BR TO CONSTANCE MALLESON, 20 AUG. 1941
BRACERS 19813. ALS. McMaster
Edited by S. Turcon. Reviewed by K. Blackwell

<letterhead>
Little Datchet Farm
Malvern, R. D. 1
Pennsylvania1
August 20, 1941

Dearest Colette

Your letter of August 1st2 came rather quickly. I was somewhat relieved to know that you are in Sweden, though plenty of reasons for anxiety remain. But it is useless to try to write about public events. I got your earlier airmail letter3 safely. Everything you say in your letters interests me profoundly. I wonder whether the time will ever come when we shall meet again in peace. The separation from old friends and the feeling that one may never see them again are very painful. I saw one old friend lately, Jos Wedgwood4 — a gallant idealist, not very wise, still interested in single tax, with that kind of vitality that old men only have when they are honest. Life has taught him none of the lessons that it is better not to learn. As a result I had a letter from his brother Ralph,5 who had been staying with George Trevelyan6 who is now Master of Trinity, and had found it trying from having to avoid so many subjects.

My John7 is a great joy to me, except that he is not suited to this age. He loves useless knowledge, of which he has an incredible amount. He has what I think the right principles about everything. He goes to Harvard in September, where he will do history. Kate8 goes to Radcliffe, the female annexe of Harvard. Conrad9 is amazingly intelligent. So privately all goes well with me. But I don’t altogether like being lost in a backwater. This time I have nothing to say about public affairs that I think worth saying.

I know no one in Portugal.10 My cousin Claud Russell11 (whom, as a boy, I reproached for not singing more loudly at family prayers) used to be British Minister there, but is now retired.  If you know anybody, let me know.

My Power, which you say was in the bookshop, contains quotations from Bruno Mussolini, now dead.12 This is a dull letter but there is so much one can’t say. I was amused about The Art of Salesmanship.13

All my love, dearest Colette.  I care very much what happens to you.

Your
Bertrand Russell.

• 1

  [document] Document 200819.

• 2

  Your letter of August 1st (BRACERS 98435).

• 3

  your earlier airmail letter Her letter of 8 July (BRACERS 98434). He responded to it in his letter of 20 August (BRACERS 19812).

• 4

  Jos Wedgwood Josiah Wedgwood (1872–1943), M.P. Colette had described him during World War I as having a “thin, hatchet face deeply tanned and his lean body very taut — and the whole of him uncompromisingly on the side of liberty in every single issue. A born fighter if there ever was one” (After Ten Years  [London: J. Cape, 1931], p. 105).

• 5

  a letter from his brother Ralph Sir Ralph Lewis Wedgwood (1874–1956), railway manager. The letter from Ralph Wedgwood (BRACERS 3441) is dated 19 July 1941.

• 6

  George Trevelyan George Trevelyan (1876–1962), historian.

• 7

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

• 8

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

• 9

  Conrad Conrad Sebastian Robert Russell, born 15 April 1937 to BR and his wife Patricia.

• 10

  no one in Portugal Colette had written on 1 August 1941 (BRACERS 98435) that if the United States entered the war, Colette and BR would have to write via Portugal — did he know anyone there who would forward letters?

• 11

  Claud Russell Sir Claud Frederick William Russell (1871–1959). He was a graduate of Oxford. After serving in World War I, he joined the British diplomatic corps, serving in Abyssinia and later in Switzerland. He was the Ambassador to Portugal between 1931 and 1935. Sir Claud  was the son of Lord Arthur Russell, who was the brother of Francis Charles Hastings Russell, the 9th Duke of Bedford. Bertrand Russell’s grandfather, Lord John Russell, was a son of the 6th Duke of Bedford.

• 12

  My Power ... quotations from Bruno Mussolini, now dead.  Power: A New Social Analysis (B&R A72) was published in 1938. The quotations are on p. 29 of the first edition of BR’s book and concern Bruno Mussolini’s exploits in the Abyssian war. Bruno Mussolini was the son of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.

• 13

  The Art of Salesmanship This book was for sale at the bookshop in the Swedish village near where Colette was staying, by an author with the last name of Russell.