears to point to an almost total lack of advertising of these books and a failure in disseminating them."

"What you say in criticism appears to be entirely just and I will make the corresponding correction wherever I can. I was thinking of cases like that of Hungary or East Germany and Cuba, but there are a great many cases where the procedure that I suggested would be an unsuitable or irrelevent—for example, Cyprus." Still will be remembered when the New York office <of the BRPF> opens.

Re Major Douglas's book on Social Credit theory, which BR read for the Webbs and thought the book contained "important fallacies". See record 81560.

BR encloses a Preface to German Social Democracy. "This book was written nearly seventy years ago and in those seventy years much has happened and much has changed.... I have left it as an historical document...."

"I never heard Gladstone say anything which could be definitely characterized as humbug and my remark that he was a humbug was based on reading and not on personal recollection." Re his remark to Morley re Parnell.

"I think that my father's advocacy of birth control was entirely due to the fact that Philosophical Radicals were Malthusians. I am doubtful of your thesis that women took to birth control in order to be able to devote themselves to other work than procreation." BR would be glad to see Eversley.

"Your letter to my wife calls for an explanation from me. When I returned to Trinity in 1944, Hardy handed to me a large bundle of correspondence concerned with my case. The first letter that I read was one from you expressing very hostile sentiments towards me. The sentiments were on moral grounds. I was very much hurt as I had always regarded you as a friend."

"... I have never known my husband to have a grudge; indeed, he usually entirely forgets personal injuries. He felt, also, that, although the things that you said of him in that letter were quite unforgivable, he must try to forget them as the letter should never have been given him to read." The Russells hope the letter "bespoke a merely temporary feeling".

"I was much pleased to see in the Times this morning what appeared to be a very fair report of your lecture on S.E. Asia."

"I should be glad if you could get your office to do the blurb as I do not agree with you that they would do it worse than I should."

"If you have time, I should be very grateful if you could let me know your opinion on the present crisis in Vietnam."

"I enclose herewith the article for the Schilpp Festschrift that you asked for."

"Personal and Confidential".

"Only Russia, under your leadership, is willing to act effectively for peace. As you may know, I am not a Communist, but, at the present stage of history, I cannot but think that the avoidance of war is of greater importance than a futile attempt to achieve victory for this or that -ism."

"I enclose herewith the article for which you asked on Violence in America." [Playboy did not publish it.]

BR addresses the recipient as Prince Fahad.

"I send you herewith a book of selections of my writings as the best thanks that I can give you for your kindness in seeing my representatives and showing such interest in the Bertrand Russell Foundation...."

Discussing Yemen is mentioned.

A file note rather than a communication: "Thanks for invitation to discuss the Yemen. Hopes to see the Prince when he next comes to Britain."

"I think a scheme of a memorial to Augustus John ... a good one...." BR cannot give money towards it as he only gives money towards preventing nuclear war, but he will give his name as a patron if they wish.

"So far as I remember I never had any letters from Aldous." "My secretary's letter was written under a misapprehension." [In fact there are four such letters and telegrams.]

"Thank you for sending me ... I hope to read it as soon as I can find time to do so...."

BR thanks him for sending proofs of his book on Thought and Change and is pleased of its dedication to him. "... I see that you attach great importance to belief in progress. At the present time, I find such belief very difficult to sustain...."

"I agree heart and soul with the purpose of your magazine and I wish you all success. My answers to the questions in your questionnaire are enclosed." BR encloses four answers re youth, reasons why people of different countries do not get along, if he were twenty again, and youth's appreciation for his work.

"I haven't read the Ettrick Shepherd. Have you followed my dispute with Honey in the Times. The Times hitherto refuses to print a refutation of his accusation that I am a liar."

"I am very glad indeed that you are willing to be a Director of our Foundations."

"I am sorry that you are unable to sign the Goldwater appeal, but many people take your point of view and only time will show which of us is in the right." BR encloses a copy of Has Man a Future? which he hopes will make his point of view clear.

BR replies to her postscript on the complete necessity of defeating Hitler.

"There is no way of securing the victory of either communism or capitalism so long as either of these if the objective of either group. The only possible issue is the extermination of the human race."

"I prefer a democratic system of Socialism in which each industry would be in a position to decide its internal policy and a council of industries should decide the external policy of each." See record 7656 to which these paragraphs may be related.

"I think we have to take into account the fact that publication will diminish my influence in the West and will make it more difficult to persuade people in the West that, as between Communism and Capitalism as economic systems, I am not, as you know, in favour of Communism any more than of Capitalism ... I do not think, however, that this is a sufficient reason for not publishing the letters...."

