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The tamarisk tree: My quest for liberty and love
Book by DORA RUSSELL
304 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1975
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59 people want to read
About the author
Dora Russell
105 books4 followersDora Black, Lady Russell was a British author, a feminist and socialist campaigner, and the second wife of the eminent philosopher Bertrand Russell. In 1909 she joined the Heretics Society, co-founded by C. K. Ogden. It questioned traditional authorities in general and religious dogma in particular. The society helped her to discard traditional values and develop her own feminist mode of thought.
In common with other radical women of her generation she had realized the extent to which the laws regulating marriage contributed to a woman's subjugation. In her view, only parents should be bound by a social contract, and only insofar as their cooperation was required for raising their children. Implicit was her conviction that both men and women were polygamous by nature and should therefore be free, whether married or not, to engage in sexual relationships that were based on mutual love. In this she was as much an early sexual pioneer as in her fight for a woman's right to information about, and free access to, birth control methods. She regarded these as essential for women to gain control over their own lives, and eventually become fully emancipated.
In 1924, Russell campaigned passionately for birth control, joining with H. G. Wells and John Maynard Keynes in founding the Workers' Birth Control Group. She also campaigned in the Labour Party for birth control clinics, with only limited success.
In common with other radical women of her generation she had realized the extent to which the laws regulating marriage contributed to a woman's subjugation. In her view, only parents should be bound by a social contract, and only insofar as their cooperation was required for raising their children. Implicit was her conviction that both men and women were polygamous by nature and should therefore be free, whether married or not, to engage in sexual relationships that were based on mutual love. In this she was as much an early sexual pioneer as in her fight for a woman's right to information about, and free access to, birth control methods. She regarded these as essential for women to gain control over their own lives, and eventually become fully emancipated.
In 1924, Russell campaigned passionately for birth control, joining with H. G. Wells and John Maynard Keynes in founding the Workers' Birth Control Group. She also campaigned in the Labour Party for birth control clinics, with only limited success.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 3, 2014
Needed something to read and stumbled on this book. I never read Bertrand Russell himself or know all that much about him, but I had read the Logicomix cartoon book about him, which settled him as a "good and interesting person" for me. I didn't expect I would like this book as much as I did, I had never heard of this woman before, so why would I read an entire autobiography? I was mostly interested in the chapters about her visiting the early Soviet Union and China in the 20s with Bertrand Russell and set out to only skim through the earlier chapters. But I was quickly engrossed with her life.
Her life is fascinating and it's interesting to read how she slowly became more and more politicized. In university during WW1 she is symphatic with the pacifists and slowly becomes one of them herself, getting to know Bertrand Russels that risked his career and reputation by speaking out against the war. In Russia she meets just about everyone, from John Reed, Emma Goldman to Alexandra Kollontai. She marries the 20+ year older Bertand Russel when she's in her early twenties. She goes to China with him for a year. And when she comes back she more and more involves herself in the cause for women's rights, especially birth-control, but also in favour of free love. But she is also radicalized towards socialism, disillusioned with parliamentary politics with the right-wing turn of the Labour Party after the failed General Strike of '26, but also too undogmatic for the Communist Party, calling herself a 'constructive revolutionary'.
I really liked her estimation of the early Soviet Union, she already perceives problems with the subjectation of the individual to Industry, with the propaganda and dogmatic interpration of Marxism, with persuction of anarchists and other dissidents, and how the State is likely to become increasingly dominant. But she also notes how in the first 10 years, a revolutionary government together with progressive intellectuals created legislation and policy for women's rights and enabled experiments in modern education that would have been impossible in any other country. She writes of the Congress for Sexual Reform that she helped organize in London and how the Russian delegates showed how far ahead they were. A congress in Moscow was planned, but never ended up happening.
At the prime of her life she is highly involved in a school she set up with Bertrand Russells with progressive education, published several books and has many offers for articles and new books, has several children, and a modern marriage with both her and Bertrand Russell having more than one partner. And then suddenly, without any warning, Bertrand Russell leaves her, wants to divorce, stops talking with her completely and starts to use only lawyers to communicate, uses the patriarchic laws to break up the marriage in his favor and get control over 'his' children. And over this personal conflict, he seems to change his progressive political views on education and relationships, suddenly stating how children need to be disciplined and that the Beacon High School was a failure, moving more to the mainstream politically in the 30s. Bertrand Russell basically turns out to be a nasty patriarchal aristocrat, who considers woman to be inferior and who turns disagreements in everlasting personal feuds. A brilliant man of course, and one that took the right political stances and had a considerable influence, but after reading this book you'll see problems with a lot of the hero-worship, in his personal life he wasn't exactly virtuous.
It's out of understanding the importance of Bertrand Russell and his influence on the world that Dora doesn't speak out publicly about the way she is mistreated. Until her autobiography after Bertrand Russell's death she keeps silent. And even then the book is full of praise for Bertrand Russell, the man that pretty much destroyed her life. Of course, it's just one viewpoint. But I'm inclined to take her side. Throughout the book she strikes me as highly emphatic and politically, on Soviet Russia and the British 30s, she takes in my opinion more correct political stances than Bertrand Russell. After the break-up she falls in love with a communist anti-fascist activist. And to add more drama to her life, he promply dies in what is an 'accident' according to police, but more he was killed by fascists in Plymouth, the base of Oswald Mosley's thugs.
