BLOOMSBURY & BERTRAND RUSSELLGroup of incoming correspondence to Bertrand Russell, comprising: autograph letter signed ("Virginia Woolf") to Bertrand Russell ("Dear Mr Russell"), regarding some stories "about an old Pattle who was, I think, our great grandfather...", sending him a book containing a sketch she wrote of Julia Margaret Cameron his daughter ("...I have told what I could remember of family gossip about him; but I expect other people know a good deal more..."), one page, creased at folds, 8vo (203 x 165mm.), 52 Tavistock Square, W.C.1, 3 December [19]35; two autograph letters from E.M. Forster to Russell regarding the letters of Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson ("Goldie") for whom he was acting as literary executor, 2 pages, rust marks from old paperclip at head, 8vo (203 x 128mm.) and smaller, West Hackhurst, 5 January and 29 January [19]33; autograph letter from H.G. Wells, signed with monogram, putting the behaviour of Russell's by then ex-wife Dora down to "...that phase in a woman's life when motives become moody & incalculable...", thanking his stars that men do not go through that stage and pronouncing Marie Stopes' The Change of Life to be "...a perfectly crazy book...", two pages on a bifolium, creased at folds, light dust-staining, 8vo (178 x 140mm.), 13 Hanover Terrace, N.W.1, 4 July [19]36; autograph letter from Clive Bell signed ("Clive"), to "My dear Bertie", asking for letter of introduction for his son Julian as he applies to teach at a Chinese university ("...Osbert Sitwell, who is just back from China, tells me that your name is one to conjure with amongst the Chinese intelligentsia..."), 2 pages, 8vo (200 x 127mm.), 50 Gordon Square, Bloomsbury, 24 July 1934; autograph letter signed ("Aldous Huxley"), thanking him for the Causes of War and allowing him more space for his article, one page, dust-staining at folds, spotting, 4to (260 x 202mm.), Mount Royal, W.1, 14 December [19]36; with letters from the Aga Khan ("...Western Philosophy explains matters..."), and three others including one from Russell to his secretary Sheila announcing his marriage to his fourth wife Edith Finch (10)Footnotes'I HAVE TOLD WHAT I COULD REMEMBER OF FAMILY GOSSIP ABOUT HIM': letters from Virginia Woolf, E.M. Forster, H.G. Wells, Clive Bell and other figures at the centre of the Bloomsbury group to philosopher & writer Bertrand Russell.
The letters were collected by Sheila Zinkin who acted as Bertrand Russell's secretary in 1951, and touch on a wide-range of subjects ranging from Virginia Woolf on the Pattles, her maternal family, to E.M. Forster enquiring after the letters of Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson (whose sisters were the inspiration for the Schlegel sisters in Howards End), to H.G. Wells expressing relief that men to not have to suffer the menopause. Zinkin only worked for him for a short time but her holiday plans formed the inspiration for Russell's short story The Corsican Ordeal of Miss X, a fantastical tale of a conspiracy to assassinate twenty-one heads of state, published anonymously in Go, London, December 1951-January 1952. The story was later published in Satan in the Suburbs, a copy of which he inscribed to her as '..."the onlie begetter of the ensuing Corsican Ordeal from her well-wisher BR". He had then written the story, he humorously recalled, "as a warning of what might befall her"...' (Bone, A.G. ed., Collected Papers, 2020, vol.26, p.328). The collection has remained in the family until now.
BLOOMSBURY & BERTRAND RUSSELLGroup of incoming correspondence to Bertrand Russell, comprising: autograph letter signed ("Virginia Woolf") to Bertrand Russell ("Dear Mr Russell"), regarding some stories "about an old Pattle who was, I think, our great grandfather...", sending him a book containing a sketch she wrote of Julia Margaret Cameron his daughter ("...I have told what I could remember of family gossip about him; but I expect other people know a good deal more..."), one page, creased at folds, 8vo (203 x 165mm.), 52 Tavistock Square, W.C.1, 3 December [19]35; two autograph letters from E.M. Forster to Russell regarding the letters of Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson ("Goldie") for whom he was acting as literary executor, 2 pages, rust marks from old paperclip at head, 8vo (203 x 128mm.) and smaller, West Hackhurst, 5 January and 29 January [19]33; autograph letter from H.G. Wells, signed with monogram, putting the behaviour of Russell's by then ex-wife Dora down to "...that phase in a woman's life when motives become moody & incalculable...", thanking his stars that men do not go through that stage and pronouncing Marie Stopes' The Change of Life to be "...a perfectly crazy book...", two pages on a bifolium, creased at folds, light dust-staining, 8vo (178 x 140mm.), 13 Hanover Terrace, N.W.1, 4 July [19]36; autograph letter from Clive Bell signed ("Clive"), to "My dear Bertie", asking for letter of introduction for his son Julian as he applies to teach at a Chinese university ("...Osbert Sitwell, who is just back from China, tells me that your name is one to conjure with amongst the Chinese intelligentsia..."), 2 pages, 8vo (200 x 127mm.), 50 Gordon Square, Bloomsbury, 24 July 1934; autograph letter signed ("Aldous Huxley"), thanking him for the Causes of War and allowing him more space for his article, one page, dust-staining at folds, spotting, 4to (260 x 202mm.), Mount Royal, W.1, 14 December [19]36; with letters from the Aga Khan ("...Western Philosophy explains matters..."), and three others including one from Russell to his secretary Sheila announcing his marriage to his fourth wife Edith Finch (10)Footnotes'I HAVE TOLD WHAT I COULD REMEMBER OF FAMILY GOSSIP ABOUT HIM': letters from Virginia Woolf, E.M. Forster, H.G. Wells, Clive Bell and other figures at the centre of the Bloomsbury group to philosopher & writer Bertrand Russell.
The letters were collected by Sheila Zinkin who acted as Bertrand Russell's secretary in 1951, and touch on a wide-range of subjects ranging from Virginia Woolf on the Pattles, her maternal family, to E.M. Forster enquiring after the letters of Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson (whose sisters were the inspiration for the Schlegel sisters in Howards End), to H.G. Wells expressing relief that men to not have to suffer the menopause. Zinkin only worked for him for a short time but her holiday plans formed the inspiration for Russell's short story The Corsican Ordeal of Miss X, a fantastical tale of a conspiracy to assassinate twenty-one heads of state, published anonymously in Go, London, December 1951-January 1952. The story was later published in Satan in the Suburbs, a copy of which he inscribed to her as '..."the onlie begetter of the ensuing Corsican Ordeal from her well-wisher BR". He had then written the story, he humorously recalled, "as a warning of what might befall her"...' (Bone, A.G. ed., Collected Papers, 2020, vol.26, p.328). The collection has remained in the family until now.
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