A philosopher friend has sent the following message culled from a
Bertrand Russell discussion group.  I thought there might be someone in
our group interested in the influence of Twain on Russell and so repost
the message.

DAVID TOMLINSON
U. S. Naval Academy

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 18 Oct 1995 13:32:56 -0400 (EDT)
From: Prof David E Johnson <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Russell the Unread (fwd)

David,
        Make of it what you will.  DJ

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 18 Oct 1995 13:17:51 -0400
From: Kenneth Blackwell <[log in to unmask]>
To: Multiple recipients of list <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Russell the Unread

On Wed, 18 Oct 1995 [log in to unmask] wrote:

>      Do you suppose Russell read any Mark Twain? I've always felt there
was
>      some similarity to their writing style. I would think Russell would
>      have liked some of Twain's later stories like "Innocents Abroad" or
>      "Unexpected Stranger".

I agree he would have, and in fact we find that in July 1892 he read
_Huck Finn_ and in 1919 refers to _Mysterious Stranger_. The latter
reference is in "Dreams and Facts", in _Sceptical Essays_.

The latter info is available here in an unpublished index called "Works
Referred To". A bookseller donated it. He went thru Russell's books and
collected the bibliographical references and supplied us with many of the
books at the beginning of the RA here. We then supplemented it from BR's
periodical writings. There may be more references in the _Collected
Papers_, for which (by this point) we need an in-progress master index.

The Mark Twain Society made BR a Knight of Mark Twain [sic].

            KENNETH BLACKWELL / The Bertrand Russell Archives
        McMaster University Library, Hamilton, ON, Canada L8S 4L6
     Visit our Web site: http://www.mcmaster.ca/russdocs/russell.htm