Wittgenstein resigned his chair at Cambridge in the fall of 1947, effective from the end of the year, and moved to Ireland:
c/o Mrs Kingston Kilpatrick House Red Cross Wicklow Eire 9.12.47
Dear Norman,
Thank you for two letters, or rather a letter & a Xmas card. I was very pleased to get them. I have only today moved into the above address. It's a little Guest House 2½ to 3 hours by bus from Dublin. It's not too bad & I hope I'll acclimatize. I'm the only guest. Of course, right now I still feel completely strange & uncomfortable. It's been pretty cold the last fortnight & looking for a place was very depressing. That I haven't worked a stroke for ages goes without saying. I'm looking forward to receiving the det. mags & the book. I, too, have sent you a very small present. I don't mean that yours is small. I hope you'll get it.—The idea of staying with you & Lee some day appeals to me very much. I have plenty of money, though. If I were as rich in other respects I'd be very happy!
It was very kind of Lee to write to me on the Xmas card. Give her & Ray all my best wishes. I wish you lots of luck & know you wish me the same. Both of us need it like Hell.*
Affectionately, Ludwig
*And other people do too.
Kilpatrick House Red Cross Wicklow Eire 15.3.48
Dear Norman,
Thanks for your letter which I got a few weeks ago. v. Wright wrote to me about his putting in for the professorship & asked me to write him a recommendation. I did, & it won't be the recommendation's fault if he doesn't get the job. I don't know at all what his chances are. I'm slightly doubtful because of his being another foreigner.—My work is progressing very slowly and painfully, but it is progressing. I wish I had more working power & didn't tire so very easily. But I have to take it as I find it—Your mags are wonderful. How people can read Mind if they could read Street & Smith beats me. If philosophy has anything to do with wisdom there's certainly not a grain of that in Mind, & quite often a grain in the detective stories.
That'll be all for today because my brain feels very stuffy indeed.
Good wishes!
Affectionately, Ludwig
—I have not transcribed the later two or three letters in which he attempts to convince the Malcolms that he'd be more trouble than he's worth as a houseguest despite their very kind invitation to put him up for a couple of weeks, but I may. I need a Wittgenstein icon. Then I can worry over whether it should be actual Wittgenstein or Karl Johnson.
no subject
c/o Mrs Kingston
Kilpatrick House
Red Cross
Wicklow
Eire
9.12.47
Dear Norman,
Thank you for two letters, or rather a letter & a Xmas card. I was very pleased to get them. I have only today moved into the above address. It's a little Guest House 2½ to 3 hours by bus from Dublin. It's not too bad & I hope I'll acclimatize. I'm the only guest. Of course, right now I still feel completely strange & uncomfortable. It's been pretty cold the last fortnight & looking for a place was very depressing. That I haven't worked a stroke for ages goes without saying. I'm looking forward to receiving the det. mags & the book. I, too, have sent you a very small present. I don't mean that yours is small. I hope you'll get it.—The idea of staying with you & Lee some day appeals to me very much. I have plenty of money, though. If I were as rich in other respects I'd be very happy!
It was very kind of Lee to write to me on the Xmas card. Give her & Ray all my best wishes. I wish you lots of luck & know you wish me the same. Both of us need it like Hell.*
Affectionately,
Ludwig
*And other people do too.
Kilpatrick House
Red Cross
Wicklow
Eire
15.3.48
Dear Norman,
Thanks for your letter which I got a few weeks ago. v. Wright wrote to me about his putting in for the professorship & asked me to write him a recommendation. I did, & it won't be the recommendation's fault if he doesn't get the job. I don't know at all what his chances are. I'm slightly doubtful because of his being another foreigner.—My work is progressing very slowly and painfully, but it is progressing. I wish I had more working power & didn't tire so very easily. But I have to take it as I find it—Your mags are wonderful. How people can read Mind if they could read Street & Smith beats me. If philosophy has anything to do with wisdom there's certainly not a grain of that in Mind, & quite often a grain in the detective stories.
That'll be all for today because my brain feels very stuffy indeed.
Good wishes!
Affectionately,
Ludwig
—I have not transcribed the later two or three letters in which he attempts to convince the Malcolms that he'd be more trouble than he's worth as a houseguest despite their very kind invitation to put him up for a couple of weeks, but I may. I need a Wittgenstein icon. Then I can worry over whether it should be actual Wittgenstein or Karl Johnson.