The Selected Letters of Bertrand Russell: The Public Years, 1914-1970

Rating:
Summary: AN OUTSTANDING SELECTION
Review: This book is recommended reading for anyone interested in a fresh approach to the workings of the mind one of the greatest philosophers of the 20th century.
It is a selection of 338 letters written by Bertrand Russell between 1914 and 1970. Sifting though more than 40,000 letters is no simple feat. Fortunately the editor is Nicholas Griffin, director of the Bertrand Russel Research Center at McMaster University in Ontario. As editor of Russell's "Collected Papers", he is in an enviable position to provide us with the juiciest tidbits of Russell's dry humour, as well as a portrait of a passionate man.
The editor commentaries to the letters are useful in order to better understand and put in perspective some events and people mentioned by this very extraordinary thinker. One that you have to know well, if you are to understand how could he write in 1967
that "a great deal of work has come upon me, neglect of which might jeopardise the continuation of the human being......" Kudos to the editor.