(1872-1970) UK mathematician, philosopher and controversialist who succeeded to the family title, becoming the third Earl Russell, in 1931. His work in Mathematics was substantial, including a formalization of number theory in Principia Mathematica (1910-1913 3vols) with Alfred North Whitehead. Russell touches briefly on Futures Studies in Sceptical Essays (coll 1928) and Unpopular Essays (coll 1950), and published a relevant monograph against blind faith in "progress", Icarus; Or, the Future of Science (1924 chap); this counter to J B S Haldane's Daedalus; or, Science and the Future (1923 chap) helped persuade its publishers to create the To-day and To-morrow series. He was awarded a Nobel Prize for Literature in 1950; in 1957 he became the first president of the UK Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. Near the end of his immensely long career – his first essays appeared in 1894, his first book being German Social Democracy (1896) – he published three books containing a series of fable-like tales: Satan in the Suburbs and Other Stories (coll 1953), Nightmares of Eminent Persons and Other Stories (coll 1954) and Fact and Fiction (coll 1961), all being assembled as The Collected Stories of Bertrand Russell (omni 1972). Somewhat after the manner of Voltaire, 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]
see also: Automation; Dystopias; Paradox; Religion; Sociology.
Bertrand Arthur William Russell [third Earl Russell]
born Trellech, Monmouthshire: 18 May 1872
died Penrhyndeudraeth, Merionethshire: 2 February 1970
works (highly selected)
nonfiction
- Icarus; Or, the Future of Science
(London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner and Company, 1924) [nonfiction: chap: To-day and To-morrow: hb/nonpictorial] - What I Believe (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner and Company, 1925) [nonfiction: chap: To-day and To-morrow: hb/nonpictorial]
- Sceptical Essays (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1928) [nonfiction: coll: hb/]
- Unpopular Essays (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1950) [nonfiction: coll: hb/nonpictorial]
- History of the World in Epitome, for Use in Martian Infant Schools (London: Gaberbocchus Press, 1962) [nonfiction: chap: illus/pb/Franciszka Themerson]
about the author
links
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