BRACERS Record Detail for 57455
To access the original letter, email the Russell Archives.
BR drops the idea of giving a series of 6 talks on mathematics for schools. Attached is a typed copy of the letter. The work would be remote from his other work, and he tires more easily, possibly "owing to war conditions".
BR TO BBC / MARY SOMERVILLE, 6 JAN. 1945
BRACERS 57455. ALS(X). BBC Written Archives
Proofread by K. Blackwell
Grosvenor Lodge, Babraham Rd.
Cambridge
Jan. 6, 1945
Dear Mrs. Somerville
I am writing to ask whether you could, without too great inconvenience, release me from the undertaking to give talks on mathematics for schools.1 I find (a) that it would entail a great deal of work quite remote from all my other work (b) that, whether owing to war conditions or to some other cause, my energy is much less than it used to be, and I easily become overtired. My primary obligation is to the College, and I must not do anything that might impair my lectures for Trinity.
I am sorry to be changeable, but I am compelled to recognize that the amount of work I can get through is less than I thought.
Yours sincerely
Bertrand Russell.
- 1
talks on mathematics for schools See record 57428. A BBC “application” form dated 4 December 1944 listed even the dates of the “Six Talks about Mathematics”. They were to be delivered weekly from 27 April 1945. Russell was also to supply material for a series pamphlet. The total fee was to be 150 guineas plus expenses (RA3 Rec. Acq. 1021b).
