Russell's Published Writings

Russell's Writings

Guides to Russell's Writings

A subject, title and name guide to over 4,300 of Russell's publications is in K. Blackwell and H. Ruja, A Bibliography of Bertrand Russell, 3 vols. (London and New York: Routledge, 1994). The Russell Archives have copies of all of Russell's publications as well as most secondary materials. An electronically available text by Russell is his last manuscript essay, "1967". A hypertextual edition of "The Bomb and Civilization" may be viewed. The complete text of Prevent the Crime of Silence is on the Web. Links to many other writings by (and about) Russell on the Web are at the site of the Bertrand Russell Society and the Wikipedia entry on Russell.

Electronic versions of many books by Russell are available. Books by him that may be read on the Web are:

An Essay on the Foundations of Geometry (1897; searchable image)
The Principles of Mathematics (1903; e-text, part only)
Principia Mathematica (3 vols., with A.N. Whitehead; 1st edn. only)
The Problems of Philosophy (1912)
Political Ideals (1917)
Proposed Roads to Freedom (1919; 1st edn.,1918) (at McMaster; copy 2 )
The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism (1920)
The Analysis of Mind (1921)
The Problem of China (1922)
Icarus, or the Future of Science (1924)
Bertrand Russell's Best (1958; R.E. Egner, ed.)

Many of Russell's books may be searched on Google Books, Amazon, Open Library and Questia. Indeed, Volumes 1, 4, 6, 7, 10-13, 15 and 28 of the Collected Papers are searchable on the first (along with the Bibliography), and Vol. 8 is searchable on the second. The Internet Archive has downloadable texts.

Del.icio.us is a social bookmarking website that collects personal selections of favourite sites. Searching for Bertrand Russell brings up links to many of his electronic texts.

The chief publisher of Bertrand Russell's works today is Routledge, with offices in London and New York. Routledge's website allows searches on its stocklist. Here is a link to its publications by Russell, including a catalogue of the Collected Papers. Several other titles are being kept in print by Spokesman Books, the publishing wing of Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation. W.W. Norton and Co. still publish The Principles of Mathematics. Many of Russell's titles are listed by the McMaster University Bookstore, whose search results will tell you whether the title is in stock. A comprehensive source for Russell books in some major library systems and in virtual bookstores is Malaspina Great Books. Cassettes of many speeches and interviews by Bertrand Russell can be purchased from Pacifica Radio Archives.

The online Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy has a lengthy and pertinent entry on Bertrand Russell, and others on Russell's Paradox and Principia Mathematica. The entries are written by Andrew Irvine. The main entry on Russell has a chronology of Russell's life and sections on his logical, philosophical and social influence. Considerable bibliographical assistance is also provided, including a list of Russell's main published works, and sound clips are available.

Quotations from, or allegedly from, Russell's writings may be found on many websites. Usually they are unreferenced. These referenced quotations were suggested by subscribers to Russell-L. Individual copyright situations will vary, but several of the passages are © Routledge. The most recent of several books of Russell quotations is The Quotable Bertrand Russell, edited by Lee Eisler (Buffalo: Prometheus, 1993).