Dear Earl Russell
Will you interrupt your busy life for a moment, and play the game of
philosophy with me?
I am attempting to face, in my next book, a question that our generation,
perhaps more than most, seems always ready to ask, and never able to answer –
What is the meaning or worth of human life? Heretofore this question has
been dealt with chie?y by theorists, from Ikhnaton and Lao-tse to Bergson
and Spengler. The result has been a species of intellectual suicide: thought, by
its very development, seems to have destroyed the value and signi?cance of
life. The growth and spread of knowledge, for which so many reformers and
idealists prayed, appears to bring to its devotees – and, by contagion, to many
others – a disillusionment which has almost broken the spirit of our race.
Astronomers have told us that human a?airs constitute but a moment in
the trajectory of a star; geologists have told us that civilisation is a precarious
interlude between ice ages; biologists have told us that all life is war, a strug-
gle for existence among individuals, groups, nations, alliances, and species;
historians have told us that ‘progress’ is a delusion, whose glory ends
in inevitable decay; psychologists have told us that the will and the self are the
helpless instruments of heredity and environment, and that the once incor-
ruptible soul is only a transient incandescence of the brain. The Industrial
later years of telegraph house 423Revolution has destroyed the home, and the discovery of contraceptives is
destroying the family, the old morality, and perhaps (through the sterility of
the intelligent) the race. Love is analysed into a physical congestion, and
marriage becomes a temporary physiological convenience slightly superior
to promiscuity. Democracy has degenerated into such corruption as only
Milo’s Rome knew; and our youthful dreams of a socialist utopia disappear as
we see, day after day, the inexhaustible acquisitiveness of men. Every inven-
tion strengthens the strong and weakens the weak; every new mechanism
displaces men, and multiplies the horrors of war. God, who was once the
consolation of our brief life, and our refuge in bereavement and su?ering,
has apparently vanished from the scene; no telescope, no microscope
discovers him. Life has become, in that total perspective which is philosophy,
a ?tful pullulation of human insects on the earth, a planetary eczema that may
soon be cured; nothing is certain in it except defeat and death – a sleep from
which, it seems, there is no awakening.
We are driven to conclude that the greatest mistake in human history was
the discovery of truth. It has not made us free, except from delusions that
comforted us, and restraints that preserved us; it has not made us happy, for
truth is not beautiful, and did not deserve to be so passionately chased. As we
look upon it now we wonder why we hurried so to ?nd it. For it appears
to have taken from us every reason for existing, except for the moment’s
pleasure and tomorrow’s trivial hope.
This is the pass to which science and philosophy have brought us. I, who
have loved philosophy for many years, turn from it now back to life itself, and
ask you, as one who has lived as well as thought, to help me understand.
Perhaps the verdict of those who have lived is di?erent from that of those
who have merely thought. Spare me a moment to tell me what meaning life
has for you, what help – if any – religion gives you, what keeps you going,
what are the sources of your inspiration and your energy, what is the goal or
motive-force of your toil; where you ?nd your consolations and your happi-
ness, where in the last resort your treasure lies. Write brie?y if you must;
write at leisure and at length if you possibly can; for every word from you
will be precious to me.
Sincerely
Will Durant
Author of The Story of Philosophy, Transition, The Mansions of Philosophy, Philosophy and the
Social Problem, etc.
Formerly of the Dept. of Philosophy, Columbia University; Ph.D. (Columbia);
L.H.D. (Syracuse).
P.S. A copy of this letter is being sent to Presidents Hoover and Masaryk; the
the autobiography of bertrand russell 424Rt. Hons. Ramsay MacDonald, Lloyd George, Winston Churchill, and Philip
Snowden; M. Aristide Briand; Signors Benito Mussolini, G. Marconi and
G. d’Annunzio; Mme. Curie, Miss Mary Garden and Miss Jane Addams; Dean
Inge; and Messrs. Josef Stalin, Igor Stravinsky, Leon Trotzky, M. K. Gandhi,
Rabindranath Tagore, Ignace Paderewski, Richard Strauss, Albert Einstein,
Gerhardt Hauptmann, Thomas Mann, Sigmund Freud, G. B. Shaw, H. G. Wells,
John Galsworthy, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford and Eugene O’Neill.
The purpose in view is purely philosophical. I trust, however, that there
will be no objection to my quoting from the replies in my forthcoming
book On the Meaning of Life, one chapter of which will attempt to give some
account of the attitude towards life of the most eminent of living men and
women.
