BR TO CONSTANCE MALLESON, [c.17 AUG. 1939]
BRACERS 19806. ALS. McMaster
Edited by S. Turcon. Reviewed by K. Blackwell

<letterhead>
High Sierra Camps
Yosemite National Park California1^, 2

My dearest Colette

Thank you very much for your dear letter from Årjäng.3 I am sorry I wrote you rather a melancholy letter.4 I am feeling much happier now, as John5 and Kate6 have been allowed to come in spite of Dora’s7 vigorous opposition,8 and seeing them again after nearly a year is an immense joy. We have taken them to a place 9000 feet up, surrounded by huge mountains, one of which they are climbing at the moment. (I, alas, can’t as my back still needs care.) The countya here is glorious, and though it never rains in summer there are endless lakes and streams fed by melting snow. It is great contrast to the hideousness of Chicago.9

It is quite possible that we may come to England next summer for July and August — if so I hope you will be in England then.

I am very sorry you have been ill.10 I hope Joanna11 is right that it was not a stroke.

Peter12 sends love and thanks for your letter to her. She is kept busy driving the car, as the places we go to are inaccessible by rail and some hundreds of miles from Santa Barbara.13 This place is only open for 2 months in the year — the rest of the year it is snowed up.

I hope you will get on well with writing, and will in time grow less unhappy. You have been very much in my thoughts. With much love

Ever yours affectionately
B.R.

Address Santa Barbara till Sp. 10, then
University of California
Los Angeles, Cal., U.S.A.

• 1

  [document] Document 200812.

• 2

  [date] “Aug. 1939” was added later by Colette. BR wrote also on 17 August to W.W. Norton from the High Sierra Camps, so that date is adopted here.

• 3

  your dear letter from Årjäng Not extant. On 2 June 1939 she had written that she was leaving England for Årjäng in Sweden where she would be staying in a hotel.

• 4

  melancholy letter His letter of 28 June 1939 (BRACERS 19805).

• 5

  John John Conrad Russell, born 16 November 1921 to BR and his wife Dora.

• 6

  Kate Katharine Jane Russell, born 29 December 1923 to BR and his wife Dora. Her surname became Tait upon her marriage.

• 7

  Dora Dora Russell, née Black (1894–1986). She and BR were married from 1921 until 1935. For information on her, see BRACERS 19506, n.3.

• 8

  vigorous opposition Dora was not to see her two children for several years. Britain declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939. As a result Kate and John did not return to England at the end of the summer and entered university.

• 9

  Chicago BR had lived in Chicago and taught at the University of Chicago during the academic year 1938–39.

• 10

  sorry you have been ill Although the letter in which she must have written about her illness is not extant, she does write about experiencing loss of control of all her muscles on her left side on her arrival at her hotel in Årjäng in June 1939. She felt it may have been a stroke (In the North [London: Gollancz, 1946], p. 85).

• 11

  Joanna BR was referring to Joan Malleson, Miles’ second wife and a physician. Colette remained on cordial terms with her former husband, Miles.

• 12

  Peter Patricia (“Peter”) Russell, née Spence (1910–2004). She and BR were married from 1936 until 1952.

• 13

  Santa Barbara The Russells were renting a cottage (Leandro Cottage, 76 San Leandro Lane, Montecito) in Santa Barbara for the summer.

Textual Notes

• a

  county Surely BR meant to write “country”.