America: Chicago and California

Bertrand Russell arrived in America in September 1938. He was accompanied by his wife Peter and their young son Conrad. His two older children remained in the UK with their mother. He had accepted a temporary position at the University of Chicago in order to support his family. After a year at Oxford, he had been unable to find suitable employment either there or elsewhere in the UK. He was to spend almost five years in America, a country not unknown to him. He had visited and lectured there many times beginning in 1896.

Chicago (Autumn 1938–Winter 1939)
Russell wrote to Dean Richard P. McKeon on 24 April 1938 looking for an apartment for himself, his “wife & child, the latter now just one year old. I suppose it will be best for the child if we are some way out, where there would be fresher air. There will be no nurse, so a very small apartment will do ... Economy is essential.” For a family of three that had lived at the spacious Telegraph House and the smaller but still charming Amberley House, the idea of a small apartment was challenging. McKeon replied on 7 May 1938 after discussing Russell’s request with his colleagues. The consensus was that “it would be wise for you to spend at least the first few weeks in one of the apartment hotels not far from the University and near the lake.” The choice of which one would be left up to the Russells. After arrival they could decide “whether to remain there or to seek a more desirable apartment.”

The choice turned out to be the Plaisance on the Midway at Jackson Park which had opened in 1921. An advertisement in the Chicago Daily Tribune, 3 May 1921, described the apartments as “2 to 4 rooms, beautifully and completely furnished. Every apartment has private bath, breakfast room, and buffet kitchen completely equipped.” There was also a restaurant in the hotel serving luncheon and dinner. The phone number for all units was Dorchester 4300. There were 126 apartments in the building. It was eight stories high and located at 1539 E. 60^th Street.1 Russell and his wife, Peter, must have found the accommodations suitable; for Peter, it would have been a relief not to cook. The fact that it was furnished indicates that the Russells left their existing furniture behind. On 30 May 1939, Peter wrote in response to an enquiry from Warder Norton that there were: “innumerable objects that we long for, from the notes on Nietzsche & Schopenhauer in the bottom right hand drawer of my desk to our large red dog [Sherry] ....” Despite Russell writing in April that there would not be a nurse, a young British woman, Pamela Campbell, travelled with them to act as Conrad’s nursery governess. Confirmation that she travelled with them comes from Freda Utley (Odyssey, p. 171). The Plaisance hotel was later demolished, probably in the early 1960s.

 

The Plaisance Hotel, Chicago
 

Russell taught an elementary course, the “Problems of Philosophy”, and an advanced seminar “Words and Facts” for $5,000. He had landed in New York on 19 September; “his teaching responsibilities were to commence on October 3 …”2 Russell characterized his seminar at the University of Chicago as “extraordinarily delightful … Carnap and Charles Morris used to come to it, and I had three pupils of quite outstanding ability—Dalkey, Kaplan, and Copilowish” (Auto 2: 217). Gary M. Slezak and Donald W. Jackanciz, in their article “The Town is Beastly and the Weather Was Vile” described the Thursday evening gatherings that the Russells held for graduate students at the Plaisance. “These ‘at-homes’ were known for fine conversation, good jokes, and excellent whiskey” (p. 12). The article title is taken from Russell’s judgement on Chicago in his Autobiography (2: 217). Peter described one of these evenings in a letter to her stepchildren John and Kate: “At the request of the young men themselves we turned our usual philosophical evening into a poetry evening and all took turns reading till half past one. One of them has just rung me up to say that he never enjoyed anything so much in his life, and I think they were all very happy. Looking back, I think I must have been a little drunk, though I felt quite sober, for I remember that when someone had to go and we all sang ‘Fare thee well for I must leave thee’3 etc. and one of them began a sort of Highland fling, in which I joined, which seems hardly suitable behaviour for a Professor’s wife ... We read the whole of the Ancient Mariner ... Daddy reads so well, and all the men dote on him” (28 Feb. 1939). In the same letter she noted that “in Chicago, surrounded by filthy snow, it is hard to believe that the world will ever come to life again. California, they say, will be all flowers when we get there.” Despite the weather, she commented: “We have enjoyed the time here so much, in spite of too much work for Daddy and too many dinner parties for us both, that we feel now that we would be glad to come back ... if we could get away in the summer.”  In the same letter she noted that she had “three white hyacinths in a pot on my desk and they smell quite intoxicating.” Nothing is known about Russell’s study in this apartment or if he even had one given its small size.