20th June 1931
Dear Mr Durant
I am sorry to say that at the moment I am so busy as to be convinced that
life has no meaning whatever, and that being so, I do not see how I can
answer your questions intelligently.
I do not see that we can judge what would be the result of the discovery of
truth, since none has hitherto been discovered.
Yours sincerely
Bertrand Russell
From and to Albert Einstein
Caputh bei Potsdam
Waldstr. 7/8
den 14. Oktober 1931
Lieber Bertrand Russell!
Ich habe schon lange den Wunsch, Ihnen zu schreiben. Nichts anderes wollte ich dabei, als
Ihnen meine hohe Bewunderung ausdrücken. Die Klarheit, Sicherheit, and Unparteilichkeit, mit
der Sie die logischen, philosophischen und menschlichen Dinge in Ihren Büchern behandelt haben,
steht nicht nur in unserer Generation unerreicht da.
Dies zu sagen h?tte ich mich immer gescheut, weil Sie die objektiven Dinge so auch dies selber
schon am besten wissen und keine Best?tigung n?tig haben. Aber da l?st mir ein kleiner Journalist,
der mich heute aufsuchte, die Zunge. Es handelt sich da um ein internationales journalistisches
Unternehmen (Cooperation) dem die besten Leute als Mitarbeiter angeh?ren, und das sich die
Aufgabe gestellt hat, das Publikum in allen L?ndern in internationalem Sinne zu erziehen. Mittel:
Artikel von Staatsm?nnern und Journalisten, welche einschl?gige Fragen behandeln, werden
systematisch in Zeitungen aller L?nder ver??entlicht.
Herr Dr J. Révész geht in kurzem nach England, um für diese Sache zu wirken. Es würde nach
meiner Ueberzeugung wichtig sein, wenn Sie ihm eine kurze Unterredung gew?hrten, damit er Sie
later years of telegraph house 425in dieser Angelegenheit informieren kann. Ich richte eine solche Bitte nicht leichthin, an Sie,
sondern in der Ueberzeugung, dass die Angelegenheit Ihrer Beachtung wirklich wert sei.
In freudiger Verehrung
Ihr
A. Einstein
P.S. Einer Beantwortung dieses Briefes bedarf es nicht.
(Translation by Otto Nathan):
October 14, 1931
Dear Bertrand Russell
For a long time I have had the wish to write you. All I wanted to do, was to
express my feeling of high admiration of you. The clarity, sureness, and impartial-
ity which you have brought to bear to the logical, philosophical and human
problems dealt with in your books are unrivalled not only in our generation.
I have always been reluctant to say this to you because you know about this
yourself as well as you know about objective facts and do not need to receive any
con?rmation from outside. However, a little-known journalist who came to see me
today has now given me an opportunity to open my heart to you. I am referring to
an international journalistic enterprise (Cooperation) to which the best people
belong as contributors and which has the purpose of educating the public in all
countries in international understanding. The method to be used is to publish
systematically articles by statesmen and journalists on pertinent problems in
newspapers of all countries.
The gentleman in question, Dr J. Révész, will visit England in the near future to
promote the project. I believe it would be important if you could grant him a short
interview so he could inform you about the matter. I have hesitated to ask of you
this favour, but I am convinced that the project really deserves your attention.
With warm admiration,
Yours
A. Einstein
P.S. There is no need to reply to this letter.
Telegraph House
Harting, Peters?eld
7.1.35
Dear Einstein
I have long wished to be able to invite you for a visit, but had until recently
no house to which to ask you. Now this obstacle is removed, & I very much
hope you will come for a week-end. Either next Saturday (12th) or the 19th
would suit me; after that I shall be for 6 weeks in Scandinavia & Austria, so if
the 12th & 19th are both impossible, it will be necessary to wait till the
second half of March. I can scarcely imagine a greater pleasure than a visit
from you would give me, & there are many matters both in the world of
the autobiography of bertrand russell 426physics & in that of human a?airs on which I should like to know your
opinion more de?nitely than I do.
