BR TO CONSTANCE MALLESON, 21 JULY 1944
BRACERS 19821. AL. McMaster
Edited by S. Turcon. Reviewed by K. Blackwell

[As from] Trinity College
Cambridge.1
July 21, 1944

My Dearest Colette

Your letter of June 42 reached me soon after I got home, which was in June. I hope it will be much less difficult3 to write and hear from you now that I am in England. And I really think the war will end this year. I can’t well write about political things — Carr4 is now odious but in youth was pleasant in a satirical vein. <remainder of page excised>5

It is very nice being back at Cambridge6 and everybody is very nice to me. Wittgenstein7 has vanished, I don’t remember where to. Last time he was patriotic; this time not, because partly Jew. Littlewood8 is much as ever, and Mrs Streatfeild9 persists. I met a Mrs Hill at Princeton who said she was an Annesley,10 but if so she was no credit to the family. — John11 has been set by the navy to learn Japanese, which he thoroughly enjoys. Probably he won’t have any actual fighting. Kate12 is not yet home, but will be very soon. Conrad13 flourishes, except for occasional illnesses. We are at the moment by the sea, at Sidmouth, S. Devon, which he enjoys. John has developed most satisfactorily; he is all one could wish. And Kate always does amazingly well in her work. <remainder of page excised>

• 1

  [document] Document 200827.

• 2

  Your letter of June 4 This letter is not extant. The editorial comments of “Letters to Bertrand Russell from Constance Malleson, 1916–1969” note that “she wrote BR of her misery, rather expecting a quick and sympathetic reply. But he did not write until July 21 — a holiday letter from Sidmouth, Devon: not the sort she expected at all” (p. 82).

• 3

  much less difficult There is a gap in BR’s letters from 16 August 1943 until this one. On 29 May 1944 Colette wrote to Phyllis Urch: “Have at last had a cable from B.R.: None of the letters he’s written me since last Sept … has reached me!! Cable was from Princeton: said he was leaving for Eng[land] soon. Such a relief to get it.” This cable is not extant.

• 4

  Carr Edward Hallett Carr (1892–1982), historian. From 1941 to 1946 Carr served as an assistant editor with The  Times, with a pro-Soviet slant in his editorials. In his letter of 4 April 1943, BR had mentioned that he had “got pleasure from [Carr’s] books”, naming three of them (BRACERS 19819).

• 5

  vein. <remainder of page excised> The letter has been cut in half. Only the top-half of the sheet, which is written on both sides, remains.

• 6

  back at Cambridge BR was in Cambridge briefly, staying in rooms at Trinity College. He spent much of the summer in Sidmouth, Devon with his wife Peter and their son, Conrad. In the fall the whole family moved to Cambridge where he took up a five-year lectureship.

• 7

  Wittgenstein Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951), eminent philosopher and former student of BR’s.

• 8

  Littlewood John Edensor Littlewood (1885–1977), mathematician. He and BR shared a farmhouse near Lulworth during the summer of 1919.

• 9

  Mrs Streatfeild Mrs. Streatfeild, the wife of Dr. Raymond Streatfeild, had two children, Philip and Ann, with Littlewood.

• 10

  an Annesley And thus a relative of Colette’s, who was the daughter of the 5th Earl Annesley.

• 11

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

• 12

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

• 13

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