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} }) </script> </div> </form> </fieldset> <article class="entryArticle content STeditorial"> <header class="entryHeader icon-author"> <h1 class="entryTitle">Russell, Bertrand </h1> </header><p class='tagLine'>Entry updated 5 June 2023. Tagged: Author.</p><div class="browsingBtns"> <span> <input class="button PNI previous" type="button" onclick="window.location.href='/next.php?id=p&entry=russell_bertrand'" value="Prev" /> </span> <span> <input class="button PNI next" type="button" onclick="window.location.href='/next.php?&entry=russell_bertrand'" value="Next" /> </span> <span> <input class="button PNI incoming" type="button" onclick="window.location.href='/incoming.php?entry=russell_bertrand'" value="About This Entry" title="What links to the entry; contributor initials explained; how to cite; other information" /> </span> <span><input class="button PNI" type="button" value="Checklist" onclick="window.location.hash='chklst'" ></span> <span><input class="button PNI" type="button" value="Alpha" onclick="window.location.href='/chron.php?id=russell_bertrand&abc'" ></span> <span><input class="button PNI" type="button" value="Chron" onclick="window.location.href='/chron.php?id=russell_bertrand'" ></span> <span style="cursor: pointer;" onclick="window.open('/gallery.php?link=russell_bertrand');"> <img alt="Icon made by Freepik from www.flaticon.com" style="margin: 0; position: relative; top:-2px;" src="/images/icon-gal.gif"></img></span> </div><p style='float:right; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:10px; position: relative; top: 3px;'> <a href='/gallery.php?id=RussellB-FactFict.jpg' target='_blank'> <img src='https://x.sf-encyclopedia.com/gal/thumbs/RussellB-FactFict.jpg' alt='pic'></a></p> <p>(1872-1970) UK mathematician, philosopher and controversialist, grandson of John Russell, first Earl Russell; in 1931 he succeeded to the family title, becoming the third Earl Russell. Because of his pacifist publications and activities during the course of <a href="/entry/world_war_one">World War One</a>, he lost his Cambridge fellowship and was imprisoned in 1918. His work in <a href="/entry/mathematics">Mathematics</a> was substantial, including a formalization of number theory in <i>Principia Mathematica</i> (<b>1910-1913</b> 3vols) with Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947). Russell touches briefly on <a href="/entry/futures_studies">Futures Studies</a> in <i>Sceptical Essays</i> (coll <b>1928</b>) and <i>Unpopular Essays</i> (coll <b>1950</b>), and published a relevant monograph against blind faith in "progress", <i>Icarus; Or, the Future of Science</i> (<b>1924</b> chap); in this significantly titled counter-blast to J B S <a href="/entry/haldane_j_b_s">Haldane</a>'s <i>Daedalus; or, Science and the Future</i> (<b>1923</b> chap), he argues "that science will be used to promote the power of dominant groups, rather than to make men happy". The publication of the two books within a few months of one another helped to launch the publisher's <a href="/entry/to-day_and_to-morrow">To-day and To-morrow</a> series, this venture being announced solely in the second volume's dustjacket copy (a moment of intellectual history occluded through the habitual stripping of covers by the British Library and other statutory depositories); and taken together demonstrate the range of contestations inherent in <a href="/entry/futures_studies">Futures Studies</a>. <i>Marriage and Morals</i> (<b>1929</b>) marks a rare retreat to the intellectual orthodoxy of the time, in its advocacy of the enforced sterilization of women deemed unfit to breed according to <a href="/entry/eugenics">Eugenic</a> standards. He was awarded a <a href="/entry/nobel_prize">Nobel Prize</a> for Literature in 1950; in 1957 he became the first president of the UK Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.</p> <p>Near the end of his immensely long career – his first essays having been published in 1894, and his last works appearing in the late 1960s (see <a href="/entry/longevity_in_writers">Longevity in Writers</a>) – Russell published three books containing a series of fable-like tales: <i>Satan in the Suburbs and Other Stories</i> (coll <b>1953</b>), <i>Nightmares of Eminent Persons and Other Stories</i> (coll <b>1954</b>) and <i>Fact and Fiction</i> (coll <b>1961</b>), all being assembled as <i>The Collected Stories of Bertrand Russell</i> (omni <b>1972</b>). Somewhat after the manner of <a href="/entry/voltaire">Voltaire</a>, these tales – some, like "The Infra-Redioscope" from the first volume and "Planetary Effulgence" from the last, are sf – didactically (though with grace) embody their author's sceptical attitude toward human ambitions and pretensions, and to the ideas with which we delude ourselves. [JC/DRL]</p> <p><b>see also:</b> <a href="/entry/automation">Automation</a>; <a href="/entry/dystopias">Dystopias</a>; <a href="/entry/paradox">Paradox</a>; <a href="/entry/religion">Religion</a>; <a href="/entry/sociology">Sociology</a>.