Russell kept up a vigorous schedule of outside speaking engagements during his time in Chicago. He also could be found “lunching with residents in a dormitory … at the Beta Theta Pi fraternity followed by a group visit to a local bar [and] in the receiving line of a prom …” He was also spotted on more than one occasion pushing Conrad’s pram.4

Russell did return to Chicago at least three times before he left the country. Russell was in Chicago in November 1940 presumably to lecture. His wife Peter wrote him on 12 November: “I hope all has gone well at Chicago, & that you are not too tired. It was no use scanning the skys [sic] for your aeroplane because they were hidden in fog & rain: & I was worried about your flying in such weather.”Charner Perry remembered a “large reception-tea-cocktail party which I arranged for him and his wife on December 7, 1941.”5 Russell accepted Richard McKeon’s invitation to lecture on 20–22 March 1944; he was scheduled to arrive on 18 March.6

Berkeley, California (Spring 1939)
Russell was delighted “after the bleak hideousness of Chicago, which was still in the grip of winter ... to arrive in the Californian spring” (Auto 2: 217). Dates for his lecture tour had been set by his agent Feakins as early as September 1938. His first lecture was to be in San Francisco on 23 March.7 Michael Stevenson in his article on this tour gives Russell’s first lecture as 20 March in Sacramento, which is not far away. The first destination for the Russells in California was Berkeley, specifically the Hotel Claremont. The luxury Claremont, now part of the Fairmont chain, has been a Berkeley landmark since 1915. Peter wrote to John and Kate on 16 March 1939: “We arrived here this morning, after two days & two nights in a ...  train & are now lying on a daisied lawn ....”8 On 20 March, Peter wrote to Paul Schilpp that: “We are charmed with the country and climate here, and the hotel is very pleasant.”

 

The Claremont Hotel in 1951
 

When the Russells arrived in California, they were still planning on returning to England after his lecture tour ended. Peter was considering sending Conrad to Dartington Hall nursery school.9 Both Russell in his Autobiography (2: 217) and the authors of Bertrand Russell’s America (p. 128) indicate that he went to California with the intention of taking a position at UCLA. This is a conflation of events. In an untitled statement Russell wrote: “On the last day of March, I was suddenly offered a 3–year professorship at the University of California at Los Angeles, the work to begin on September 15 ....” This statement formed part of the paperwork done to explain why he could not go to England in August and thus why he wanted his two older children to visit him in America. He went so far as to write to William B. Curry at Dartington Hall School: “As I have a professorship at the University of California for 3 years, & shall very likely stay in America for the rest of my life, I should like very much, if possible, to get John & Kate to America, & let them finish their education in this country.”10 This undated letter was acknowledged by Curry on 24 May 1939.

Montecito, Santa Barbara, California (Spring–Summer 1939)
The Russells stayed briefly at San Ysidro Ranch in 1939; their date of arrival is unknown. According to its webpage the ranch opened for guests in 1893—the property consists of 500 acres filled with olive and orange trees as well as roses and magnolias. San Ysidro (St. Isidore) is the patron saint of farmers and the property was named by the original occupants, Franciscan friars, in the 18^th century. Before 1893 it was a citrus farm according to Sacha Forbes. In 1892, the year before it opened, a hacienda (ranch house) was built. Located in the foothills of the Santa Ynez mountains, there are 38 cottages on the property. The rich and famous have stayed there, including Winston Churchill, who has a cottage named after him. Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh married there in 1940. A postcard that Russell sent from the ranch to Lucy Donnelly on 29 March is below. The management of the hotel has identified it as the now renamed Cypress cottage. Maps of the property and photographs of the cottage appear in Additional Images. Today the ranch remains exclusive and expensive, owned by the billionaire, Ty Warner, who carried out extensive renovations in 2000. Warner owns other properties in Montecito and elsewhere. The ranch was the setting for book promotional interviews with Prince Harry in January 2023.

 

The cottage where the Russells stayed, San Ysidro Ranch, California
 

Why did they go to the ranch? Presumably they just wanted to see more of the state before they returned to England. Having their own cottage there would have been ideal for Conrad. On 31 March Russell lectured at UCLA. (Stevenson, “Solitude”, p. 103.) He then left the state, writing to Peter on 1 April from a train crossing the Arizona desert: “There is no real reason to spend the time May–Sept. in Los Angeles—we could get a furnished cottage in lovely country, e.g. S. Barbara.” On the verso of the letter Peter has written “tel[ephone] house agent” (Stevenson, pp. 112–13). Russell was away for the entire month of April; Stevenson prints the tour dates, beginning on 3 April in Baton Rouge and ending on 25 April in Brooklyn (p. 104). Peter found the cottage quickly. On 8 April Russell wrote to Peter: “I am glad of what you say about cottage & garden; it sounds delightful (Stevenson, pp. 124–25). On 15 April he told Kate: “I haven’t seen the cottage … but I know the neighbourhood, which is lovely—sea, woods, torrents, & great mountains …”

Peter wrote to Paul Schlipp on 9 April regarding the UCLA job: “I wish it were at Berkely, where we like the country better, but we must not be ungrateful. I have taken a cottage here for the summer.” The owners of the cottage are not known. The cottage was located at 76 San Leandro Lane and was not far away from the ranch. The street numbers are now entirely different; they all contain four digits.11 Michael Stevenson visited this lane in 2015; all the houses are hidden behind walls and hedges. The path the lane takes is curious. It begins running east-west from San Ysidro Road. It then joins Hixon Road which runs north-south; Hixon becomes San Leandro. It then makes a sharp right turn, going west, ending at Sheffield Drive. It is closer to the coast than the hills. The numbers now begin with 1510 and end with 1970, both on the north side. My guess is that 76 was on the north side and not that far from San Ysidro Road. Two images of a home on San Leandro Lane taken in 1927 can be viewed here: http://www.adc-exhibits.museum.ucsb.edu/items/show/665