Yours very sincerely
Bertrand Russell
From and to Henri Barbusse
Vigilia
Miramar par Théoule
(Alpes-Maritimes)
10 février 1927
Cher et éminent confrère
Permettez-mois de joindre un appel personnel à celui que vous trouverez ci-inclus et auquel je
vous demande de bien vouloir adhérer. Votre nom est un de ceux qui s’imposent dans une ligue de
grands honnêtes gens qui se lèveraient pour enrayer et combattre l’envahissante barbarie du fascisme.
J’ai rédigé cet appel spontanément, sans obéir à aucune suggestion d’ordre politique ou autre. Je
n’ai écouté que le sentiment de la solidarité et la voix du bon sens: le mal n’est pas sans remède; il y
a ‘quelque chose à faire’; et ce qu’on peut faire surtout et avant tout devant les proportions
e?rayantes qu’a prises le fascisme, c’est de dresser une force morale, de mobiliser la vraie conscience
publique, et de donner une voix explicite à une réprobation qui est répandue partout.
Je dois ajouter que, sur la teneur de cet appel, j’ai échangé des vues avec Romain Rolland, qui est
de tout coeur avec moi, et qui estime comme moi qu’une levée des esprits libres, qu’une protestation
des personnes éclairées et respectées, est seule susceptible, si elle organisée et continue, de mettre un
frein à un état de choses épouvantable.
Je tiens en?n à vous dire que j’ai l’intention de créer très prochainement une revue internation-
ale: Monde, qui aura pour but de di?user de grands principes humains dans le chaos
international actuel, de lutter contre l’esprit et la propagande réactionnaires. Cette publication
peut devenir, sur le plan intellectuel, artistique, moral et social, une importante tribune, si des
personnalités comme vous le veulent bien. Elle servira de véhicule à la voix du Comité, et donnera
corps à sa haute protestation.
Je vous serais reconnaissant si vous me disiez que vous acceptez d’être considéré comme un
collaborateur éventuel de Monde.
Je vous serais également obligé de me répondre au sujet de l’appel par une lettre dont je pourrais
faire état le cas échéant, en la publiant en son entier ou en extraits.
Croyez à mes sentiments de haute considération dévouée.
Henri Barbusse
Sylvie
Aumont par Senlis
(Oise)
12 décembre 1932
Mon cher Russell
Le Comité Tom Mooney voulant pro?ter du changement de gouvernement aux Etats-Unis pour
later years of telegraph house 427arriver à la solution de l’a?aire Tom Mooney, au sujet de laquelle de nouvelles révélations viennent
encore de se produire, a décidé l’envoi au Président Roosevelt de la lettre ci-jointe qui bien que
con?ue en termes o?ciels et très déférents, quoique fermes, nous parait susceptible d’apporter
réellement un terme au scandaleux martyre de Tom Mooney et de Billings.
Je vous demandé de bien vouloir y apposer votre signature et de me la renvoyer d’urgence.
Croyez à mes sentiments amicaux.
Henri Barbusse
Je vous envoie d’autre part une brochure éditée par le Comité Tom Mooney.
47 Emperor’s Gate
S.W.7
16th December 1932
Dear Barbusse
I am at all times willing to do anything that seems to me likely to help
Mooney, but I have a certain hesitation about the draft letter that you have
sent me.
You will, of course, remember that in the time of Kerensky the Russian
Government made an appeal to President Wilson on the subject, and that he,
in consequence, had the Mooney case investigated by a number of eminent
legal authorities who reported favourably to Mooney. The State of California,
however, pointed out that the President had no right to interfere with State
administration of justice.
I do not think there is very much point in appealing to the President Elect,
as he will merely take shelter behind his lack of legal power. In any case it
would be no use presenting the letter until after he becomes President, which
will, I think, be on March 4th. There is no doubt also that at this moment
American public opinion is not feeling particularly friendly to either your
country or mine, and I doubt whether we can usefully intervene until
passions have cooled.
Yours sincerely
Bertrand Russell
This letter shows that I was not always impetuous.
From Count Michael Károlyi The White Hall Hotel
70 Guildford St, W.C.1
5th Feb. 1935
My dear Russell
I want to thank you for the brilliant letter you wrote for the defence of
Rákosi.
2
The trial is still on, and the ?nal sentence may come any day now.
If he does not get a death sentence it will be due in very great part to your
intervention. I fear in this case, however, that he will be imprisoned
for life. Of course, we will try to save him even so – perhaps we can succeed
the autobiography of bertrand russell 428in getting him exchanged for something or other from the Soviet
government.
