BR TO DORA RUSSELL, 4 MAY 1924
BRACERS 19955. ALS. McMaster. SLBR 2: #359
Edited by N. Griffin. Proofread by K. Blackwell

472 West 24th Street.
N.Y.1
Sunday morning May 4. 1924.

My Darling Treasure2 —

Your letter of April 19 was waiting for me when I got back to New York the day before yesterday — it is the latest I have had so far. I hope you had a rest and a good time at the Wells’s.3 I am glad Kate is going on all right, and I have no doubt you were right to wean her. Poor little John’s teeth — what a blessing they are finished. I do hope he will stop being nervy now. Oh I do wish I were home again. — What you tell me about Fred is not nearly so bad as it might be. His wife is a creature. Evidently she reckons that this sort of incident is a way of bringing pressure to bear on your father — and so of course it is. If she pulls it off this time I suppose she will do it again. I wish you could have long talks with your brother because obviously he could be got to be sensible. — I am sorry, you don’t seem to have got letters from me when you should. I have written to you whenever I could spare a moment — even at the cost of deadly rudeness. I have had a letter from Margaret Sanger4 unanswered for a week, offering to put me up in New York. Of course I could write in the train, but I have been too tired and have needed that time to rest. I am very fit, but only because I seize every opportunity for rest and sleep. — I think you were quite right to go for Ryde.5 There is no use in trying to smother things, there must be an open issue. But I dread getting nominated and having to fight an election during the summer. I can’t help hoping they’ll choose Ryde, tho’ one must try to prevent it.

Tomorrow I have a public debate ($350) with Hillquit,6 a leading Socialist, on “Is the Labour Govt. revolutionary?” He says yes — fancy how different things look at a distance.

I got here from Pittsburg7 Friday morning, and was immediately beset by people who had to be interviewed. Lecture Friday night, another yesterday aftn. Free evening, so Kallen arranged a frivolous dinner party, four men and four ladies — it was pleasant, because I get so tired of being treated solemnly, like the poor man Nokes in Babbitt.8 One of the four ladies was Kallen’s lady, a Jewess with a nearly grown-up daughter. Kallen doesn’t manage his life well; I don’t think he gets much happiness from her. He stayed the night with her, so this morning I have the flat to myself — not even the usual negress who comes in the morning. It is delicious. I boiled my own eggs and made my own tea, and am writing to you in my dressing-gown, because it is so much easier to write while the place is empty. I am hardly ever alone, which is one of the trials of the tour. — I am sending you £500 by the same mail with this letter. There will be quite another £500 to come; probably £700. You might as well invest now all you can spare, as I shall send more money soon, so you needn’t keep any in hand for expenses more than a fortnight ahead. Dear Heart, I can’t write interesting letters, because work oppresses me. Remember our 1st three days in Shanghai. I am always as busy as that, but with bores instead of interesting people. My last lecture, on the 28th, is to an organization of young Socialists, called “Youth”9 — to them I am going to be indiscreet, as I shall be gone when the storm breaks, and it will have blown over if I should ever have to come again. I am lecturing on “How to be happy and free”. These people need to be taught how to be happy more than anything else. — Tomorrow night, immediately after the debate, I go to Washington. — Goodbye my Heart’s Love. I do long for you, every hour and every minute.

B.

• 1

  [document] Russell’s note: “[Address above, or S.S. Celtic if there is no time to answer this.]”

• 2

  envelope: Hon Mrs B Russell | 31 Sydney Street | London S.W.3 | England. (Printed return address: University of Michigan Union | Ann Arbor, Michigan.) Pmk: NEW YORK, N.Y. 3 MAY 4 7-PM 1924.

• 3

  Wells’s She had spent Easter with H.G. Wells and his family, and had a brief affair with him — though Bertie did not learn of this for another two years.

• 4

  Margaret Sanger Margaret Sanger (1883–1966), the leader of the American birth-control movement.

• 5

  Ryde The Labour Party was in the process of selecting a parliamentary candidate for Chelsea, and Ryde was among the contenders. In her letter of 19 April Dora gave a long account of how she had attacked Ryde at a party meeting.

• 6

  Hillquit Morris Hillquit (1869–1933), a lawyer and one of the leaders of the Socialist Party.

• 7

  Pittsburg I.e., Pittsburgh, PA.

• 8

  Nokes in BabbittRussell means Sir Gerald Doak, an English aristocrat visiting America who is treated deferentially by the bourgeoisie of Zenith in Sinclair Lewis’s novel Babbitt (1922). He is made miserable by this until Babbitt runs into him alone in Chicago and they have a fine, unpretentious evening drinking and going to a movie.

• 9

  “Youth” He had been asked to speak by the editors of Free Youth, the journal of the Young People’s Socialist League. His lecture was printed as a pamphlet and can be found in Al Seckel, ed., Bertrand Russell on Ethics, Sex, and Marriage (1987).