</p> <h3 id="chklst">Bertrand Arthur William Russell, third Earl Russell</h3> <p><b>born</b> Trellech, Monmouthshire: 18 May 1872</p> <p><b>died</b> Penrhyndeudraeth, Merionethshire: 2 February 1970</p> <p><b>works</b> (highly selected)</p> <p><input type="button" value="Alphabetical" class="button PNI" onclick="window.location.href='/chron.php?id=russell_bertrand&abc'"> <input type="button" value="Chronological" class="button PNI" onclick="window.location.href='/chron.php?id=russell_bertrand'"></p> <p><b>collections</b></p> <ul class="x"> <li><em><a href="/sfeshop.php?field-keywords=Satan+in+the+Suburbs+and+Other+Stories&field-author=Russell+Bertrand" class="link-amazon" target="_blank">Satan in the Suburbs and Other Stories</a></em> (London: The Bodley Head, <b>1953</b>) [coll: hb/Asgeir Scott]</li> <li><em><a href="/sfeshop.php?field-keywords=Nightmares+of+Eminent+Persons+and+Other+Stories&field-author=Russell+Bertrand" class="link-amazon" target="_blank">Nightmares of Eminent Persons and Other Stories</a></em> (London: The Bodley Head, <b>1954</b>) [coll: illus/hb/Charles Stewart]</li> <li><em><a href="/sfeshop.php?field-keywords=Fact+and+Fiction&field-author=Russell+Bertrand" class="link-amazon" target="_blank">Fact and Fiction</a></em> (London: George Allen and Unwin, <b>1961</b>) [coll: stories and essays: includes two further "Nightmares" in the manner of the above: hb/Alan Breese] <ul class="x"> <li><em><a href="/sfeshop.php?field-keywords=The+Collected+Stories+of+Bertrand+Russell&field-author=Russell+Bertrand" class="link-amazon" target="_blank">The Collected Stories of Bertrand Russell</a></em> (London: George Allen and Unwin, <b>1972</b>) [omni of the above three: hb/nonpictorial]</li> </ul></li> </ul> <p><b>nonfiction</b></p> <ul class="x"> <li><em><a href="/sfeshop.php?field-keywords=Icarus+Or+the+Future+of+Science&field-author=Russell+Bertrand" class="link-amazon" target="_blank">Icarus; Or, the Future of Science</a></em> (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner and Company, <b>1924</b>) [nonfiction: chap: in the publisher's <b>To-day and To-morrow</b> series: series designation appears only in dust-jacket copy: hb/nonpictorial]</li> <li><em><a href="/sfeshop.php?field-keywords=What+I+Believe&field-author=Russell+Bertrand" class="link-amazon" target="_blank">What I Believe</a></em> (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner and Company, <b>1925</b>) [nonfiction: chap: in the publisher's <b>To-day and To-morrow</b> series: hb/nonpictorial]</li> <li><em><a href="/sfeshop.php?field-keywords=Sceptical+Essays&field-author=Russell+Bertrand" class="link-amazon" target="_blank">Sceptical Essays</a></em> (London: George Allen and Unwin, <b>1928</b>) [nonfiction: coll: hb/]</li> <li><em><a href="/sfeshop.php?field-keywords=Unpopular+Essays&field-author=Russell+Bertrand" class="link-amazon" target="_blank">Unpopular Essays</a></em> (London: George Allen and Unwin, <b>1950</b>) [nonfiction: coll: hb/nonpictorial]</li> <li><em><a href="/sfeshop.php?field-keywords=History+of+the+World+in+Epitome+for+Use+in&field-author=Russell+Bertrand" class="link-amazon" target="_blank">History of the World in Epitome, for Use in Martian Infant Schools</a></em> (London: Gaberbocchus Press, <b>1962</b>) [nonfiction: chap: illus/pb/Franciszka Themerson]</li> </ul> <p><b>about the author</b></p> <ul class="x"> <li>Ronald W <a href="/entry/clark_ronald_w">Clark</a>. <em><a href="/sfeshop.php?field-keywords=The+Life+of+Bertrand+Russell&field-author=Clark+Ronald+W" class="link-amazon" target="_blank">The Life of Bertrand Russell</a></em> (London: Jonathan Cape and London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, <b>1975</b>) [nonfiction: hb/]</li> </ul> <p><b>links</b></p> <ul class="x"> <li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1950/russell-bio.html">Bertrand Russell at Nobelprize.org</a></li> <li><a target="_blank" href="https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?13582">Internet Speculative Fiction Database</a></li> <li><a target="_blank" href="https://sf-encyclopedia.com/gallery.php?link=russell_bertrand">Picture Gallery</a></li> </ul> <p><b>previous versions of this entry</b></p> <ul><li><a href='https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/russell_bertrand' target='_blank'>Internet Archive</a></li></ul><br /><br /></article></div> <div class="sideBarsWrapper"> <div class="sideBarsColsWrapper clearfix"> <div class="column sideBar12 clearfix"> <div class="columnForm"><aside id="blogFeed" class="widget"> <div class="content STeditorial clearfix"> <h2>Recently visited entries<span style="background:url(/images/thingSFE2.png) !important"></span></h2><ul style='width: 50%; 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