Record of a Friendship

Summerhill School

Leiston, Suffolk

My dear Reich,

January 4, 1950

Your New Year telegram of good will gave Ena and me a very
warm glow. We reciprocate the wishes sincerely.
I haven't written for some time. We both had breakdowns, a sort of
grippe I think, and in spite of orgones and rest we have taken a long
time to get back to normal. The Nemesis of our work mostly, for we
have to give out all the time, and since we left you in U.S.A. over a
year ago, we have. met no one to give out anything to us. Add to that
the terribly exhausting fact that we are losing money every day. Some
parents cannot or won't pay and if they did we could make ends meet.
It is so tiresome to think in terms of money when intrinsically money
doesn't mean much to us. I long for the first of August when we'll rest
on the Q. Elizabeth I hope.
I'll possibly not hold that Easter Self-Regulation conference at
Summerhill after all. To have an exhausted Ena finish a busy term of
school and then switch over to be a hotel keeper isn't my idea of fairness,
AND there is no one else who could or would take over the domestic
side of the conference. This finding people who can be trusted to do work
is a nightmare. As you know, S'hill attracts neurotics and you have said
many times that neurotics can't work. My experience proves you are
right all the way.
Today I have no worry about State interference. The only worries
are money and health ... and here Ena and I are up against a difficulty:
we both hate all drugs and have no faith in them, so that we don't call

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