With Prince Harry and his wife Meghan moving to Montecito in 2020, the town got press attention. “It is indubitably a retreat, not a town in any recognizable sense but a cluster of narrow lanes that wind up from the coast through lush stands of eucalyptus and juniper towards a popular hot spring in the hills … In 1928, Charlie Chaplin called Montecito the ‘cream of the coast’ and gathered together a group of investors to establish the Montecito Inn, the anchor around which the rest of the community sprang up.”12 The Russells got to know Chaplin when they lived in Los Angeles. On 8 April 1940 Peter wrote to George Catlin: “Charlie Chaplin asked us to dinner last Saturday, but unfortunately we were both too worn out to go. I hope we shall see him before long.”

Russell wrote to John and Kate on 25 May 1939 answering a question about the weather. He was enjoying working on his lectures “about the influence of philosophers on politics & vice versa” but must have injured himself shortly thereafter. Peter wrote to Gerald Brenan on 30 June 1939 telling him that Russell had “hurt his back about five weeks ago.” The injury had caused “acute sciatica.” Although Russell was “now about again” he was “subdued” and “unable to concentrate on anything without feeling exhausted.” She found California “beautiful—though the absence of old buildings makes it seem incomplete.” She reflected “in time we shall be very happy here.” On 8 July, Russell wrote to Miriam Reichl: “We are in a cottage with a pleasant garden, & are living an idle life till Sep., when term begins.” Peter wrote on 26 July to Storer Lunt: “Miss Campbell is still with us, and has decided to stay till next summer, which is great comfort.”

In August, the family was joined by Russell’s older children, John and Kate. They arrived, on 7 August, in New York on the Queen Mary. Russell asked his publisher, W.W. Norton on 26 July 1939 to meet them and get them on the train to California. The Russells met them with a car in San Francisco on the weekend following Tuesday 8 August. Russell began a letter on Friday 11 August in Santa Barbara; he finished it at the Glacier Point Hotel. They would have travelled about 370 miles to get there. The reason why he and Peter decided on this Yosemite hotel is not known—perhaps they were deciding if the park would be the best location for the planned family holiday. From the park it is about 78 miles to San Francisco. The family posed for a photograph beside a huge sequoia, Wawona, also called the tunnel tree, located in the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias. Conrad is not in the photograph and may have been left at home with Miss Campbell. The 26 ft. opening in it had been cut in 1881. The photograph13 is stamped on the verso: “Yosemite Park & Curry Co., Order no. 28019.” Both the tree and the hotel were heavily damaged by snow in 1969; the tree fell and the hotel was destroyed by fire.

 

Giant Sequoia tree, Yosemite, California
 

According to Kate their car was “a secondhand two-door Chevrolet.” They first drove to a hotel, possibly the Glacier Point or perhaps the Wawona Hotel which was located near the tunnel tree. They didn’t stay there for long. “We drove to a mountain camp so high that our breath came short at first” and hiked. “Though my father was sixty-seven, we took it for granted that he would go with us … If he ever got tired, he didn’t show it”(My Father, pp. 134–5). On 17 August Russell wrote to his publisher, Warder Norton from the High Sierra Camps: “We are having a very good time taking them [John and Kate] to the beauty spots of California. This place is 9000 ft. up, & they are at the moment going up a 13,000 ft. mountain. It does them good to have a holiday from bombs & black-outs & war alarms. Life in Europe now-a-days is hell.14 I am quite recovered,15 except that I am not yet up to serious mountain climbing. We return to Santa Barbara in a few days.” He wrote something similar to Colette, on the same day, although that letter is not dated. He mentioned the mountain climb and then went on to say: “The county here is glorious, and though it never rains in summer there are endless lakes and streams fed by melting snow … This place is only open for 2 months in the year—the rest of the year it is snowed up” (Document 200812).

There is only one camp that you can drive to, Tuolumne Meadows; the other five camps are hike-in. Tuolumne is off the Tioga Road, 8,700 feet above sea level; accommodation is in canvas-tent cabins. One image of the camp from the Internet appears below; others as well as a hiking map appear in Additional Images.

 

Tuolumne Meadows Lodge, High Sierra Camps, California
 

After the holiday, they went south to their rented cottage. Kate Tait described the Montecito place as “a cool creeper-covered cottage, set in a green garden surrounded by hedges, and very comfortable.” There was a huge problem with the place, however, in Kate’s opinion. “Santa Barbara smelled of oil all the time ... like poison” (My Father, p. 135). In 1865, oil geologist Charles Jackson wrote: “The strong smell of petroleum comes from the sea, the oil floating on the water.”16 While there, “a large black cook called Mary, stern and forbidding and easily offended” was employed (My Father, p. 135).

