BR TO W.W. NORTON & COMPANY, INC. / WARDER NORTON, 22 MAR. 1940
BRACERS 47302. TLS. Norton papers, Columbia U. SLBR 2: #443
Edited by N. Griffin. Proofread by K. Blackwell and A. Duncan

212 Loring Avenue
West Los Angeles, California1
March 22, 1940

Mr. W.W. Norton
W.W. Norton and Co., Inc.
70 Fifth Avenue
New York, New York

Dear Warder:

Thank you very much for the telegram and letter, and my best thanks to you and Lunt for the publishers’ statement which you contributed to the controversy.2 I am glad of the letter form Weyl which you enclose, particularly as I had felt doubtful of his friendly feelings. There was at one time a question of my becoming a member of his Institute for Advanced Study, but his opposition prevented it.3

I am very much impressed by the courage of the Board of Higher Education in upholding my appointment. I did not think they would do so. It still seems to me probable that my enemies will find some way of ousting me; if necessary, by some change in the law. But it is a grand fight and I seem to have recovered with radicals the ground that I had lost by disliking Stalin.

I have not felt tempted to indulge in quips, as the matter was obviously too serious. I should have liked to suggest that no one should be allowed to be a Bishop until a Board of Logicians had passed upon his logic, but I am afraid the popular appeal of logic is insufficient.

Yours sincerely,
Bertrand Russell

• 1

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

• 2

  publishers’ statement which you contributed to the controversy Norton had organized a statement by nine major publishers in support of Russell which appeared on the front page of the New York Times, “Row over Russell at Climax Tonight”, 18 March 1940, p. 1.

• 3

  becoming a member of his Institute for Advanced Study, but his opposition prevented it Russell was mistaken: Weyl had supported his appointment. Russell wrote Norton on 24 March to correct himself.