It seems that this was part 1 of 3 of her autobiography. I suppose this part must've been the most interesting, but I'm curious enough about the others to give them a try when I find them.
Her life is fascinating and it's interesting to read how she slowly became more and more politicized. In university during WW1 she is symphatic with the pacifists and slowly becomes one of them herself, getting to know Bertrand Russels that risked his career and reputation by speaking out against the war. In Russia she meets just about everyone, from John Reed, Emma Goldman to Alexandra Kollontai. She marries the 20+ year older Bertand Russel when she's in her early twenties. She goes to China with him for a year. And when she comes back she more and more involves herself in the cause for women's rights, especially birth-control, but also in favour of free love. But she is also radicalized towards socialism, disillusioned with parliamentary politics with the right-wing turn of the Labour Party after the failed General Strike of '26, but also too undogmatic for the Communist Party, calling herself a 'constructive revolutionary'.
I really liked her estimation of the early Soviet Union, she already perceives problems with the subjectation of the individual to Industry, with the propaganda and dogmatic interpration of Marxism, with persuction of anarchists and other dissidents, and how the State is likely to become increasingly dominant. But she also notes how in the first 10 years, a revolutionary government together with progressive intellectuals created legislation and policy for women's rights and enabled experiments in modern education that would have been impossible in any other country. She writes of the Congress for Sexual Reform that she helped organize in London and how the Russian delegates showed how far ahead they were. A congress in Moscow was planned, but never ended up happening.
At the prime of her life she is highly involved in a school she set up with Bertrand Russells with progressive education, published several books and has many offers for articles and new books, has several children, and a modern marriage with both her and Bertrand Russell having more than one partner. And then suddenly, without any warning, Bertrand Russell leaves her, wants to divorce, stops talking with her completely and starts to use only lawyers to communicate, uses the patriarchic laws to break up the marriage in his favor and get control over 'his' children. And over this personal conflict, he seems to change his progressive political views on education and relationships, suddenly stating how children need to be disciplined and that the Beacon High School was a failure, moving more to the mainstream politically in the 30s. Bertrand Russell basically turns out to be a nasty patriarchal aristocrat, who considers woman to be inferior and who turns disagreements in everlasting personal feuds. A brilliant man of course, and one that took the right political stances and had a considerable influence, but after reading this book you'll see problems with a lot of the hero-worship, in his personal life he wasn't exactly virtuous.
It's out of understanding the importance of Bertrand Russell and his influence on the world that Dora doesn't speak out publicly about the way she is mistreated. Until her autobiography after Bertrand Russell's death she keeps silent. And even then the book is full of praise for Bertrand Russell, the man that pretty much destroyed her life. Of course, it's just one viewpoint. But I'm inclined to take her side. Throughout the book she strikes me as highly emphatic and politically, on Soviet Russia and the British 30s, she takes in my opinion more correct political stances than Bertrand Russell. After the break-up she falls in love with a communist anti-fascist activist. And to add more drama to her life, he promply dies in what is an 'accident' according to police, but more he was killed by fascists in Plymouth, the base of Oswald Mosley's thugs.
It seems that this was part 1 of 3 of her autobiography. I suppose this part must've been the most interesting, but I'm curious enough about the others to give them a try when I find them.
August 5, 2024
THE CANDID STORY OF BERTRAND RUSSELL'S 2ND WIFE--AN ACTIVIST IN HER OWN RIGHT
Dora Black (1894-1986) was a British author, a feminist and socialist campaigner, as well as the second wife of the philosopher/mathematician Bertrand Russell. She wrote in the Preface to this 1975 book, "This, then, is the story of a girl growing up from an Edwardian childhood through the period of women's emancipation... Another reason for this book is that I was for twelve years married to Bertrand Russell and took part with him in political and public affairs..." (Pg. 9-10)
She recalls, "Bertie was always 'brightly intelligent' at the moment of waking, at once tackling his letters and the newspaper, a characteristic which I presently found endearing rather than the reverse." (Pg. 107) She states, "I loved Bertie with adoration and almost worship. He was lover, father-figure, teacher, a companion never at a loss for a witty rejoinder... I was, in spite of being so much younger, maternal towards him. My feeling that he was not tough, but needed someone to watch over and cherish him, persisted..." (Pg. 121) She observes, "In spite of supporting female suffrage and emancipation, Bertie adhered to the then male view that a woman's mind could not be equal to that of a man. One of the greatest compliments he ever paid me was to say that he never needed to 'talk down to me' in a discussion, as he invariably felt with other women." (Pg. 110)
