Letters

"I am ambitious for you, my dearest Boy"

Frances Russell (Granny)
Sep 13, 1894

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“I know no one else … so well qualified to form an opinion”

G.E. Moore
Mar 15, 1903

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

Lytton Strachey
Oct 23, 1907

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“I imagine that we must apply to the Royal for a grant”

Alfred North Whitehead
Oct 30, 1909

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“You make all other people pale & puney”

Ottoline Morrell
Mar 29, 1911

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“Alys wants us to be friends with you”

Beatrice Webb
Oct 11, 1912

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“It reminded me of a verse in the Upanishad”

Rabindranath Tagore
Oct 13, 1912

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“I am very sorry … that my objection to your theory of judgment paralyses you”

Ludwig Wittgenstein
Jul 22, 1913

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“I had the conviction that you would understand my unusual talkativeness”

Joseph Conrad
Sep 13, 1913

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“Bertie, my soul is sick with anguish”

Evelyn Whitehead
Aug 4, 1914

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“Such generosity and encouragement means a great deal to me at present”

T.S. Eliot
Sep 11, 1915

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“I want to write you a cross letter”

Frieda Lawrence and D.H. Lawrence
Feb 24, 1916

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“you’ll cry me very vague & dismiss me … as a woman with an ill regulated mind”

Katherine Mansfield
Dec 17, 1916

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“I am so full of happiness in the thought of you and of our love”

Constance Malleson
Jun 9, 1917

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“I am making this statement as an act of wilful defiance of military authority”

Siegfried Sassoon
Jun 23, 1917

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“I was told that you were in prison. This is to send you my love.”

E.M Forster
Feb 12, 1918

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“a cat may look at a king, and ... a philosopher at a judge”

George Bernard Shaw
Apr 29, 1918

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“I’m very much excited at the prospect of doing the portrait”

Roger Fry
May 17, 1922

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“that is the highest praise I can give a book”

Clive Bell
Sep 22, 1928

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“It’s a Yoga exercise, of course: but none the worse for that.”

Aldous Huxley
Dec 1, 1934

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“It was very kind of you to write me that fine letter”

Franklin D. Roosevelt
Apr 18, 1939

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“a brief note of sympathy on the abominable attacks that have been made on you here”

Vera Brittain
Apr 2, 1940

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“you … would be entirely free”

John Dewey
May 27, 1940

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“Forgive this desolation…”

H.G. Wells
May 20, 1945

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“You certainly are qualified to rank as a chartered member of Blandings!”

P.G. Wodehouse
Feb 10, 1954

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“I am gladly willing to sign your excellent statement.”

Albert Einstein
Apr 11, 1955

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“there are many advantages in holding the meeting in Canada”

Joseph Rotblat
Jan 9, 1957

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“there is a discrepancy sufficiently important to cause me to write”

Philip K. Dick to Simon & Schuster [Russell's American publishers]
May 21, 1957

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“you most assuredly are also not an ‘organization’ man”

Farley Mowat
Sep 16, 1960

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“maybe Kennedy will do a good job”

Stephanie May
Dec 25, 1960

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“he has served as the conscience of humanity”

Martin Luther King, Jr. to Ralph Schoenman [Russell's secretary]
Apr 9, 1962

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“your attention might well be directed to the burglars rather than to those who have caught the burglars”

John F. Kennedy
Oct 26, 1962

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“Little did I think … that you would be the one to avert war. Thank you.”

Joseph Heller
Oct 31, 1962

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“There is such a strong feeling in India over the invasion by China..."

Jawaharlal Nehru
Dec 4, 1962

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“I thank you for your interest in a peaceful settlement of the Sino-Indian boundary question”

Zhou Enlai
Jul 21, 1963

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“I hope you will find it possible to give me some answer to these questions”

Pierre Berton
Feb 7, 1964

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“I am only too aware of the calls that are made upon your personal life”

Jeffrey Archer
Nov 23, 1964

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“we are not yet … at the point where it is not possible to speak and advocate openly in this country”

Arthur Miller
Nov 2, 1966

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“I am happy that you have asked me to be a member of the tribunal and I will be very honored to serve”

James Baldwin
Jan 9, 1967

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"I hope that you live forever"

Joan Baez
May 19, 1967

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