BR TO CONSTANCE MALLESON, [6 APR. 1919]
BRACERS 19466. ALS. McMaster
Edited by S. Turcon. Reviewed by K. Blackwell

<letterhead>
70, Overstrand Mansions,
Prince of Wales Road,
Battersea, S.W.1^, 2
Sunday3

My Darling Love

I hope your part4 goes well — I am sure you can do it wonderfully. It is a part to suit you, and worth working at — C.A.5 seems really much better than one could have hoped. He goes tomorrow to Bournemouth, with CEM6 the first week, then with his sister. I shall hate being left alone.7 I am working like a black.8 I think of going to Garsington9 for Wed. night, as I have to go some time soon. If any other time seems better to you please ring me up tomorrow morning.

Jourdain wrote a friendly reply,10 so that is settled. It was he who wrote to Allen and Unwin. Tuesday, 8, Bellini. It will be a joy to see you again. All love.

B.

• 1

  [document] Document 200454.

• 2

  [envelope] The Lady Constance Malleson | 34 Russell Chambers | Bury Street | W.C.1. Pmk: BATTERSEA | 11.15 PM | 6 APR 19

• 3

  [date] The date is from the envelope’s postmark. Colette read it as 8 April 1919, but the day is a “6”.

• 4

  your part Colette had the role of a woman of Kira’s Palace in John Masefield’s The Faithful, which was put on by the Stage Society on Sunday, 13 April 1919 with a repeat performance on Tuesday, 15 April at the King’s Hall.

• 5

  C.A. (Reginald) Clifford Allen (1889–1939). For information on him, see BRACERS 19046, n.7.

• 6

  CEM Catherine Marshall (1880–1961). For information on her, see BRACERS 19043, n.5.

• 7

  left alone Clifford Allen and BR were sharing a flat in Battersea.

• 8

  I am working like a black. This sentence by BR — written in the context of the times and not meant as a slur — conveyed to Colette that he was working very hard.

• 9

  Garsington Garsington Manor, near Oxford, the county home of Lady Ottoline and Philip Morrell.

• 10

  Jourdain wrote a friendly reply Philip E. B. Jourdain (1879–1919), mathematician and logician, went up to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1899, taking his degree in mathematics in 1902. In 1904 he received honourable mention in the annual mathematical competition for the Smith’s Prize. Failing health kept Jourdain’s career in jeopardy. In 1901–02 he attended BR’s lectures on the foundations of mathematics, beginning a correspondence soon after. The letter that BR mentions was written on 4 April 1919 (BRACERS 77623). Jourdain had written to Allen & Unwin, asking if the firm would proceed against The Monist, on copyright issues. Jourdain was the English editor of The Monist, which was published in the United States.