While in Montecito, and presumably once his back allowed, they had been travelling. In his letter to Colette written from the High Mountain Camps, he wrote that Peter “is kept busy driving the car, as the places we go to are inaccessible by rail and some hundreds of miles from Santa Barbara.”17

I have searched online for any 1930s era cottages that still exist in Montecito. Images appear in Additional Images. One is of a cottage built in 1915 on nearby Willina Lane and listed for sale by Ellen DeGeneres in November 2022. The other is of a house built between 1927 and 1932 for a Mrs. Dorothy D. Cotton on San Leandro Lane; possibly there was a cottage on this property. It appears that the Russell cottage could have been in the hedgerow district. Some photographs as well as a map of the district from an article by Erik Torkells also appear in Additional Images.

Los Angeles, California (Autumn, Winter, and Spring 1939–1940)
On 25 May 1939, Russell wrote to John and Kate that: “We went to Los Angeles to look round—the road goes along the sea, & there are quite 50 miles of beach on the way—most of the county is almost uninhabited. Los Angeles is a nasty place, but there are some pleasant places near it, so we hope to get a nice house.” In mid-September the Russells moved to 212 Loring Avenue which is located close to the UCLA campus in Westwood. On 23 September Russell reassured his ex-wife, Dora, and the mother of John and Kate that “both children live in this house. They are well, & as happy as can be expected in these dreadful times.” War had been declared on 3 September 1939.

Many years later, Russell’s fourth wife wrote on 16 April 1972 to Barry Feinberg in connection with his America book. Edith was an American and lived in Pennsylvania during the War. “My memory of the facts concerned are blurred, but I remember his telling me of going at once in California to the British Consul—and later elsewhere to other officials to consult as to the possibility of his doing something, however little to help ‘the War effort.’ It seemed to many of us odd that he was not used as a speaker, since he was in much demand as such … When he discussed … the possibility of his returning to England to help, he was turned down even flatter … [he should] shut up and keep out of it. It is not hard to imagine the burning pain that that all this must have caused him.” She stressed the importance “of what it meant to B.R. to be in exile during the War.”

Kate described the house as “a Spanish-type villa with an enclosed garden ... [it] was fantastically luxurious: dressing room and bath for every bedroom, deep soft rugs, and shelves and shelves of fancy linens and dishes … To a certain extent, the owners’ style of living forced itself upon us ... Gradually ... we realized that the people who owned our house must be rich, though its small size and lack of books had at first deceived us” (My Father, pp. 138–9). Of course the house was small if compared to Telegraph House.18

The photograph below was taken in 2015 by Michael Stevenson. Kate told me on 24 February 2017 via e-mail that there was a lawn in 1940 “amazing to John and me because it had built-in sprinklers which we could turn on and enjoy the showers. Also at least one olive tree, which disappointed us because we hadn’t known you just don’t pick them and eat them.” According to Kate, the house looked quite different in 2015 than how she remembered it.

 

212 Loring Avenue, Los Angeles, photographed in 2015
 

Russell took up his teaching duties at UCLA. The definitive study, “‘His Class Slack-Jawed and with Eyes Aglaze’: Bertrand Russell at UCLA, 1939–40”, has been written by Michael Stevenson. He described in detail Russell’s appointment and his complicated immigration status which was not resolved until the Christmas holidays when a trip to Mexico was required to facilitate re-entry to America with permanent resident status. He was “assigned office 360 in Royce Hall … shared with Hugh Miller and Hans Reichenbach” (p. 114). “Russell proved immensely popular with faculty and students” ( p. 115). Two students, Fenwicke W. Holmes and Paul Wienpahl provided lengthy reminiscences which Stevenson quoted.19 Two of Russell’s students from Chicago, Abraham Kaplan and Norman Dalkey, followed him out to California. Stevenson also outlined Russell’s speaking engagements away from the classroom that year.

 

Russell on the UCLA campus, Life magazine
 

Russell was a patron of the Blue and Gold Barbershop. The shop presumably got its name from the UCLA colours, Blue and Gold, and must have been near the campus. The owner of a Westwood bookshop was quoted in the Daily News, Los Angeles about an encounter there: “I recall one very learned discussion we had … Dr. Russell and I were arguing with the barbers about the injustice of charging us the same price for our haircuts. He has a great, bushy head of hair à la Albert Einstein, while I have very little left … According to Charlie, I should be charged more because they had to hunt up each hair before they could trim it. With Dr. Russell, it was simple to start in and cut row on row, just like mowing a lawn.”20

While in Los Angeles, university students Richard Jencks and Jerry Reynolds took John and Kate on a tour of roller coaster rides.21 Kate remembered going “to the beach, to the mountains, to Grauman’s Chinese Theatre to see the footprints of the stars” and to the movies (My Father, p. 145). “Walking in suburban Westwood was so dull that we had almost given up our family walks ...” (My Father, p. 144). The family “visited Aldous Huxley, in his dark house buried in bougainvillea ...” (My Father, p. 143). Kate also noted that her father continued his tradition of inviting students “home for tea and talk or for an evening of philosophy. Peter was an admirable hostess to such groups ...” (My Father, p. 146). Compared to what went on in Chicago, these evenings seem quite mild.

