F. Matthias Alexander - American Years

American Years

Alexander sailed for New York in September 1914, where he joined Margaret Naumberg. Influenced by Montessori education, psychoanalysis and Alexander's work, she had just founded the Walden School, and assisted Alexander in setting up a practice, including recruiting influential pupils such as Arthur M. Reis and Waldo Frank. The business was soon booming, and by the end of 1914, Ethel Webb came from the United Kingdom to assist in the teaching. With the exception of the winter of 1921-2, for the next ten years, Alexander spent the autumn and winter of the year in the United States, and returned to the United Kingdom for the late spring and summer to see family members and rest. For the first few years, Webb remained in the US to keep the practice open over the summer months. In 1916 Irene Tasker, joined the New York practice as an apprentice. Alexander was proudly British; he never really felt at home in the United States, and was critical of American society, including their lack of involvement, until 1917, in the First World War. In 1916, the American philosopher and educational pioneer John Dewey became a pupil. Dewey had long suffered from stress-related health issues, and these had become acute in the wake of a series of personal and professional difficulties. His series of lessons led resulted in long lasting physical and intellectual improvements; more than 25 years later, in his eighties, Dewey attributed 90% of his good health to Alexander's techniques. Dewey and Alexander met frequently in the years that followed, and the writings of both show the influence of the interactions. In addition, Dewey's promotion of the technique led to other prominent academics to enroll themselves and their families. Dewey also encouraged Alexander to bring out an American edition of Man's Supreme Inheritance. With the help of Irene Tasker, he extensively revised the text and included new chapters on addictions, obsessive behaviours, and on the causes of the First World War, which he laid firmly at the door of Germany as a country of that has "progressed but little on the upward evolutionary stage from the state occupied by the brute beast and the savage." The book, with an introduction by Dewey, appeared in January 1918, and received enthusiastic reviews, many written by Alexander's distinguished pupils. However, former pupil Randolph Bourne, writing in The New Republic, while recognising the practical benefit of the technique, criticised Alexander's belief in the evolution of human society towards conscious control, a complaint echoed by the historian James Harvey Robinson in an Atlantic Monthly review. Dewey was so incensed by Bourne's review that he threatened never to contribute to the New Republic again if they published any further articles by Bourne.

The success of book led to an influx of new pupils to the practice. The demand meant that A.R. was needed in the United States for the winters of 1918-9 and 1919–20; that he was able to do so was a testimony to "the work", as A.R. had received serious injuries in a fall from a horse in 1918, and had been told by doctors that he would never walk again. For the rest of his life, however, A.R. used a cane and taught sitting down. From 1920 the brothers began periodic teaching in Boston, and started providing a continuous presence in America and London: each summer for the next four years A.R. continued teaching in the US, only going back to the United Kingdom when Alexander returned to America in the fall.

Post war, the London practice at No. 16 Ashley Place (near Victoria Station) was also doing well, and both Ethel Webb and Irene Tasker returned to work there. Prominent pupils during this period included a future Archbishop of Canterbury William Temple and the chocolate manufacturer Joseph Rowntree. He also developed good relations with several doctor pupils, who helped him and, in the case of two of them, Andrew Rugg-Gunn, J. E. R. McDonagh, became lifelong friends.

Alexander's charismatic personality often led to romantic feelings in women; among those smitten was Ethel Webb, who had spent more time with Alexander than his wife. The two women hated each other. Alexander and Edith's marriage was in difficulties, but the pair agreed to adopt Edith's niece Peggy, born in 1918. They were both devoted to their daughter, which likely kept the couple together. Her nephew 27-year-old ex-army officer nephew Owen Vicary moved into the basement flat at Ashley Place with his wife Gladys (known as Jack) and their two children, and Edith appears to have developed romantic feelings for him. Alexander was considering writing another book, and was spurred into action by the 1922 publication of a book by Gerald Stanley Lee which clearly described Alexander's techniques without acknowledging their originator. He considered patenting the method, but was told this would be impractical. His book "Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual", which Alexander was later to describe has his most important book, was published in May 1923 in United States with an introduction written by Dewey. Alexander missed the launch as he had to return to the UK due to family difficulties following his mother's death in February 1923 an while Alexander was in the United States. Despite being clearer, more coherent and better written, it received less notice than its predecessor. Following a lawsuit in 1923 resulting from attempted return of a new car after a few weeks, Alexander transferred all his considerable assets to friends and arranged to be declared bankrupt rather than pay the debt he owed. The debt was later bought and cancelled by friends, but Alexander never applied for discharge from bankruptcy and thus remained technically bankrupt until the end of his life. Alexander's regular visits to America ended in the spring of 1924, and from then on both he and A.R. were based in London. His bankruptcy notwithstanding, he was financially successful and had a flourishing practice in London and could afford to live where he felt happiest. Another possible reason was to distance himself from Dewey, who was proposing a scientific trial of the technique; the prospect alarmed Alexander as he had no confidence in the investigation and in addition feared a loss of control over the technique.