Highly influential Austrian-British philosopher (1889–1951) whose greatest contributions were in the fields of logic, philosophy of mathematics, and language. ALS in German, one page, lightly-lined, 5 x 8, May 23, 1950, Oxford. Letter to Barbara Gaun, housekeeper to the Wittgenstein family from 1912 to 1951, in full (translated): “I only want to tell you that I am often thinking of the wonderful time we had in Vienna, particularly of the great kindness you extended towards my sisters Mining and Wicki. Personally I am doing well and I can assure you that I suffer of no other disease than plain laziness. Hoping you in Vienna are enjoying the same beautiful days as we are having right now. Summer is almost with us. Please extend our most cordial regards to everyone.” In fine condition, with central vertical and horizontal folds (vertical fold passing through a single letter of the signature).
In 1950, three years after resigning his professorship at Cambridge to concentrate on his writing, Wittgenstein was diagnosed with incurable prostate cancer—a fact that he seemingly kept to himself when he returned to his family home to visit his dying sister Hermine at the start of the year. “I can assure you that I suffer of no other disease than plain laziness,” he writes to the family’s longtime housekeeper, thanking her for her kind treatment of his sisters and shrugging off his own troubles. Following Hermine’s death in February, he stayed with various friends—G.H. von Wright in Cambridge during April, then Rush Rhees in London, and finally Elizabeth Anscombe in Oxford, where he wrote this letter. He then returned to Cambridge, where he began work on his final manuscripts—posthumously published as Remarks on Colour and On Certainty—before passing away at the end of April in 1951. A charmingly cheerful letter from the influential philosopher, exuding the positivity that he found in his final days, which ended with the touching remarks, ‘Tell them I've had a wonderful life.’ Pre-certified John Reznikoff/PSA/DNA and RR Auction COA.
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