Record of a Friendship

[ 1936-1939 ]

Summerhill School

Leiston, Suffolk

Dear Reich,

10

April 24, 1938

I have been to Scotland motoring. You say you will be away

in July. Mayor June are impossible for me, for the school is in session.

We close end of July, so that I could spend August and the first two

weeks of Sept in Oslo. Geht es? [Is that all right?]

I hope so, for I am still dull and without much interest in anything.

I never hear from Constance now, but suppose she is still with you.

• I •

Oslo, Norway
April 29, 1938
Dear N eill!*
I am agreeable to having you work here in August and the
first weeks of September. Only we must be prepared that at this very
time the official International Commission to check on the bion re­
search will probably be working here. But that will not disturb our
work.
Please do write again with news. Very warmly yours.

Summerhill School
Leiston, Suffolk

Dear Reich,

• • •

May 6, 1938

Gut, An/ang August [Good, beginning of August]. Helga has
been down here for a holiday and I find myself as much in love with
her as ever, and she with me. I have a wife and a school: she has a hus­
band and a child. Hell! Was kann man machen? [What can one do?]
I know that if I were free inside I should know was zu machen, aber
[what to do, but] ...
Saw Stekelt last night. He said: "Reich is the most brilliant analyst

* Translated from the original German.

t Wilhelm Stekel, Viennese physician and early adherent of Freud, who had

moved to England when Hitler took over Austria. Some years earlier, Neill had

been his patient for a few weeks.