sincere. There are thought-provoking sentences on every page. And I
wonder why these two books you sent me have taught me more than
all your other books; I think one explanation is that you are writing
direct and not through translators, but another may be that you have
increased your own clarity with the years.
The sadness of the book is that you apparently hardly ever found
one person who was loyal and brave; too many denied when the cock
crew ... and I don't mean denied you, I mean the cause, the idea, the
battle. I understand at last why you see in Communism the anti-life
par excellence, but I think you were wrong in not realising that Hamilton
and I could not possibly see the truth if only because we never went
through your experiences with the Party. Leaving out your genius for
the moment, you lived a most strenuous life in your work in Vienna
and Berlin, a life that hammered you into a steel weapon against life
aggression, while we ... I can only speak for myself, I led a sheltered
existence without external hate and aggression and betrayal. Life itself
compelled you to wrench from it its secret, and I wonder now how you
could have all your Neills and Wolfes around you without their boring
you stiff ... it must be because of your naivety which you so often
mention in the book.
But, damn you, man, you spoil a chap's reading! I simply can't read
any book on psychology or politics or what not after reading you. Gott
sei Dank you haven't yet tackled fiction, so that I can still sit in the
Box at night and read stories.
Thanks, Reich, for giving me two great stimulants to thought and
realisation. My morning paper had an article last week ... "Can Science
Produce Life?" It quoted Bernal and dwelt on all the chemical trials to
produce life. The writer was a man born in my native town, a "science
correspondent." I longed to shove your books into his hands and say:
Fool, leave the dead and learn from a man who deals with life and not
chemicals. At the same time I knew it would be of no use. With children
my virtue is patience but with Reich I am impatient ... I want to see
life accepted before I die, but of course I won't.
- I •