Things I Know and Things I Conjecture [1951]

This odd assortment of anecdotes was probably composed in 1951. Russell’s purpose in writing them, however, remains unclear. Although the passage about his friend Crompton Llewelyn Davies (324: 10–20) surfaced in a more substantial sketch in the first volume of the Autobiography (1967, 60), most of the others are too apocryphal, fragmentary or whimsical to have been considered for publication in that work. Yet Russell “was often in a very reminiscent mood” as he approached his eightieth birthday (Papers 11: xix) and devoted considerable time during the period covered by Papers 26 to expanding and revising the typescript autobiography he had set aside in 1931 and started to revise in 1949 (see Introduction, l–lii).