Russell was my first hero, as I've mentioned here before, primarily because of his book "Marriage and Morals" and his essay "Why I Am Not A Christian." I was a teenager, a wannabe mathematician, and here was the mathematical genius I admired.
Prizing Bertrand Russell
On this day in 1970 Bertrand Russell died, aged ninety-seven. Like Henri Bergson before him, Russell won his 1950 Nobel Prize in literature without ever having published any. In presenting the award, the most that the Swedish Academy could offer to justify their selection of a mathematician-philosopher-social activist was the view that Russell often wrote as "the outspoken hero in a Shaw comedy" talked, and that his commitment to "rationality and humanity" was "in the spirit of Nobel's intention."
Buried at the bottom of the list of Russell's bibliography -- over ninety books and thousands of articles, plus tens of thousands of letters, journals and the like -- there are, in fact, two collections of short stories. Whether out of sheepishness or vanity -- the biographies do not often mention sheepishness -- Russell apparently felt that, having just received the world's most prestigious literary award, he might as well try his hand.
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2 comments:
There is this story in my family about Russell(sort of). In early 40s or late 30s, when my grand father was working in Bombay, he was standing near the train door and waiting to get out. A British police officer was standing next to him and wanted to get before him. When he couldn't, he pushed my grandfather against the train wall and called him some name (Grandpa wouldn't say what exactly). So he punched the officer in the face and sent his hat flying out of the train and on the tracks. Keep in mind that this was India under the British empire.
He was arrested and taken to the police-station. He would have been locked up for days and, possibly, beaten into a pulp. But, the chief inspector of the station frisked him and found a Russel book in his back pocket. The inspector was a huge fan and ended up talking to him about the book for a few minutes before letting him go with a warning and a fine.
I don't know how much of this is a truth and how much is my grandfather's ability to jazz up everything(he was radio host). But Russell, for my family, has always been considered a blessing.
What a wonderful story! Thanks so much for sharing it.
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