Re: Ralph Schoenman

[Jim Farmelant <farmelantj@xxxxxxxx>]

Ralph Schoenman was greately disliked by many of Bertrand Russell's
old friends, who in reaction began to spread rumors about Russell's
alleged senility.  In fact Russell was at that time working on his
Autobiography, which was hardly the work of a guy who was
losing his marbles.  Russell's old friends professed to be mystified
by Russell's liking for Schoenman, as though there should have
been any great mystery about Russell liking a guy who was willing
to make himself useful in so many different ways.  Schoenman
was quite willing to undertake tasks that Russell thought to be tedious
though necessary like drafting manifestoes, conducting fundraising
for the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation, issuing communiques
to activist groups and so on.  Schoenman also apparently played
a key role in the organization of the 1967 Stockholm war crimes trial,
which was officially headed up by Bertrand Russell and Jean-Paul
Sartre.

Interestingly enough, Simone De Beauvoir was another person who
took a disliking to Schoenman.  Later when Sartre in his last years
employed a Benny Levy in his last years, De Beauvoir complained
that Levy was manipulating Sartre in very much the same way
that Schoenman allegedly manipulated Russell.


Jim F.

On Wed, 19 Jun 2002 10:52:53 +0100 "Martin Spellman"
<mspellman@xxxxxxxxx> writes:
>
>       I was once told a story by someone involved in a Student
> Union during the
> Vietnam War. Schoenman was Bertrand Russell's secretary at the time,
> but was
> later refused re-entry to Britain, after visiting the States, by the
> (Labour) Government.
>       The students had organised a rally and billed Bertrand
> Russell to speak. He
> was old and frail and, come the meeting, a taped message was
> broadcast: "I
> would like to thank you all for your efforts in this campaign..."
> and so it
> went on for some minutes, all quavery voiced and tinkling tea cups.
> Then suddenly he said: "Fetch me my slippers, Ralph!"
>       The hall roared with laughter -- it was all a spoof, but a
> good one.
>
> Martin Spellman
>

________________________________________________________________
GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO!
Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less!
Join Juno today!  For your FREE software, visit:
http://dl.www.juno.com/get/web/.

~~~~~~~
PLEASE clip all extraneous text before replying to a message.