Summerhill School
Leiston, Suffolk
My dear Reich,September 20, 1947Home again with happy memories of a wonderful trip.
The poisonous article in Time* has been printed in the London
Evening News, and I shouldn't be surprised if I have a visit from our
own FBI soon. Our greatest danger is the yellow press.
God, I feel good after that visit to you. Lost all my neurosis; looked
down from high windows in N.Y. without any vertigo at all. But life
is to be dull now; I simply can't be bothered talking to my staff for it
seems such a waste of time after Orgonon and Sheffield.
What about another visit next year with Ena and Zoe? We think
we could arrange to come out in early April and return end of June.
That would give me a chance to make all expenses by lecturing before
schools in U.S.A. went on vacation, and then we could recuperate in
Orgonon ... but I don't know when you go up there each year.
Zoe is a darling. Taking a few steps now, and, alas, waking us at
6.30 a.m.
When I finish my bookt I'll start translating the Little Man, whose
ms. I got safely.
Cheer up, old Reich. You and I will beat the press gang with their
insidious propaganda. I am writing a letter to The New Statesman at
tacking the yellow press and asking them to leave me alone. I don't
believe in taking attacks lying down.
Wish I could have seen you again to give my impressions of the
Sheffield crowd.
Back to cigarettes at 85 cents for 20, and rumour says they are
going up to a dollar for 20. Must stop smoking, damn it all. And no
whiskey.
- ••
* Time magazine (August 25, 1947), reporting on Neill's trip to the United
States, made derisive fun of him, his school, and his ideas.
t The Problem Family: An Investigation of Human Relations (London: Herbert
Jenkins, 1949). Neill pleads for more openness and honesty within the family
and describes the ways in which personal prejudices and social pressures can
distort parents' attitudes to their children.