BR TO CONSTANCE MALLESON, 6 NOV. 1920
BRACERS 19712. ALS. McMaster
Edited by S. Turcon. Reviewed by K. Blackwell

Peking1
6 Nov. 1920

My Beloved

I got 2 letters from you2 yesterday — I was glad of them — thank you my Darling. I am getting on very well here — it is a beautiful town, and I am not too busy to enjoy it. I am taking a Chinese house,3 built round a courtyard — they all have only a ground floor. I am furnishing it in Chinese fashion — it is great fun — the shops are full of very lovely things, and it is nice to be able to buy. The students are all Bolsheviks — An American4 who teaches English literature at the University set my articles on Russia to the students to write essays on — all but one criticized me for finding fault with the Bolsheviks, and that one belonged to the old Manchu Imperial family. The students are mostly rather Americanized. One can’t wish the beautiful old things preserved, because they go with so much cruelty and superstition, but it is heartrending to think of factories and modern ugliness invading everywhere.

I have just come in from lecturing to well over 1000 people, the first of a course of lectures on popular philosophy.5 Also I shall give a less popular course on analysis of mind, and have a seminar in connection with it. And later on I shall lecture on Social questions.

I don’t come across any of the old Chinese, except once in a way, and then they can’t speak English.

I am worried rather about the letters.6 I find, rather to my surprise, that I can’t bear the thought of my love letters being published during my life-time. I shouldn’t mind the parts that are not about personal things, but I have a feeling of reticence about intimate letters to you. I hoped there was more that was impersonal. — I wish I could write here — I think I shall when I am in my own house — but at present I am too fussed with people and business.

I enclose some photos which we took during our journey7 — also my name in Chinese,8 which I took away from a feast last night, where it marked my place.

Your letter-card to Yokohama9 reached me all right.

What an odd chance about the ticket-collector10 on your way to Whitby. And what a very beautiful view of the sea by moonlight —

I will write more about the letters later — I am sorry about Swinnerton11 and “Posted and Unposted”.12

Beloved I must stop — I have a terrible amount to do — I love you my Dearest Darling. I think constantly of the time when we shall be together again — Bless you Beloved.

B

• 1

  [document] Document 200713.

• 2

  2 letters from you Presumably her letters of 16 and 20 September (BRACERS 116417 and 116418).

• 3

  taking a Chinese house See the return address on the next letter (BRACERS 19713).

• 4

  an American Unidentified [so far].

• 5

  popular philosophy Titled “The Problems of Philosophy”.

• 6

  worried rather about the letters For their literary book of letters. BR first proposed this on 22 November 1919 (BRACERS 19585, n.6). When Colette received this letter, she responded on 22 December 1920 (BRACERS 19583) that she would destroy the typescript when she returned from Lynton. In “Letters to Bertrand Russell from Constance Malleson, 1916–1969”, it is noted that Colette forgot to destroy the typescript (p. 460). Some of the literary letters are still extant individually.

• 7

  some photos which we took during our journey They are not extant; there are a few extant photographs, however, that were taken later on of BR in China that have survived. They are in RA Box 6.78, F.5.

• 8

  my name in Chinese Luo Su, which is an attempt to pronounce “Russell” (document 200656).

• 9

  letter-card to Yokohama In her letter of 16 September 1920 (BRACERS 116417), Colette wrote that she had made a mistake, addressing a card to him at Yokohama, taking the name from a shipping list.

• 10

  the ticket-collector In her letter of 20 September 1920 (BRACERS 116418), Colette wrote that she had just talked with a ticket collector about the impending miners’ strike and he was the same collector that took BR’s ticket when he left for Russia.

• 11

  sorry about Swinnerton Frank Swinnerton had rented BR’s Bury Street flat in 1919. This may be a reference to his marriage of 7 September 1920, which appears to have gone bad almost immediately. His wife left him in 1921 and the couple divorced in 1923. Part of the passage about Swinnerton in Colette’s letter of 10 November 1920 (BRACERS 116424) has been deleted but BR would not yet have been in possession of that letter.

• 12

  “Posted and Unposted” Her series of letters published in the The English Review. See BRACERS 19580, n.3. There is nothing in her extant edited letters to indicate what BR meant by his remark (“I am sorry”). Perhaps she received a bad review.