The last time I saw you, you invited me to spend a week-end with you. If I
am not inconveniencing you I should like to come and see you, not this
Sunday, but any other time which would suit you.
There are so many things to talk over with you – please let me know.
My new address is as above, and my telephone number is Terminus 5512.
Yours very sincerely
M. Károlyi
From Gerald Brenan, author of June 1st 1935
The Spanish Labyrinth and other Churriana
books [Malaga]
Dear Bertie
I see that I have to say something really very stupid indeed to draw a letter
from you. My letter was written late at night, when ones thoughts and fears
tend to carry one away, and I regretted it afterwards. I spent the next day in
penance reading an account of de Montford’s campaign.
It is easy enough to sympathise with the destructive desires of revolutionar-
ies; the di?culty in most cases is to agree that they are likely to do any good.
What I really dislike about them are their doctrinaire ideas and their spirit of
intolerance. The religious idea in Communism, which is the reason for its
success, (the assurance it gives of Time that is God, being on ones side) will
lead in the end perhaps to a sort of Mohammedan creed of brotherhood
& stagnation. The energy and combativeness of Christian nations comes, I
suspect, from the doctrine of sin, particularly Original Sin and the kind of
struggle that must go on for redemption (or for money). But for Augustine’s
Manichaeanism we should have been a more docile but less interesting lot. I
am opposed to this Communist religion, because I think that Socialism shd be
a matter of administration only. Any religious ideas that get attached to it will
be impoverishing, unless of course they are treated lightly, as the Romans
treated the worship of Augustus or the Chinese treated Confucianism. But
that of course may [not] be the case. – Anyhow since one has in the end to
accept or reject these things en bloc, I shall support Communism when I see
it is winning – and I shall always support it against Fascism.
Out here every day brings news of the disintegration of the Popular Front.
Moderate Socialists, Revolutionary Socialists and Syndicalists are all at logger-
heads. Disorders go on increasing and I think that the most likely end is
dictatorship. I incline to think that the best thing for the country would be a
Dictatorship of the moderate left (present government with Socialists) for,
say, ten years. I understand that the agricultural unemployment cannot be
later years of telegraph house 429solved until large areas at present unirrigated have been made irrigateable.
Dams have been begun, but many more are wanted and ?fteen years must
elapse till they are ready. The plan is for the Govt to control investments &
direct them upon these dams, repaying the lenders by a mortgage on the new
irrigated land.
The weather is delicious now and every moment of life is a pleasure.
Besides health and weather – which is Nature’s health – very little matters. It
would be nice if you rented a house out here & brought out some of your
books. If everything in Spain is uncertain – what about the rest of Europe?
With love from us both to you & Peter
ever yrs
Gerald Brenan
Public opinion in England seems alarmingly warlike. I favour the dropping
of sanctions and conclusion of a Mediterranean pact, which would be a check
to Mussolini. But then we must be ready to go to war if he takes a Greek island.
In England the importance of Austria’s not going Nazi is always under-
estimated. The Times refused to look at Central Europe at all. The English are
priggish about everything beyond Berlin – Vienna – Venice. I suspect that you
think as I do.
From Mrs Gerald Brenan
Bell Court
Aldbourne, Marlborough
[Nov. 1938]
My dear Bertie
I thought of you very much in those really horrible days – which must
have been dreadful to you going further & further away from your children
and leaving them behind in such a world. It is the kind of thing you might
dream of in an evil nightmare – but it was one of those modern nightmares
in which you are still awake.
I share your di?culties. I am and always shall be a paci?st. But sometimes
they seem to ‘cry Peace Peace when there is no peace’. What a world we live in.
Power is having wonderful reviews, I see, and is a best seller. I am so glad. I
hope to read it soon.
We have had an Anarchist from Holland staying with us, the Secretary of
the ???. He was a charming & very intelligent man, & had been a good deal in
Spain with the ???.
He was a great admirer of yours. He said that he had recently written an
article on Anarchism for an Encyclopedia. In the Bibliography at the end he
included ‘All the works of Bertrand Russell’ because, he explains, though they
are not actually Anarchist they have ‘the tendency’ as old Anarchists say.
the autobiography of bertrand russell 430I was pleased – for whatever Anarchist parties are in practice ‘the ten-
dency’ I’m sure is right. We went to Savernake Forest one day. The autumn
leaves were beginning to fall but the day was warm & bright. I wished for you
& Peter & John & Kate. Perhaps we will walk there again another day.