She admits, "Bertie and I... left each other free as regards possible sexual adventures. I knew how women, especially in America, were apt to court him." (Pg. 198) When she became pregnant from Griffin Barry, "Bertie insisted that he would not agree to my parting with it in any way whatever. He further insisted that he should have full parental rights... and that it was important that the child should grow up with [their children] John and Kate and in Beacon Hill School with us all. I have reason to believe that this decision cost Bertie much more distress than he was ever willing to reveal... At this time I ... was thankful to him for standing by our agreement that the legal marriage was not relevant to our moral code." (Pg. 223) Of Russell's leaving her for Patricia ("Peter") Spence, she wrote, "Of course there is nothing unusual about a husband suddenly leaving his wife for a younger woman... I ought not to have been astonished. He was acting with the recklessness of the gambler and adventurer, the arrogance of an aristocrat... For me in this rupture the main causes of bitterness were that he had not given an opportunity for discussion." (Pg. 244)
Later, she laments, "I have often reflected that it might have been better for all concerned... if I had refused that divorce. Even now, why, I ask myself, did I continue in a course of action that was manifestly against my own interest and was to end in the greatest tragedy of my whole life?" (Pg. 257) Later, she adds, "Bertie carried on the dispute and maintained his personal hostility to me right up to and beyond the day of his own death." (Pg. 258) She concludes, "Bertie got everything that he wanted and I got nothing whatever except a modest allowance, which would come to an end on his death... The divorce had taken three years of my life and inflicted tragedies from which I was never fully to recover." (Pg. 286)
She notes near the book's end, "What is often asked ... is to what extent each was influenced by the other. I think that it was my very different judgment about the Soviet Union in 1920 that prevented Bertie from taking a more old-fashioned liberal line... The book on Bolshevism would have been different in tone had we not argued about it. Prospects of Industrial Civilization: 1st (First) Edition would never have been written but for my insistence; it is titled as a joint book." (Pg. 293)
Although immensely insightful for those interested in Bertrand Russell, Ms. Black's own activities and opinions are also of considerable interest to the reader.
Dora Black (1894-1986) was a British author, a feminist and socialist campaigner, as well as the second wife of the philosopher/mathematician Bertrand Russell. She wrote in the Preface to this 1975 book, "This, then, is the story of a girl growing up from an Edwardian childhood through the period of women's emancipation... Another reason for this book is that I was for twelve years married to Bertrand Russell and took part with him in political and public affairs..." (Pg. 9-10)
She recalls, "Bertie was always 'brightly intelligent' at the moment of waking, at once tackling his letters and the newspaper, a characteristic which I presently found endearing rather than the reverse." (Pg. 107) She states, "I loved Bertie with adoration and almost worship. He was lover, father-figure, teacher, a companion never at a loss for a witty rejoinder... I was, in spite of being so much younger, maternal towards him. My feeling that he was not tough, but needed someone to watch over and cherish him, persisted..." (Pg. 121) She observes, "In spite of supporting female suffrage and emancipation, Bertie adhered to the then male view that a woman's mind could not be equal to that of a man. One of the greatest compliments he ever paid me was to say that he never needed to 'talk down to me' in a discussion, as he invariably felt with other women." (Pg. 110)
She admits, "Bertie and I... left each other free as regards possible sexual adventures. I knew how women, especially in America, were apt to court him." (Pg. 198) When she became pregnant from Griffin Barry, "Bertie insisted that he would not agree to my parting with it in any way whatever. He further insisted that he should have full parental rights... and that it was important that the child should grow up with [their children] John and Kate and in Beacon Hill School with us all. I have reason to believe that this decision cost Bertie much more distress than he was ever willing to reveal... At this time I ... was thankful to him for standing by our agreement that the legal marriage was not relevant to our moral code." (Pg. 223) Of Russell's leaving her for Patricia ("Peter") Spence, she wrote, "Of course there is nothing unusual about a husband suddenly leaving his wife for a younger woman... I ought not to have been astonished. He was acting with the recklessness of the gambler and adventurer, the arrogance of an aristocrat... For me in this rupture the main causes of bitterness were that he had not given an opportunity for discussion." (Pg. 244)
Later, she laments, "I have often reflected that it might have been better for all concerned... if I had refused that divorce. Even now, why, I ask myself, did I continue in a course of action that was manifestly against my own interest and was to end in the greatest tragedy of my whole life?" (Pg. 257) Later, she adds, "Bertie carried on the dispute and maintained his personal hostility to me right up to and beyond the day of his own death." (Pg. 258) She concludes, "Bertie got everything that he wanted and I got nothing whatever except a modest allowance, which would come to an end on his death... The divorce had taken three years of my life and inflicted tragedies from which I was never fully to recover." (Pg. 286)
She notes near the book's end, "What is often asked ... is to what extent each was influenced by the other. I think that it was my very different judgment about the Soviet Union in 1920 that prevented Bertie from taking a more old-fashioned liberal line... The book on Bolshevism would have been different in tone had we not argued about it. Prospects of Industrial Civilization: 1st (First) Edition would never have been written but for my insistence; it is titled as a joint book." (Pg. 293)
Although immensely insightful for those interested in Bertrand Russell, Ms. Black's own activities and opinions are also of considerable interest to the reader.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews