Posted on Dec. 9: Bertrand Russell Research Centre to put letters online

[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/Bertrand_Russell_2.jpg” caption=”Bertrand Russell”]E-mail may be fast and convenient, but the historians of the future may regret the havoc wrought by the delete button on the records of contemporary social and political commentary.

Researchers interested in the 20th century are more fortunate in having at their disposal the letters of one of the most intelligent and prolific writers the world has ever seen – the philosopher Bertrand Russell.

Even in his 90s, Russell would commonly dictate several letters in a day on a staggeringly wide range of subjects. His correspondents included both well-known figures such as Einstein, Niels Bohr, T.S. Eliot, and Edna O'Brien, and countless ordinary people who would write to Russell requesting information or advice on topics as disparate as formal logic and marriage counselling. He was a rare private individual indeed, who could write to both Khrushchev and Kennedy at the height of the Cuban missile crisis, and expect them to read what he had to say.

“Russell was ceaselessly and effortlessly fluent,” comments Nicholas Griffin, McMaster philosophy professor and director of the Bertrand Russell Research Centre. “Whatever he thought of, he had the words to express it. He truly believed in the power of words to change a situation.” And at times they did – as a kind of one-man precursor to 'Amnesty International', Russell met with some success in his letter-writing campaigns on behalf of eastern block political prisoners.

The Russell Archives at McMaster hold more than 40,000 of Russell's letters. Faced with such an embarrassment of riches, the only problem for researchers is where to begin looking for specific information. “It can be like looking for a needle in a haystack” says Griffin, who has read more of Russell's correspondence than most.

The year 2002 saw the publication of his book, Bertrand Russell's Selected Letters: The Public Years, 1914-1970, the second of two volumes in which just over 600 letters are collected. Given the sheer number of available letters however, a complete paper publication of the correspondence will never be practicable. So Griffin, a Canada Research Chair, decided that an online solution was needed. His vision has been supported by the Canada Foundation for Innovation which is providing major funding (along with the Province of Ontario and private donors) for the work now underway.

While some other online annotated collections exist, notably Florence Nightingale's letters at the University of Kansas and Dwight D. Eisenhower's papers in 'The Model Editions', the sheer scale of the Russell project sets it apart. “This could well prove to be one of the largest scholarly editing projects ever undertaken,” says Griffin, “and it will take a long time to complete.” Up to three years for the technical preparation alone, estimates computer scientist James Chartrand, a recent recruit to the Russell Research Centre.

Chartrand's job is to develop the software applications that will be needed for such a huge project. Creating the kind of complicated tagging system necessary for the detailed annotations that will make up the searchable database together with transcripts and scanned versions of each letter, is a time-consuming process. But Chartrand plans to create something that on the surface is simple to use, so in-putters and annotaters can concentrate on the academic material with which they are working.

The idea of a comprehensive database of Russell's letters at the disposal of a global community of scholars is an exciting one for Griffin, who looks forward to the world knowing more about the sometimes mercurial, often passionate, but above all extraordinarily intelligent man who wrote them. “The most amazing thing to realize about Russell,” says Griffin, “is that his mind never took any breaks at all.”