I hope you & Peter are as happy as it is possible to be so far from home
& in such days.
With love to you both
Yours ever
Gamel
Bell Court
Aldbourne, Marlborough
[Winter 1938–9]
My dear Bertie
I was so glad to get your letter and to think that you will be coming home
now before so very long and we shall see you again.
Yes, we must somehow meet more often. We must have picnics in
Savernake Forest – and ?nd some charming place to come together half way
between Kidlington and Aldbourne. Gerald and I are going to take to bicycles
this summer, so we can meet anywhere.
I am sure America is very di?cult to be in now. I was afraid you and Peter
would ?nd it trying in many ways – the tremendous lionising must be very
exhausting and very tiresome in the end however well they mean.
Longmans Green are going to bring out my book some time in the
late spring I think. I am glad, for I think in a small way it is a useful book.
It is such a painful picture of the war state of mind. It is to be called
Death’s Other Kingdom, from T. S. Eliot’s line ‘Is it like this in Death’s other
kingdom?’
Gerald and I have both read Power with great interest and great admiration.
It has made a great impression, I gather, not only from the reviews, but from
the fact that almost every intelligent person I meet happens somehow in
some connection to mention it.
I can understand how you long to be in England. And I am so glad that you
will soon be coming home.
With much love to you all,
Yours
Gamel
I am delighted to learn the real provenance of my name – but I am not sure
how I feel about its nearness to Camel.
later years of telegraph house 431From Mrs Bernard Berenson
The Mud House
Friday’s Hill, Haslemere
July 28, 1936
My dear Bertie
Might I motor over & call upon you and your wife on Thursday or Friday
of this week, or sometime next week?
I’ve been very ill, and one of the results of illness is to make me understand
what things have been precious in my life, and you were one of the most
precious. I do not want to die without seeing you again & thanking you for so
many things.
Yours a?ectionately
Mary Berenson
To and from Lion Fitzpatrick
Telegraph House
Harting, Peters?eld
21.12.36
Dear Lion
It was very disappointing that I was ill just when we were coming to you –
it was gastric ?u, brief but incapacitating. We look forward to seeing you
towards the end of January.
As Alys is going to stay with you, I wonder whether you could say some
little word of a friendly sort from me. I am the more anxious for this because
Mrs Berenson said a number of very critical things about Alys, to which I
listened in stony silence; & I dare say she went away saying I had said them. I
don’t want to make mischief, so that there would be no point in mentioning
Mrs Berenson to Alys; but I should be sorry if Alys thought that I said or felt
unfriendly things about her.
Yours
B R
The Warden’s Lodgings
All Souls College, Oxford
Dec. 28. 36
Dear Bertie
All right. I’ll try to do that. But it isn’t easy to inform Alys about you. She
likes to think she knows everything about you. At bottom she is intensely
interested in you but she still seems raw even after all these years. I expect she
cares quite a lot about you still. People are queer. If they are without humour
they either dry up or get rather rancid. I feel that to be able to regard yourself
as somewhat of a joke is the highest virtue.
the autobiography of bertrand russell 432I’ll ask (?) [illegible word] over when Alys & Grace Worthington and after
them the Wells go – It will be in Feb. I am afraid unless I could come in
between visits. But I generally have to go to bed then – oh Lord how unadapt-
able the English are and how unimpressionable the ?.?. (?) [illegible word].
These people here are Scottish & Ulster. Much more ?exible breed.
I have a rather miserable spot in my sub-conscious about your book on
philosophy. I do wish you could get it out of you before you die – I think it
would be important! – after all that is what you ought to be doing – not pot
boilers. Bill Adams (the son of the Warden here) has been listening to you
somewhere on physics and says your brain is the clearest in England – (Is this
great praise in a country where brains are nearly all muddled and proud
of it sir?)
My regards to Lady Russell – I hope she is well – I write to her later –
Lion
Lion Fitzpatrick, the writer of the preceding letter, was a close friend of
Alys’s and later also of mine. ‘Lion’ was a nickname given to her on account
of her mane of black hair. Her father had been a Belfast business man, who,
owing to drink, had ?rst gone bankrupt and then died. She came to England
penniless, and was employed by Lady Henry Somerset on philanthropic work
in Somerstown (St Pancras). I met her ?rst on June 10, 1894, at a Temperance
