The Bertrand Russell Bookshop specialises in rare books & collectables, used books and translations with a particular focus on items related to the life and work of Bertrand Russell. The text that follows forms the ‘Introduction’ to the first catalogue, Bertrand Russell in translation [download pdf]
Russell lived a long and creative life, which continues to resonate. His interests and passions ranged across mathematics, philosophy, logic, science, education, war, peace, love, politics and much else besides. These interests and passions guide the items offered for sale.
Our stock is listed on Abe Books and can also be viewed and purchased on the ‘Russell translations’ and ‘Rare books & collectables’ pages of spokesmanbooks.org, the publishing imprint of the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation.
Bertrand Russell in translation
Russell’s works are translated into many languages, more recently including Catalan, Chinese, Galician, Georgian, Hebrew, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Russian and Slovak. New translations continue to appear. Russell volumes are to be found on shelves in university libraries, public institutions, bookshops and homes across the world, attesting to his enduring relevance and growing popularity more than five decades after his death.
The work of translating Russell started early in his career and the results are of interest to Russell and translation scholars as well as the reading public. McMaster University in Canada is home to the Bertrand Russell Research Centre and the Bertrand Russell Archives. The earliest entry on the Archive’s online catalogue for “translation” is for a letter from the French mathematical philosopher Albert Cadenet. Dated 28 February 1898, Cadenet’s letter concerns a translation of Russell’s second book, An Essay on the Foundations of Geometry (1897). There are subsequent letters, indicating that Russell took great interest and care in the quality of translations. In November 1899 Russell reports that he has read the proofs of the translation (letter to Louis Couturat, 30 November 1899). By 22 June 1900 Couturat reports that the “[p]rinting of The Foundations of Geometry is suspended.” What happened? Was the translation inadequate or did the fates otherwise intervene? More work to do!
Several years later, in a letter to Russell dated 29 November 1907, Jean Ray wishes to assure Russell that his French translation of The Philosophy of Leibniz (1900) is of sufficient quality. Ray encloses a translation of the first section of the book. Russell is recorded as making one correction. The correspondence between Ray and Russell continues. Russell had indicated the seriousness of his approach in an earlier letter to Ivy Tennyson (25 May 1906):
On average days I do 9 or 10 hours’ work at my book [Principia Mathematica]—on other days I have various jobs … In the train up and down I read the proofs of the French translation of my book on Leibniz practically the whole time.
Although Russell was fluent in German, it is thought that he wrote in English the foreword to the first German edition of The Problems of Philosophy (Im Weltkreis-Verlag, 1926) and that a German then translated it. Evidence for this is given by Ibrahim Najjar and Heather Kirkconnell1 who note the “highly polished quality” of the foreword but that Russell:
would not have used “symbolisch-logische Konstruktionen” as a translation of “logical constructions”. Our reason for this claim is that in the many uses of “logical construction” to be found in his philosophical writings, he never modifies “logical” with “symbolic”.
Difficulties in translation are not limited to technical terms and propositions, which apply to Russell’s many works of mathematical philosophy. How to adequately reflect Russell’s clean and clear prose style? How to reproduce Russell’s lively sense of fun and humour? Russell and his works keep successive generations of translators busy with these vital and challenging tasks, as the selection of books in this fist catalogue demonstrates.
The quality and accuracy of translations are not the only pitfalls. For example, Dear Bertrand Russell (1969, ed. Barry Feinberg & Ronald Kastrils)2 was published in Japan following Russell’s death in 1970. In a letter to Feinberg (24 October 1970), Edith Russell writes that she found the portrait used on the jacket “absolutely grisly”. In an earlier letter to Alina Dadlez of Allen and Unwin, Edith notes “various errors” in an Italian translation of The Impact of Science on Society (25 August 1970). As such, readers will find varied representations of Russell across the translations on offer here.
Which Russell works have been translated, and into which languages, is also of interest. For example, History of Western Philosophy enjoys multiple translations into numerous languages and continues to attract new ones. By contrast, we know that Russell’s short story ‘Stalin’s Nightmare: Amor Vincit Omnia’—first published in the collection Nightmares of Eminent Persons—was translated into German, appearing in Ist Gott ein Taoist? und andere Rätsel: Ein phantastisches Lesebuch (1988), a collection edited by Stanisław Lem. Where else has it appeared in translation?
The largest collections of Russell translations can be found at the Univeristy of Cambridge Library (UK) and at the Bertrand Russell Archives (Canada). The Atlantic Peace Foundation holds a significant collection in its library at Carn Voel, Russell’s former home in Cornwall. This short introduction raises some unresolved questions. The vitality of Russell’s work and ongoing research into it prompt an avalanche of questions when considering even a small aspect of his life.
Some answers to these question might be found in the translations offered here. Feedback is welcome from anyone purchasing, as part of ongoing efforts to understand, promote and appreciate the life and works of Bertrand Russell.
Russell was given the Chinese name 羅素 (Luosu). Are there more namings in other languages? We’d like to find out.
Tom Unterrainer Bertrand Russell Bookshop | www.spokesmanbooks.org | Abe Books
Notes
1. ‘Russell’s Foreword to the First German Translation of The Problems of Philosophy’, Russell: the Journal of Bertrand Russell Studies, Old Series No. 17, Spring 1975.
2. A new edition of Dear Bertrand Russell with a new foreword by Ronald Kasrils is available from Spokesman Books [link]
