Record of a Friendship

(Ben Green) #1

that it is hopeless to send to old addresses. And I fear the Rickman
point of view will prevail.
I wrote to George Allen, of Allen and Unwin who are well-known
publishers and modern, telling them about your Orgasm book and
suggesting that they ought to consider publishing the book and being
pioneers for Reichism. [Neill here discusses the journals that might re­
view the first issue of Reich's Journal for Sex-Economy and Orgone
Research.] The editor of The Lancet had a boy at this school and two
years ago when I wanted to interest him in your Bione book he was
sceptical and would not review it. No, Reich, you can expect nothing
but hostility from established magazines, and your progress must come
from your own group and its own magazine. You can't ask Jones,
Flugel, Rickman to approve of you and thus confess that their life work
has been wasted. That would be too great an optimism.
My "lay" staff (i.e. teachers untrained in science and psychology) are
all fascinated with your magazine and eager to learn more, while the
profession is hostile and arrogantly critical.
If I can find a publisher for the F. of the Orgasm have I your per­
mission to make a deal with him? My only aim is to let England know
of your work, and I guess that is all you want also. Your book is so
patently original and wise that I am sure it would make history if
published here even in wartime.
To come to my own affairs ... life isn't easy. Troubles with staff.
Most good teachers are in the war in some capacity and I am limited
to Conscientious Objectors or old pensioners. The former all seem to
have some limitation, some negative quality ... I am sure they all have
stiff stomachs. Your suggestion of giving Constance a job isn't practical
so long as Suzanna * is a pupil, and to tell the truth I think that C.
would not fit into a community life easily. I feel she tends to the auto­
cratic in life and would clash with the system of majority rule, but
maybe I am wrong.
Enclosed sheet isn't so much of a criticism as a query. I can't criticise
much of your book because it is beyond my training and knowledge,
and indeed many pages make me feel that I haven't been educated at all.
All the best and let us hope that Veg.-Therapy is to grow on both
sides of the Atlantic.


* Constance Tracey's daughter.
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