BR TO CONSTANCE MALLESON, 23 MAR. 1942
BRACERS 19816. ALS. McMaster
Edited by S. Turcon. Reviewed by K. Blackwell

<letterhead>
Little Datchet Farm
Malvern, R. D. 1
Pennsylvania1
March 23, 1942

Dearest Colette

I believe it is a long time since I wrote to you. I must have written2 to say how sorry I was to hear of your mother’s death,3 which you must have felt as a loss. I remember being surprised how much I minded my brother’s death.4 I got your cable,5 and that made me think my last letter must have gone astray. All goes well with us, except that John6 may be unable to stay at Harvard long enough to get a degree, as he will be wanted for military service, for which, if he can, he will go back to England.

I have been very worried about you, wishing you were in England. If possible, I should like to know how your affairs stand. I get things (letters and papers)a for you, which I forward, but I don’t know if they reach you.

We see people from England occasionally — Julian Huxley, who has got into trouble for being here, and has been sacked from the Zoo;7 my cousin by marriage, Ted Lloyd,8 who is here on government work; Jos Wedgwood,9 who was very refreshing; last summer, my cousin Martin Russell,10 on the way to Singapore. Seeing people from England is a comfort; here one is an “alien” and one gets news from English friendsb one can’t get otherwise. All you say about the way the Government treats people is depressing, but I have no difficulty in believing it.

In my progress through history11 I have reached the Dark Ages, which, to my surprise, I find very interesting. All sorts of things began then. I don’t know what to think about current events — they grow too vast. It is clear that this war is more of an epoch than the last was. God knows what sort of world one’s children will live in. Conrad12 (nearly 5) used to say he wanted to be an engine-driver, but now he wants to do something “important” — pressed as to what, he says to get policeman to stop the war. We tried to keep him from knowing there is a war, but others tell him.

I like to know everything about you, discomforts and everything. Write soon. Very much love.

Yours ever
Bertrand Russell

• 1

  [document] Document 200822.

• 2

  I must have written He did write a brief letter on 17 December 1941 (BRACERS 19815). The signature and perhaps some text have been excised.

• 3

  your mother’s death Priscilla, Lady Annesley (1870–1941), the second wife of Hugh Annesley, the 5th Earl Annesley (1831–1908). Colette had written on 23 November: (BRACERS 98437): “It was a great shock and blow — as she was always a really good friend to me. ... everything interested her — in a way, I suppose that only parents (or lovers) are interested.” Priscilla had died on 9 October 1941 in Bath, Somerset. Colette was notified a few days later by the Foreign Office.

• 4

  my brother’s death John Francis (“Frank”) Stanley Russell (1865–1931), the 2nd Earl Russell from 1878. He died in France in 1931. For information on him, see BRACERS 19046, n.3.

• 5

  got your cable Not extant. The letter she sent after the cable about her mother’s death is extant (23 Nov. 1941, BRACERS 98437).

• 6

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

• 7

  Julian Huxley ... sacked from the Zoo In fact, the matter was not that simple. Huxley returned to Britain in April where his status as the Secretary of the Zoological Society was referred to as “suspended”. He had been on half-pay at his own suggestion and went to the United States to lecture on behalf of the Ministry of Information. But the controversy over his status lingered on, and in late August Huxley resigned (The Times, 13 April 1942, p. 2; 20 Aug., p. 2; 27 Aug., p. 2).

• 8

  Ted Lloyd Ted Lloyd was married to Margaret Lloyd, the daughter of BR’s uncle, Francis Albert Rollo Russell (1849–1914).

• 9

  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).

• 10

  Martin Russell Martin Basil Paul Russell (1918–2004) was educated at Eton and King’s College, Cambridge. He held the office of Assistant Private Secretary to the Minister of Information between 1940 and 1941. Martin Russell was the son of Major Gilbert Byng Alwyne Russell and the grandson of Lord Arthur Russell, who in turn was the brother of Francis Charles Hastings Russell, the 9th Duke of Bedford. BR’s grandfather, Lord John Russell, was a son of the 6th Duke of Bedford.

• 11

  my progress through history For his lectures at the Barnes Foundation. They were published in 1945 as A History of Western Philosophy (B&R A79).

• 12

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

Textual Notes

• a

  (letters and papers) inserted

• b

  from English friends inserted