"I wrote an obituary of Alan Wood at the time of his death and I am sending you a copy of it ... I also wrote something about him in a short preface to My Philosophical Development."

Devaux prefaced the French translation of Alan Wood's biography of BR.

BR believes that Schuster has done everything possible in advertising his books on nuclear war. "I receive a great many letters from people complaining that they cannot get my books, but I assume that such letters are, in part, a covert demand for a present of the book and, in part, come from people who never bought a book in their lives."

"I find your questions difficult to answer as they concern matters outside my field. I hope, therefore, that you will excuse the brevity of my replies."

[There are no "replies" present, but see record 42905.]

BR thanks Schuster and his wife for the autobiography of Charlie Chaplin. "It looks exceedingly interesting and I expect many hours of pleasure from reading it."

BR thanks him for sending Crisis in the Humanities. "I have been looking at it and find it full of interesting matter, particularly in the chapter contributed by yourself."

BR makes utilitarian calculations of bringing a child into existence. It is only sinful if most human lives are unhappy.

"Marxism believes in Dialectical Materialism, but this may be interpreted in two ways: as DIALECTICAL Materialism, or as Dialectical MATERIALISM. The former is more true to Marx, but both have been held by Marxists. Stalin believed in the second and Khrushchev believes in the first."

"I used to know Freda Utley well."

"I have not found any letters from Lytton Strachey and the only thing in my writings that you may find interesting is the enclosed passage from a BBC broadcast. You will find also some mention of Lytton Strachey in Alan Wood's book about me—Bertrand Russell: Passionate Sceptic." [There is one letter from Strachey.]

"My connection with Edward Carpenter was very slight. When I was twenty-one, I was a good deal influenced by some booklets that he wrote concerning sex, but I never liked his mysticism. ... Mrs. Fawcett refused to speak to Edward Carpenter, because he advocated a humane attitude to homosexuality, which caused inconvenience to everybody else."

BR addresses them as "Mr. Avedon Baldwin".

BR thanks them for the book of photographs. "I am assured that the photograph of me is an excellent likeness, but as I never see myself in profile I cannot confirm this. Your photographs, especially those towards the end of the volume, remind me of Goya and have a somewhat similar power."

BR is glad to know that his open letter to Johnson, published in the St. Louis Post Dispatch, has made an impact. "I do not know to whom Powys left his books and papers. <Harold> Wilson, so far, has been doing rather better than I expected."

BR is too busy with other important matters to judge his suggestion, but if and when he becomes less busy, he will study it.

Attached is BR's dictated "Synopsis of Reply to Gladwyn".

BR responds to Gladwyn's arguments against the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation "one by one". 

I) "You point out that the danger of a nuclear war between Russia and the West is less now than it was a few years ago. As regards a direct clash between NATO and the Warsaw Powers, I agree with you that the danger is somewhat diminished. On the other hand, new dangers have arisen."

II) "As to Western unity: your letter seems to imply that unity is to be achieved by all countries of the West blindly following one policy. Such unity does not seem to me desirable."

III) "You find fault with me on the ground that I seem to hold the West always to blame and the Soviet Union always guiltless. This is by no means the case."

IV) "You say, I emphatically agree with you, that what the world needs is less fear and more love. You think that it is to be achieved by the balance of Terror.... Do you really consider that this is a way to promote love?"

There are bracketed notes for "R.S." to supply information.

"The statement 'All Greeks are mortal' may be stated as 'There is nothing which is an immortal Greek'. This is a statement about everything in the world."

"It is comforting to think that in Connecticut there is at least one person who does not think I ought to be electrocuted."

"I am sorry that it seems impossible to arrange a time to see Mrs. <Sybille> Bedford." [Re her biography of Aldous Huxley.]

"With regard to 'the class of all classes', I am afraid that you have not grasped the complexity of the matter. You might look up what I have to say on the matter in My Philosophical Development. As regards the question whether the universe had a beginning or not, it is impossible to know anything. Either answer is logically possible."

Re the Russian Revolution and the meeting at Leeds. "I travelled to Leeds with Ramsay MacDonald, and he was soberly optimistic. It seemed as if the Russian revolutionaries were out to create a Utopia, not only in their own country, but everywhere. It was a happy moment, but, alas, a brief one."

The carbon is available at record 88454.
The final letter is available at record 131617.

"I am sorry that I know nothing about automation.... Broadly speaking, it consists in getting machines to do work which has hitherto needed human thought, and it turns out that many of such kinds of work can be done many thousand times quicker by machines than by human beings."

