“I shall have this engraved on my tombstone – He knew Moore and Russell”

As recounted in his Autobiography, Russell would have met the writer and critic Lytton Strachey (1880-1932) when Strachey was a child. Russell had worked with Strachey’s mother on a committee and had dined at the Strachey home where Lytton would have been present, but Russell had no distinct memory of him because the “number of sons and daughters was almost beyond computation.” They would later become acquainted when Strachey attended Trinity College, Cambridge, in the early 1900s.

Strachey was a founding member of the Bloomsbury group, and like other Bloomsberries, had great affection and admiration for Russell’s philosopher colleague, G.E. Moore, whose Principia Ethica was, to varying degrees, a touchstone for them (see the G.E. Moore letter in this series). Russell was very critical of Strachey and others for this, believing they misrepresented Moore. He wrote: “They aimed rather at a life of retirement among fine shades and nice feelings, and conceived of the good as consisting in the passionate mutual admirations of a clique of the elite. This doctrine, quite unfairly, they fathered upon G.E. Moore, whose disciples they professed to be,” but they “degraded his ethics into advocacy of a stuffy girls-school sentimentalizing.”

According to Strachey’s biographer, Michael Holroyd, Russell had a “qualified dislike” of Strachey. The word “qualified” is important here, for Russell did find things to admire about Strachey. While in Brixton Prison in 1918 for his anti-war position, Russell read Strachey’s Eminent Victorians, and “laughed so loud that the warder came round to stop me, saying I must remember that prison was a place of punishment.” Ultimately, however, Russell’s view of Strachey was quite negative, which is clear from this passage in his Autobiography: “He is indifferent to historical truth and will always touch up the picture to make the lights and shades more glaring and the folly or wickedness of famous people more obvious. These are grave charges, but I make them in all seriousness.” For his part, Strachey viewed Russell in a similarly “qualified” way, admiring his intellect and writing but not always his way of being in the world.

In this 1907 letter from Strachey to Russell, however, it is only extreme admiration that is expressed. Strachey has just finished reading Russell’s ‘The Study of Mathematics’ and “was carried away by it.” He says that on his tombstone, all that will be engraved there is “He knew Moore and Russell”. Great praise, indeed. Russell’s reply to the letter, a copy of which is in the Russell archives (RA3 883), is gracious.

A decade on, during the First World War, Strachey would find other reasons to admire Russell. He attended Russell’s 1916 lecture series, later published as Principles of Social Reconstruction, and was impassioned in his praise of them, feeling they provided a hopeful vision at a very bleak time. Both were indeed opposed to the War and would have seen each other and similar like-minded people at Garsington, the home of Russell’s lover, Ottoline Morrell. (Strachey took up semi-permanent residence there in the latter part of the War, and Ottoline greatly valued his friendship). But the mutual criticisms of Russell and Strachey were never far below the surface, at least privately. Russell often dismissed Strachey’s writings as frivolous (even portions of Eminent Victorians), and Strachey saw Russell’s more activist stance as sometimes misplaced. In the end, their divisions appear to have been greater than their agreements.

This 1907 letter was published in volume 1 of Russell’s Autobiography. There are only five letters between Russell and Strachey in the Russell archives, but Strachey is frequently mentioned in other letters, especially in the Ottoline Morrell correspondence.

Russell’s copy of Strachey’s Eminent Victorians can be seen in the Russell Archives (Russ Lib 1247). It is inscribed by Strachey: “To Bertrand Russell from the Author, May 1918”.

Note: My colleague, Myron Groover, has pointed out that what is actually inscribed on Stachey’s tombstone is, simply: "In memory of Giles Lytton Strachey, 5th son of Richard Strachey and Jane Maria Grant his wife, born 1st March 1880, died 21st January 1932."

Sources: (1) Bertrand Russell. The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell, 1872-1914 (Volume I) and 1914-1944 (Volume II). London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd., 1967 and 1968; all quotes from Russell are taken from the Autobiography. (2) Michael Holroyd. Lytton Strachey: A Biography, Penguin Books, 1971. (3) Regarding Russell’s ‘The Study of Mathematics,’ see Richard A. Rempel et al., eds. The Collected Papers of Bertrand Russell, Volume 12: Contemplation and Action, 1902-1904. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1985.