BR TO W.W. NORTON & COMPANY, INC. / WARDER NORTON, 15 JULY 1938
BRACERS 47239. ALS. Norton papers, Columbia U.
Proofread by K. Blackwell and A. Duncan

<letterhead>
Amberley House
Kidlington
Oxfordshire.1
July 15, 1938

Dear Warder

Thank you for your nice letter of July 8. I will deal with the proofs as soon as I get them. I understood before that they were to be galley proofs, in which a certain amount of alteration would not matter. I have in mind, e.g., the following addition, which I thought might be amusing. There is a place where I say that I know nothing of the mothers of Attila and Jenghis Khan, but that I suspect they spoilt the little darlings. I could simply correct this, but I should like to put a footnote:2

“Since writing the above, I have read Ralph Fox’s Life of Jenghis Khan, from which I have learnt that my conjecture about his mother was totally wrong. She was a fierce and terrifying woman, who taught him that revenge was his first duty. When he was 50, she scolded him roundly for quarrelling with his brother,a and he answered meekly, ‘mamma, I am sorry and ashamed’.”

There are one or two other places where I should like to make similar additions, embodying my reading during the last month. If you would rather I did not do this, please let me know. If the proofs have already gone, a cable would be best.

It is very nice of you to say you will meet the boat. With the child on our hands, we shall be grateful, quite apart from the pleasure of seeing you. I think we had better stay at the Grammery Park Hotel; the time is too short for coming out to Wilton, and we don’t want the child to have unnecessary travelling. I think 2 nights. If the boat is due on the 24th, I could see journalists on the 25th; if on the 25th, see them 26th.

Will the journalists want to see Peter, or only me?

Shall we not see Polly? Tell her I shall be sad if that is so.

Yours sincerely
Bertrand Russell.

• 1

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

• 2

  a footnote: Publisher’s annotation at this point: “Gall 4 next to last line”.

Textual Notes

• a

  for quarrelling with his brother, inserted