Bertrand Russell was born in 1872 and died in 1970 at the ripe old age of ninety-seven. Mathematician, philosopher, pacifist during World War I, advocate of war on Russia soon after World War II, campaigner for nuclear disarmament towards the end of his life, and prolific writer on a variety of topics, Russell was a prominent figure among the intellectual elite of England for well over three quarters of a century. An intimate and detailed account of Russell’s multifaceted personality and his achievements is now available in the book by Ronald Clark, biographer of Einstein, J.B.S.Haldane, the Huxleys and Tizard.
Though born a member of the establishment which regarded itself as ordained by God to rule the country—his grandfather was twice Prime Minister of England—Russell chose the academic life. Orphaned at the age of three, he was brought up by his grandmother and educated privately by governesses and tutors until he was eighteen when he entered Trinity College, Cambridge to study mathematics and philosophy. He obtained a I class degree and was elected a fellow of his college in 1895 at the age of twenty-three. His fellowship thesis on the foundations of geometry and The Principles of Mathematics which he wrote during the next few years established Russell’s standing as a mathematician while A Critical Exposition of the Philosophy of Leibniz published in 1900 made his reputation as a philosopher.
In 1911, Trinity College appointed him to a lecturership in logic and the principles of mathematics. … . During his stay at Cambridge, Russell came in contact with a galaxy of brilliant men: Whitehead, Lowes Dickinson, Moore, McTaggurt, Keynes, Lytton Strachey and others. Robert Wiener, later famous as the father of cybernetics, was among Russell’s students at Cambridge.
For over half a century after his Cambridge period, there flowed from Russell’s facile pen a spate of books, pamphlets and articles on such diverse subjects as logic, philosophy, mathematics, science, education, politics, religion, marriage and sexual morality. Not all of these were, like the Principia, meant for specialists. Russell had a gift for popularization and wrote several books on recondite subjects for the layman. Among these may be mentioned: The Problems of Philosophy, ABC of Atoms, ABC of Relativity and The History of Western Philosophy. The last named is a veritable tour de force, became a best-seller and has remained one thirty-five years after its first appearance. … .