Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations was published posthumously. In his last years, he was trying to get the manuscript into a form that satisfied him.
From November 1947 to June 1949, he was in Ireland. From April to August 1948, he was at a cottage in Rosroe, County Galway. The place was owned by the older brother of Maurice O’Connor Drury, one of Wittgenstein’s ablest students.
I have known some of that story since I began to read Wittgenstein in college. But I recently ran across a sketch by the artist Peg Smythies of “Wittgenstein’s Cottage” in History Ireland. The image delighted me. In the accompanying article, Professor John Hayes includes a description based on a memoir by Richard Murphy, a poet who rented the cottage three years after Wittgenstein:
Heat came from a turf fire. The fuel was stored in a galvanised shed in the backyard, where there was also a chemical toilet. Candles gave light after dark. Drinking water had to be drawn by bucket from a nearby well. The kitchen furniture was made of deal. The beds were of cast iron with horsehair mattresses.
I hadn’t realized the cottage was quite so spartan. But Wittgenstein’s accommodations were always spartan. He was not looking for comfort but for solitude.
• Sources: John Hayes, “Wittgenstein’s Irish cottage”: History Ireland, n.d. It’s here:
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