OGDEN, C.K. (his copy); RUSSELL, Bertrand, Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays (Longmans, Green and Co., London), 1918 [second impression]

8vo; iv, [2], 234

Good condition: spine faded, corners bumbed; occasional spotting, more so to the first thirty or so pages

A true Wittgensteinian pairing. C.K. Ogden was (with F.P. Ramsay) the translator of the Tractatus, which was published in the series he edited, the International Library of Psychology, Philosophy and Scientific Method. Russell was the most famous Anglophone philosopher of his day and was crucial in Wittgenstein’s early development. In fact legend has it that both Ogden and Russell were present when Wittgenstein arrived in Cambridge, turning up unannounced in Russell’s rooms in Trinity College.

The themes of this book are particularly important for the Tractatus, as was pointed out by Brian McGuinness in his important 1966 essay ‘The Mysticism of the Tractatus’: “there is a considerable coincidence between the presuppositions and results of the Tractatus and those of Russell’s [titular] essay”. Even if McGuinness is unable to say whether Wittgenstein had read they essay, we can now be certain that Wittgenstein’s editor and translator did. There are sporadic pencil annotations and a corrected spelling to the text.