Kate appeared in a home movie with her father “Sundays at Malibu Encinal.” Although obtained by Tom Stanley, the former Bertrand Russell Society Librarian, from the Arnold Schoenberg Centre, this was not Schoenberg’s home—he lived in Brentwood.22 Despite the feeling of exile expressed to his friends, Russell did connect with a number of people through Aldous Huxley. The Huxleys arranged a picnic in the Tujunga Canyon of the Los Angeles river basin attended by movie stars Greta Garbo, Charlie Chaplin, Paulette Goddard, a group of Indians led by Jiddu Krishnamurti, as well as writers Anita Loos and Christopher Isherwood.23 Russell did not mention this picnic in his Autobiography but both Loos and Isherwood wrote about it. According to Loos: “Paulette wore a native Mexican outfit with coloured yarn braided into her hair. Bertrand Russell … Charlie Chaplin, and Christopher Isherwood all looked like naughty pixies out on a spree … Greta, then strictly a vegetarian, was on a special diet of raw carrots which hung at her side in bunches.” Before the picnic had been completed—the Indians were cooking rice—a sheriff accosted them for trespassing and dispersed them (Loos, pp. 92–3). According to Isherwood an incident did not happen until after lunch, higher up in the canyon, and was with a forest ranger who was cutting wood. He was totally disinterested in the group. To get there the group had to burrow under a wire fence. “I remember Bertrand Russell holding forth to Aldous on some philosophical topic and digging as he talked, with the air of a father joining in a game to amuse the children” (Isherwood, p. 50). The picnic can be dated as taking place on 26 November 1939 from a letter he wrote to his mother on 27 November (Letters, p. 157).

The image below is of two of the picnic attendees, Charlie Chaplin and his wife Paulette Goddard.

 

Charlie Chaplin and his wife, Paulette Goddard
 

On 22 December 1939 Russell wrote to his friend Lucy Donnelly: “Apart from home sickness & war misery, we all flourish.” On the same day Russell wrote to another friend Lucy Silcox: “We feel very much exiled here, & if the children were not involved we would rather be at home.” He noted about Conrad: “We love him & he loves the cat & the cat loves her dinner.” The Russells had not been able to bring their dog with them when they moved to Chicago. On 30 June 1939, Peter had written to Gerald Brenan: “May we give you our dear old dog? You were always so fond of him, & you like walking … We don’t want to sell him & there is no point in keeping him boarded out … He is now in charge of Miss Strong [in] Littlehampton—so write to her if you would like to have him.” The fate of Sherry, the dog, is not known. On 5 April Russell had written to Peter that John and Kate could bring Sherry with them when they came to visit in the summer of 1939 but this did not happen.24

Russell also got to know Hans Reichenbach (1891–1953) who taught philosophy at UCLA; he had been corresponding with him since 1923. Hans and his wife Elizabeth had two children Hans (born 1922) and Jutte (born 1924), thus very close in age to Russell’s own children. The four of them socialized. Russell wrote to Gilbert Murray on 21 April 1940 saying he admired Reichenbach both “morally and intellectually” (Auto 2: 246). “A man of simple kindliness” whom he “got to know well” was how Russell described him to Elizabeth Trevelyan in a letter of 20 August 1941. Below is a photograph of John and Kate with Jutte Reichenbach and one with Kate, John and Jutte on a picnic. Both photographs are from Archives and Special Collections at the University of Pittsburgh.

 

     
John and Kate Russell with Jutte Reichenbach
John and Kate Russell with Jutte Reichenbach and unidentified woman

Russell found “the academic atmosphere ... much less agreeable than in Chicago” (Auto 2: 218) and thus when an opportunity arose to teach at the City College of New York he took it. Russell’s appointment at CCNY was to run from 1 February 1941 to 30 June 1942; it was confirmed on 29 February. This appointment fell through and caused a huge controversy about which much has been written, including a book.25 Hans Reichenbach’s wife, Elizabeth, sent a message of support on 2 April 1940.

Russell had barely begun teaching at UCLA when on 2 October 1939 William Ernest Hocking offered him the William James lectures at Harvard University for the autumn of 1940. Russell was released from a term at UCLA to undertake this lecture series. Despite the CCNY debacle, he did have the James lectures to look forward to.

The US Census of April 1940 captured Russell and his family at 212 Loring Ave. The monthly rent was $150. The staff consisted of Pamela Campbell, the governess, an English high-school graduate, age 20, and Fanny Parker, the housekeeper, age 64, originally from Poland. She had worked for the owners of the home from at least 1935. She earned $320 per year while Pamela got $625. Both were live-in. Russell’s salary from UCLA was $5,000; he indicated he had income from other sources but that amount was not recorded. That same month Life magazine did a feature, “Bertrand Russell Rides Out Collegiate Cycle”; it contained photographs taken inside the house as well as on the UCLA campus. The campus photographs illustrated Russell on campus going to his noon philosophy class, two teaching, one after class and one in his office. The classrooms photographs are different than the ones that appear in the Holmes article. McMaster also owns two images of chess playing taken in the house. They are reproduced below. Life also printed images of John and Kate reading a newspaper, the whole family playing with a train, Peter playing with Conrad and Conrad sitting in Russell’s lap. They can be seen in Additional Images. He was quoted as saying: “I believe America to be the hope of the world and I wish my three children to grow up in a land of liberal thought.”

