ABSTRACT
The Mauretania docked in New York on the morning of 13 March 1914. In contrast to the young stranger who arrived in 1896, Russell was now 42, and famous. Noting his arrival The New York Times of 14 March referred to him as ‘one of the foremost lecturers on philosophy’. On disembarkation, he was welcomed by Lucy Donnelly and Helen Flexner (née Thomas), and he spent a few hours in their company, arranging with Lucy his visit to Bryn Mawr for the following month, before taking a train to Boston. Harvard was famous throughout the Western world for its philosophy faculty, but Russell, as he later wrote, was not over-impressed with its professors who had recently been deprived of their three most able colleagues: 1
‘At Harvard I met all the professors. I am proud to say that I took a violent dislike to Professor Lowell [the President of Harvard], who subsequently assisted in the murder of Sacco and Vanzetti. I had at that time no reason to dislike him, but the feeling was just as strong as it was in later years, when his qualities as a saviour of society had been manifested. Every professor to whom I was introduced in Harvard made me the following speech: “Our philosophical faculty, Dr Russell, as doubtless you are aware, has lately suffered three great losses. We have lost our esteemed colleague, Professor William James, through his lamented death; Professor Santayana, for reasons which doubtless appear to him to be sufficient, has taken up his residence in Europe; last but not least, Professor Royce, who, I am happy to say, is still with us, has had a stroke.” This speech was delivered slowly, seriously, and pompously. The time came when I felt that I must do something about it. So the next time that I was introduced to a professor, I rattled off the speech myself at top speed. This device, however, proved worthless. “Yes, Dr Russell”, the professor replied: “As you very justly observe, our philosophical faculty …” and so the speech went on to its inexorable conclusion. I do not know whether this is a fact about professors or a fact about Americans. I think, however, that it is the former. I noticed another fact about Harvard professors: that when I dined with them, they would always tell me the way home, although I had had to find their house without this assistance. There were limitations to Harvard culture. Schofield, the Professor of Fine Arts, considered Alfred Noyes a very good poet.’