"Here is a sentence that I like: 'Men do as much harm as they dare and as much good as they must.'"

"Descartes went into the Dutch army, not in search of noise, but in search of quiet. Apparently, Dutch soldiers were very quiet people. When Descartes, previously, had lived in Paris, he had been annoyed by callers, especially if they came before he had got out of bed, which he never did before noon."

BR thanks him for sending "Some Reflections on Humanism", which he has read with "much interest".

BR will send Spencer-Brown's work in mathematical logic to W.V.O. Quine, if the former will provide a sample to enclose.

"David Spencer Brown, who is a friend of mine, has done some work on mathematical logic which seems to me extremely remarkable, although it has failed to please current English mathematical logicians.... I should be very glad, as he would also, to have your opinion upon his work...." BR feels his own judgment to be "perhaps not quite reliable".

"12 Apr. 1890 - 9 July 1890. 2 letters from Halsestrustram & Co., solicitors."

The range of document numbers is .080354 to .080355.

Re "the Vietnam crisis".

"In the name of humanity, I implore you to show compassion, not only to your own citizens, but to all the many millions who inhabit Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas outside your own country. All these are at your mercy; all these, it is in your power to destroy. Are you willing to risk so appalling and final a disaster?"

"I am sorry to spoil a good story which would have delighted the war-mongers. I have had no communication of any sort either way with the promoters of Penthouse."

[Despite a lot of searching, "Sir Richard" remains unidentified. Sir Richard Acland lived until 1990, so it could have been he.]

Re children and religion.

"My secretary, Mr. Schoenman, has handed me your letter and asked me to answer it." "I am sorry to say that I am too busy with nuclear matters to write an answer beyond saying that logical paradoxes and their solution have nothing whatever to do with social questions."

"I am truly sorry not to come to the meeting on December 19, but I am so beset by business connected with Foundation matters that I cannot find time to go up to London."

"A new magazine to be called Penthouse is about to begin publication.... I now learn that, in its advertising material, it suggests that I am to be a contributor to the first number. There is no truth in this.... The advertising material at the same time shows that the magazine is to be devoted mainly or entirely to pornography. This is not the sort of magazine with which I care to be connected...."

The Russells have enjoyed the latest from Myra Buttle. "Your letter whets my curiosity and I long to know what was said at the High Level Conference that you mention, but I suppose that you cannot reveal very much of this."

"Would you be so kind as to let me have a thousand pounds on account of royalties."

"Douglas A. Spalding, about whom you inquire, was not my tutor, but my brother's. ... I have no recollection whatever of Spalding, but I found him favourably mentioned in James's Psychology. My parents thought so well of him that my father appointed him to be one of the two guardians of my brother and myself."

"Lord Rayleigh's two-volume book on the mathematical theory of sound was the standard book on the subject when I was young, but all that I ever read of the book was a passage about waves which Clark Maywell quoted in support of his electro-magnetic theory of light."

Re the advertisement for Penthouse. "As soon as I heard of this use, I sent a letter to the Times and a statement to the Press Association saying that I had had no communication whatever with Penthouse. Neither was published and I am left in doubt as to how I can secure publicity for my denial."

[Smith's letter of 5 Dec. 1964 cannot be located in the Russell Archives.]

"I take it that you are willing to lend your name as a Director as we understood you to say you were and as, I gather from your letter of the fifth, you are in general agreement and in sympathy with our aims."

"I am most willing that you should include my name as referee in your application for a fellowship at York and I hope they will have the sense to give it to you."

"When the middle aged falter, it becomes the business of the old to keep the flag flying as you have done so valiantly."

"With regard to masturbation, practically everybody has practised it in adolescence. The theory that it is wicked or harmful is a cruel invention of the old to keep the young in order. I masturbated myself during my adolescent years. Your feelings of guilt are misplaced since masturbation does nobody any harm."

"Thank you very much for the copy de luxe of Political Ideals. I have now quite a number of such books from you and I value them highly."

BR thanks him for the bottle of whisky.

"I had no dealings whatever with Penthouse until after publication of their advertising material. Their use of my name was entirely unauthorized. I went to law with them and obtained an injunction which, I judge from your letter, they are violating."

"Thank you warmly for your kind invitation to my wife and me to be present at the performance of your symphony at Birmingham."

BR thanks him for sending the typescript of his book The Race between Folly and Wisdom. "I have read it with great approval ... I have one or two small criticisms, especially of your espousal of the theory that Egyptians went to Mexico in pre-Columbian days, but these are entirely outweighed by my pleasure in the elderly Christian lady who informed you that you were damned."