 

     
John and Russell playing chess
Peter and Russell playing chess
 

There are four photographs taken in the back garden which are now owned by Getty Images. They were taken on 30 March on the same day as the CCNY ruling and thus were not taken for the Life article. The caption for the outdoor images read: “Russell Declines Comment on Ruling Voiding Appointment. Beverly Hills, California—Dr. Bertrand Russell, British philosopher and mathematician, whose appointment to the faculty of the College of the City of New York aroused a storm of protest ending today, March 30, with a ruling by Supreme Court Justice John E. McGeehan, voiding the appointment, is shown with Mrs. Russell and members of his family, at their home here. Dr. Russell, at present an instructor at University of California Los Angeles, has steadily declined to comment and maintained his silence following the decision in New York.”26 The cat mentioned in Russell’s letter of 22 December 1939 (quoted above) appeared in one of the photographs taken, reproduced below. Russell had previously owned a cat named Smilash when he lived in Fernhurst with his first wife Alys. See Additional Images for the other three photographs.
 

The Russell family in their back garden with their cat, Getty Images

 

Two other photographs were taken on 28 March and 29 March. Captions for both photographs concern the CCNY appointment. Copies have been sent to McMaster by Temple University.27 The photograph below is one of these two.28
 

Peter and Russell reading with their son Conrad
 

In Additional Images is a picture of Peter and Russell looking at a document. In its caption Russell is quoted: “All this fuss frightens me. It makes me fear that within a few years all the intellect of America will be in concentration camps.”29

Temple University provided one additional photograph from Loring Avenue. Taken in 1940 it depicts Peter and Russell playing Chinese checkers. The photograph was not released until 28 May 1952 when Peter filed for divorce.30
 

Peter and Russell playing Chinese checkers
 

Fallen Leaf Lake, California (Summer 1940)
The Russells arrived at Fallen Leaf Lodge in June. Perhaps the lease on Loring Ave. was ending after only ten months or an opportunity may have arisen to get out of the lease early. On 28 July 1940 he wrote to Lucy Silcox: “We are here till Sp. 1^st; after that, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.” He told her that they were living in a little house and wrote at great length about the scenery which usually did not interest him—or at least not enough to describe it in writing. “Though the lake is surrounded by little houses like ours, they are hidden in the trees & can’t be seen.” He added that he had “just finished ...  An Inquiry into Meaning and Truth.” The following day he wrote to Elizabeth Trevelyan that “the longing for home is almost unbearable” despite the beauty of where he was then living—“the country is very like the Tyrol, but has more lakes … admirable for long walks …” Russell wrote to Paul Schilpp on 31 August that they would be leaving Fallen Leaf on 8 September and expected to arrive in Harvard about 17 September.

His brother Frank had stayed in Glenbrook, on Lake Tahoe with his future wife Mollie as they awaited his divorce. One day they rode over to Fallen Leaf Lake (My Life, p. 141). The letterhead, which Russell used, for Fallen Leaf Lodge contained the following blurb: “Fallen Leaf Lodge, the Ideal Tahoe resort. On Fallen Leaf Lake, five miles from Lake Tahoe.” The lake is south of Lake Tahoe.

In his Autobiography, Russell described the area as “one of the loveliest places that it has ever been my good fortune to know” (2: 220). “We had a log cabin in the middle of pine trees, close to the lake. Conrad and his nursery governess slept indoors, but there was no room for the rest of us in the house, and we all slept on various porches.” Russell wrote in “a tiny study which was hardly more than a shed ....” He also called “the Sierras the only classless society that I have ever known. Practically all the houses were inhabited by university professors, and the necessary work was done by university students. The young man, for instance, who brought our groceries was a young man to whom I had been lecturing through the winter” (2: 220–21). The young man was Richard W. Jencks, who later became the president of CBS/Broadcast Group. In a letter of 28 May 1969 to Russell, Jencks identified himself as the grocery boy. “… I remember very well and with great pleasure the breakfast table conversations which I had with you and your family. I share your view that Fallen Leaf was indeed an idyllic place and, in many ways, deserved your description of it as a classless society. Since it substantially represented a summer transplantation of university people, there was really only one class there. Perhaps that is the only way to get a classless society.” He went on to say that the community was “developed by my great-uncle, a naturalist” together with his great-aunt. “… it was due in large part to their resolute determination not to allow the place to be commercialized that it retained—and retains to this day—its remarkable flavor.” Jencks was a student at UC–Berkeley although he must have done an exchange term at UCLA or taken a term off. Fallen Leaf Lodge is now known as Stanford Sierra Camp. Some memories of the Russell family by university student Mary Lawrence—Peter did the grocery shopping, Russell was only seen having dinner at the Lodge once—are contained in Scott Lankford’s Tahoe Beneath the Surface. The image below and others in Additional Images are taken from the Internet.

