Your letter 34 (which really is 34 unless my reckoning is out too) of the 27th arrived on the 8th, which is not too bad for air mail. I don’t suppose that there is any air mail from Italy; but perhaps the mail between two neutral countries direct arrives more quickly than here. I am glad to know that you have not caught cold lately, even with infection near you; and hope that the weather is improving as it is here. Itravels, trips and plansTSE's abortive 1940 Italian mission;d8final preparations for;a8 have been very busy with preparations. To go away for any length of time nowadays takes planning: as the laundry only calls and delivers on the same day each week, I shall be leaving two weeks washing behind – if you can figure that out – so have to be careful what linen I wear in the meantime, so as to have the right things to take with me. There are also, of course, innumerable forms to fill out; and I have to take all my books and papers to a Censor’s Office to be sealed up. The B.C. of course look after tickets, visas, etc., but I have had to have another passport photograph taken for the Italians, of which I enclose a copy – a good likeness, though not in my opinion flattering. I have heard from a few people who want to see me, and have written to others, including two of my translators, Caselli and Berti in Milan and Florence respectively. YouCaetani, Marguerite (née Chapin)and TSE's abortive Italian mission;b4 will be amused to hear that I have had a most affectionate letter from Marguerite, asking me to spend the weekend with them, between Rome and Naples, at their villa in the Pontine Marshes – I don’t suppose it is as unhealthy as it sounds. I have referred her to the Director of the Institute in Rome to make arrangements with. It is uncertain whether I shall get a private audience at the Vatican: better not be mentioned to anybody, in case political reasons prevent.
IHayward, Johnexcursions to Cambridge to visit;k1 had a pleasant weekend at Cambridge, being lucky in having the two most beautiful days of the year. CambridgeEnglandCambridge, Cambridgeshire;d6TSE's vision of life in;a2 at its best, with lilac and chestnut in bloom, apple trees in blossom. I spent most of Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning with John Hayward, who looks pretty well, but has been very lonely and depressed. TheRothschilds, theas JDH's hosts;a2Rothschild, Victor
IDukes, AshleyToo Many Twins;h8 go tonight to see Ashley Dukes’s adaptation of the Menaechmi telescoped with the Comedy of Errors into a farce under the title of Too Many Twins.2 ISeaverns, Helenlaments life in Hove;d9 looked in, the other afternoon, on Mrs. Seaverns! at her hotel in Knightsbridge. She has been, of course, increasingly miserable in Hove, and drew a desolate picture of the ladies in the hotel drawing room there. So she has decided to open up Millbank again: with Mary, Alice, Parrott, William and Roy complete: the only retainer missing is one whose name I forget, and who, Mrs. S. told me, had been discovered to have too warm a particularity for Gin, and so will not return. And as Mrs. French is about, and one or two other cronies; andEnglish Speaking Union;a4 as her club have a room of their own in the English Speaking Union where she can get a game of cards once or twice a week, she will be much more contented. I am to dine with her on Whitmonday. I am afraid that the chief pleasure in seeing people like Mrs. S. is the feeling of giving them some pleasure and distraction – that is not really a conceited thing to say, because it does not need more than cheerfulness and prattle. But you will appreciate that I prefer rather more serious ladies for company!
I hope that you received my last letter with my time table and addresses. To get a sufficient quantity and variety of clothes, for all occasions and for a much warmer climate, into a couple of suit cases, will be difficult.
ICollege of the City of New Yorkwithdraws offer;a2 havetravels, trips and planspossible wartime transatlantic crossings;d7and TSE's New York proposition;a5 had a letter from the College of the City of New York to express regret that they now find themselves so limited in funds that they must withdraw their invitation. Apparently the College is under the municipal government. TheCollege of the City of New Yorkbars Bertrand Russell from teaching;a3 professorRussell, Bertrandbarred from teaching philosophy;a9 said that the reason given for vetoing the appointment of Bertie Russell was that he was an alien! 3 MeanwhileMacNeice, Louisat Cornell;a6 Louis McNeice seems to be at Cornell, andMacNeice, LouisThe Last Ditch;b2 has just brought out a book in Ireland (of poems) called ‘The Last Ditch’ – as a Dublin correspondent remarked, in a true Irish way, perhaps because he has taken care not to be in it. He is, as a matter of fact, an Irish citizen; but I suppose that to the Dubliners his having been educated in England, and having lived and worked there since he left Oxford, makes him seem an Englishman. The bureau you mention sounds very odd, and I have never heard of it: I shall be curious to learn more. One difficulty might be that they might not want anyone for a few months; andEnglandwar binds TSE to;b7 you know that much as I long to come, I should not care to be out of England very long at the present time.
1.On this day Hitler invaded France and the Low Countries and Winston Churchill took office as British Prime Minister, though TSE makes no reference to these events in this letter.
2.A New Comedy of Errors: or, Too Many Twins – adapted from Plautus, Shakespeare and Molière, and staged in modern dress – opened at the Mercury Theatre on 29 Apr.
3.On 22 Apr., ProfCollege of the City of New Yorkwithdraws offer;a2n. A. D. Compton reported to TSE that the College of the City of New York (which was funded by the City) was obliged to withdraw its invitation, since ‘as a result of political expediency’, the City Mayor – the Republican Fiorello Henry La Guardia (1882–1947), 99th Mayor, 1934–45 – had cut the budget for all new academic positions for the next session. Compton explained further: ‘A curious bit of chauvinism has come to light recently in the attempt of some vociferous groups to prevent the appointment of Bertrand Russell to a post at the College – that is, the attempt to bar him on the ground that he is an alien, an absurd reason, but one that we must count on until we have a legal decision on the matter.’
InRussell, Bertrandbarred by American judge;b1n truth, when the Dept. of Philosophy of CCNY moved to appoint Russell to the faculty, the Catholic Church protested, and a woman named Jean Kay sought to block Russell’s appointment on the grounds that his views on marriage and premarital sex would corrupt her daughter (even though the daughter was not even a student at CCNY). When Judge John E. McGehan (a Roman Catholic) ruled in the New York Supreme Court that Russell was not fit to teach philosophy – basing his judgement on Russell’s popular works – the Board of Higher Education bowed accordingly, and Mayor La Guardia withdrew funding for the appointment.
In the introduction to his An Inquiry into Meaning and Truth (1940), Russell mocked the ruling by listing among his academic awards and distinctions: ‘Judicially pronounced unworthy to be Professor of Philosophy at the College of the City of New York.’
4.MargueriteCaetani, Marguerite (née Chapin) Caetani, née Chapin (1880–1963) – Princesse di Bassiano – literary patron and editor: see Biographical Register. LéliaCaetani, Lélia Caetani (1913–77), sole daughter, was to marry Hubert Howard (1908–87), a scion of the English Catholic House of Howard, who worked to preserve the Caetani heritage at Rome and at the castle of Sermoneta.
4.AshleyDukes, Ashley Dukes (1885–1959), theatre manager, playwright, critic, translator, adapter, author; from 1933, owner of the Mercury Theatre, London: see Biographical Register.
11.JohnHayward, John Davy Hayward (1905–65), editor and critic: see Biographical Register.
7.LouisMacNeice, Louis MacNeice (1907–63), poet, radio producer and playwright: see Biographical Register.
3.HelenSeaverns, Helen Seaverns, widow of the American-born businessman and Liberal MP, Joel Herbert Seaverns: see Biographical Register.