All the Best Neill (Routledge Revivals)

A. S. Neill founder of Summerhill the most admired and most feared of all progressive schools was famous as a schoolteacher educational reformer and author of illuminating and stylish books about education and the mind of the child. But few people know he was also a dedicated prolific uninhibited witty and often mischievous letter writer. This selection of gems first published in 1983 has been chosen from hundreds of his letters by his biographer. It includes letters about education children politics writing fatherhood the Bomb old age and death. ‘All the best Neill’ was the familiar ending of his letters to the famous – H. G. Wells Bertrand Russell Henry Miller Paul Goodman Wilhelm Reich Homer Lane; to important educators – W. B. Curry of Dartington John Aitkenhead of Kilquhanity Bob Mackenzie of Braehead Dora Russell of Beacon Hill; to unknown friends parents and even casual correspondents. To read these letters is to share the company of a great and always delightful man who wrote each one with the same commitment and gaiety.