Summerhill School
Leiston, Suffolk
My dear Reich,
January 10, 1946I hear that The Freedom Press, London, is wanting to publish
your books over here. I think this would be a great mistake. It is an
Anarchist Press, disliked by diehards and communists alike and by
liberals. If they publish you then your public will be limited and the
big public will be suspicious. No, your books should appear with the
name of a respectable publisher. _. any of them, but not a narrow
sect. Some anarchists are claiming you as one of them already, so be
careful.
My book selling like hot cakes. Getting good reviews, but one or two
bitter and hostile. The Times in first paragraph calls me a genius, and
then in the rest of half a page shows that I ain't.
Re that proposed trip to U.S.A. on a lecture tour, I begin to think I
am too old. * U.S.A. with its hustle ... lecturing in one city on Monday
night then flying 300 miles to lecture next night sort of thing would kill
me. No, I'd like to come as a visitor and maybe give a few lectures
leisurely to help pay my fare and expenses. To face a long tour with
a fixed timetable would be appalling. In the meantime of course es
kommt nicht in Frage [it is out of the question] for I have much to do
here and can't get the right teachers and have to worry a lot when I
want to have an easy life.
- Neill was sixty-two.
(^153)