BR TO MIRIAM BRUDNO REICHL, [18 NOV. 1950]
BRACERS 52791. ALS(X). Miriam Brudno Reichl
Edited by A.G. Bone. Reviewed by S. Turcon

Washington. Sat.1

Dearest Miriam2

Our last time together was heavenly — I was immensely happy. I wish there had been time to make plans. I have been thinking of places in every spare moment ever since. I must avoid open sin because of Peter.3 You could visit me for a short time at 41 Queen’s Rd Richmond,4 but longer would bring painful consequences to us both. But I could find a place in London or perhaps in Richmond. I should dearly love a time on the Continent but I am only allowed £35 of foreign currency5 so I should have to rely on you for that and pay you back in Sterling. I do not think you should disrupt your marriage in any permanent way, and I think that is what you feel. But as to that the future will decide. Write to me at Richmond as soon as you can. Remember I love you very dearly.

B.

• 1

  [document] The letter was edited from a photocopy (acquired by the Russell Archives from the estate of the recipient) of the signed original written in BR’s hand.

• 2

  [recipient] Miriam Reichl (née Brudno, 1908–1992) had been a significant presence in BR’s romantic life (albeit intermittently) since they started an affair during his lecture tour of the United States in 1929, when she was still single and a bookseller in Cleveland (see Michael D. Stevenson, “‘In Solitude I Brood on War’: Bertrand Russell’s 1939 American Lecture Tour”, Russell: the Journal of Bertrand Russell Studies 33 [winter 2013–14]: 116–17). Early in 1951, however, with Edith Finch already ensconced in London and their romance blossoming, BR seemed to draw a line under a relationship with Reichl that he nevertheless valued as “one of the most important things in my life” (29 Jan. 1951, BRACERS 52793). But they did meet briefly in New York in November 1951 and continued to correspond until the early 1960s.

• 3

  I must avoid open sin because of Peter BR’s often troubled and turbulent third marriage finally collapsed in the aftermath of the couple’s disastrous (almost farcical) Sicilian vacation in April 1949 (see, e.g., Ronald Clark, The Life of Bertrand Russell [London: Jonathan Cape and Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1975], pp. 506–7). Although both parties had been adulterous, Peter eventually (in June 1952) sued BR for divorce on grounds of his desertion.

• 4

  41 Queen’s Rd Richmond The three-story house in this south-west London borough, which Russell had been sharing with the family of his older son since May 1950 (see Sheila Turcon, “Russell’s Homes: 41 Queen’s Road, Richmond”, Bertrand Russell Society Bulletin, no. 158 [autumn 2018]: 22–6).

• 5

  I am only allowed £35 of foreign currency The free movement and exchange of sterling and foreign currency assets was strictly limited by wartime emergency powers perpetuated by the Exchange Control Act (1947). When Russell toured the United States in October and November 1950, the foreign currency allowance for British travellers abroad was pegged at £50 per annum (not £35). This modest entitlement had been withdrawn completely between October 1947 and May 1948, owing to the acute balance of payments crisis, but it was increased to £100 at the end of 1950.