While there, the Russells were visited by Daphne Phelps31 and her companion named David, “a British Commonwealth fellow who had known Bertie and his wife Peter in Oxford and Chicago.” Daphne later recalled that David “saw in the paper that Lord Russell was on holiday in the High Sierras at Lake Tahoe” (A House, p. 171). They decided to drive over from Berkeley and ended up staying several days. They had been stranded in America after World War II broke out. David was presumably a welcome guest as he “could discuss philosophy and semantics” (A House, p. 172).

Also at Fallen Leaf was Norman Dalkey: “I spent the summer of ’40 with Bertrand Russell and his family … The clear mountain air, and the wide expanse of the lake created a brilliant natural planetarium. Hans [Reichenbach] visited on several weekends … Before his next visit, they [the Russells] carefully coached young Conrad, then about four or five and cognitively mature far beyond his years, on the location and special features of a small, obscure constellation … When Hans returned and began his evening discourse on astronomy, young Conrad enthusiastically broke in to point out Scutum (it’s not easy to find) and recounted at length its arcane properties. It so happened that Hans was not up on Scutum: subsequent evening were devoted to other entertainments” (Reichenbach, p. 50).

Barnes at Fallen Leaf Lake (August 1940)
Albert C. Barnes visited Russell at Fallen Leaf Lake and offered him a contract to teach at the Barnes Foundation in Merion, Pennsylvania. The contract was signed on 16 August for $8,000 per year for five years. After two years of living in furnished accommodations, the Russells were anxious to find a home and furnish it to their tastes. Naturally, given his character, Barnes interfered. He enthusiastically began to find a house for the Russells. On 21 August he wrote that “places with rooms enough and beauty of location could not be rented …” Russell tried to dampen down his assistance, writing on 24 August: “Choosing a house is a very personal matter, like choosing a wife. I know that in China the latter is done by proxy, but although people make mistakes, we are apt to prefer our own folly to the wisdom of others. We should neither of us wish to decide on a house until we have seen a considerable selection.” Finances were also a consideration. Buying was out of the question because Russell could not get money from England. His expenses included university tuition for both his older children and possibly having to “spend money on refugee children.”32 Russell also told Barnes: “Buying furniture is great fun and I hate to disappoint your kindly impulse, but we have enough furniture coming from England. We used to have a larger house there, but part of what we had will suffice.”  In the same letter he told Barnes that “when my wife first gets to Philadelphia, she will be staying with some very old friends of ours.”

On 25 August Peter wrote to Barnes, telling him: “Houses & the furnishing of them are a passion with me, & if you will forgive my saying so, I would lose half my fun in deciding in a hurry or letting someone else do most of the work of searching.” Attached to this letter are details of the Frederick G. Higham house titled “Dream Farm.” On the same day that Peter was writing Barnes, Russell wrote to Lucy Donnelly telling her that: “We are leaving here in about a fortnight, & expect to get to Philadelphia about the 12^th of September ... I expect to be in Philadelphia only a few days, & then go to Harvard, but Peter, with Conrad & the governess (Miss Campbell), means to stay somewhere near Philadelphia & hunt for a house.” He asked if they can stay with Lucy but realized that may be too much to expect from her. They may or may not have stayed in Bryn Mawr with Lucy Donnelly briefly; they did end up staying at a nearby inn, the Bell and Clapper. On 31 August Russell wrote to William Hocking at Harvard that his wife would be staying in Philadelphia to find and furnish a house. “Accordingly I shall be alone at Harvard, & shall need only bachelor quarters.” “We leave here on Sep. 8 and go first to Philadelphia, to get the house-hunting started. I intend to reach Cambridge about Sep. 16.” These plans changed—Peter and Conrad joined him in Cambridge.

At the end of the summer Kate and John stayed in California to continue their education at UCLA while Russell, Peter and Conrad went east. John stayed in “a shabby co-operative house for men” while Kate “lived in sorority house” (My Father, p. 150). Hans Reichenbach and his wife had Kate and John at their home, 469 17^th Street in Santa Monica on Christmas day; their children were friends. On 16 January 1941 Reichenbach wrote to Russell: “I was very glad for your suggestion to have John and Kate with us on Christmas …we have had a nice time with them ….”

© Sheila Turcon, 2023

Additional Images

Sources
 

Sacha Forbes, “Inside Tatler’s Stay at the Exclusive Montecito Ranch, Tatler online, 6 January 2023.
Nicholas Griffin, ed. The Selected Letters of Bertrand Russell: the Public Years 1914–1970. London: Routledge, 2001.
Andrew Gumbel, “Montecito: The Super-Wealthy Enclave Harry and Meghan now Call Home”, The Guardian online, 14 August 2020.
Barry Feinberg and Ronald Kasrils, Bertrand Russell’s America: His Transatlantic Travels and Writings, Volume One 1896-1945. London: Allen & Unwin, 1973.
Christopher Isherwood, Diaries, Volume One: 1939–1960. New York: Michael di Capua Books, Harper Collins, 1997.
Christopher Isherwood, Kathleen and Christopher: Christopher Isherwood’s Letters to His Mother, ed. Lisa Coletta. U. of Minnesota Press, 2005.
Scott Lankford, Tahoe Beneath the Surface. Berkeley: Heyday, 2010.
Anita Loos, “Anita Loos”, in Aldous Huxley: A Memorial Volume, ed. Julian Huxley. New York: Harper & Row, 1965.
Daphne Phelps, A House in Sicily. New York: Carroll & Graff, 1999.
Hans Reichenbach, Selected Writings 1909–1953, vol. 1, eds. Maria Reichenbach and Robert S. Cohen. Dordrecht: D. Reidel, 1978; includes “Memories” by others.
“Bertrand Russell Rides Out Collegiate Cycle”, Life 8, no. 14 (1 April 1940): 23–5.
Bertrand Russell, The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell 1914-1944, vol. 2. London: Allen & Unwin, 1968.
John Francis Stanley Russell. My Life and Adventures. London: Cassell, 1923.
Gary M. Slezak and Donald W. Jackanciz, “The Town is Beastly and the Weather Was Vile”, Russell 25–28 (1977): 5–20.
Michael D. Stevenson, “‘In Solitude I Brood on War’: Bertrand Russell’s 1939 American Lecture Tour”, Russell 33 (Winter 2013–14): 101–42. This article reprints Russell’s letters to Peter.
Michael D. Stevenson, “‘His Class Slack-Jawed and with Eyes Aglaze’: Bertrand Russell at UCLA, 1939–40”, Russell 41 (Winter 2021): 101–130.
Katharine Tait, My Father, Bertrand Russell. New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1975.
Erik Torkells, “Once Upon a Time in the Hedgerow …”, 16 June 2021, online website “Siteline: A Close Eye On Santa Barbara.”

Archival Documents: Undated Statement by Russell, dated later by him as 1939, re his appointment to UCLA, document 760.101098.
Correspondence: Richard P. McKeon, Paul Schilpp, William B. Curry, Gerald Brenan, Lucy Donnelly, Lucy Silcox, Richard Jencks, Elizabeth Trevelyan, Albert C. Barnes, William Hocking, Warder Norton, Miriam Reichl, Hans Reichenbach.

Internet 
Images of Tuolomne Meadows Lodge from yosemite.com

• 1Hotel World, vol. 89 (1919): 81 and vol. 92 (1921): 20.
• 2Slezak & Jackanciz, p. 7.
• 3A line from the traditional British folksong, “There is a Tavern in the Town”.
• 4Slezak & Jackanciz, pp. 13–14.
• 5Slezak & Jackanciz, p. 20.
• 6Letter to Richard McKeon, 14 Jan. 1944.
• 7This date is from a lecture list in Rec. Acq. 968b.
• 8An Amtrack train, the California Zephr, still runs on this route; it takes 2.5 days.
• 9Letter to John and Kate, 28 Feb. 1939.
• 10Rec. Acq. 263, n.d., 710.103227.
• 11I have contacted without success, Santa Barbara City Hall, University of California at Santa Barbara, Gledhill Library, the Santa Barbara Historical Museum, and the Montecito Association in an attempt to see if records were kept of the re-numbering.
• 12Gumbel, The Guardian, online article.
• 13Kate also kept a copy of this photograph; it is printed in her book.
• 14War had not yet been declared so Russell must have been anticipating what would come.
• 15Russell had suffered a back injury.
• 16Wikipedia entry: “Offshore Oil and Gas in California.”
• 17Russell never learned how to drive; in contrast his brother Frank was a keen motorist.
• 18The website realtor.com described the property as follows on 12 Nov. 2016: 6 beds, 4 baths, 3,653 sq. ft., built in 1929, renovated 1942.
• 19See Fenwicke W. Holmes’ article and Wienphal’s letter to Kenneth Blackwell, 5 Jan. 1979.
• 209 October 1948, p. 6; circulated to the Russell list by Kenneth Blackwell, 13 Feb. 2021.
• 21Letter from Richard Jencks, 28 May 1969.
• 22I have not been able to identify the owner of this home; there were very few houses in Malibu then.
• 23I spoke about the picnic and screened the movie at the 2017 Russell Conference in Connecticut.
• 24Stevenson, “Solitude”, pp.120–21.
• 25See Thom Weidlich, Appointment Denied: The Inquisition of Bertrand Russell (Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus, 2000).
• 26The credit line was ACME, i.e. ACME Newspictures. McMaster purchased the right to reproduce them from Getty.
• 27Special Collections Research Centre, Temple University Libraries, Philadelphia, PA.
• 28The caption of this photograph is: “L.A., Mar. 29—Russells Deny Accusations—Dr. Bertrand Russell, whose appointment to the City College of New York Faculty is Being Contested in the Courts, and His Wife are Shown Reading with their Son Conrad, nearly 3 last night … AP Wire Photo, 1940.
• 29The credit is ACME.
• 30It is an AP Wire photograph and was published in the Des Moines Register.
• 31Daphne Phelps (1911–2005) was educated at St. Anne’s, Oxford, and the London School of Economics. Her mother knew both Russell and his first wife, Alys.
• 32“Peter was helping English children who had been evacuated to America.” Griffin, p. 383.