Wilhelm Reich Museum Public Talk on Book & Film Projects

Since 1959 we've been working with renowned New York publishers Farrar, Straus and Giroux to bring back into print all of Reich's books which were banned and burned by the United States government in the 1950s, in addition to publishing eight new titles drawn from Reich's unpublished materials.   Today, 21 books authored by Reich are in print and his works have been translated into nearly two dozen languages.

We also manage Wilhelm Reich's personal, medical, and scientific archives - known as the "Archives of the Orgone Institute" - which are located at the Countway Library of Medicine at Harvard University, one of the world's premier medical libraries.  We work closely with the Countway staff to preserve, organize, and provide research access to over 98 cubic-feet of Reich's unpublished manuscripts, correspondence, medical and laboratory notebooks, diaries and journals, films, voice recordings, and other original materials.   Reich's voluminous archives constitute one of the Countway Library's largest collections.   And in late 2007—fifty years after Reich's death—these archives became accessible to scholars and researchers for the first time.

This year our Summer Conference (July 13-16) is entitled "From the Archives of the Orgone Institute:
 Archival Materials, Current Projects & Research, and Publishing," and will feature presentations of some of these archival materials (documents, audiotapes, films, laboratory notebooks, etc.) as well as lectures by individuals who have been researching these materials for specific projects.  (see:  www.wilhelmreichmuseum.org)

The conference's Tuesday evening presentation (July 14 - 7:30 p.m.) will be open to the public for free, and will feature  a joint talk about two of the Museum's major projects:

• Mary Higgins - Director of The Wilhelm Reich Museum - will discuss her new book-in-progress, drawn from Reich's diaries, journals and correspondence from 1948-57.   Mary has edited three previous collections of similar materials from Reich's earlier years:  Passion of Youth, Beyond Psychology, and American Odyssey.
• Kevin Hinchey - Associate Director of The Wilhelm Reich Museum - will discuss the script he is writing for a full-length documentary film about Reich's life and work.                                                                                          

Wilhelm Reich's presence and scientific research in Rangeley figures prominently in both Mary Higgins' new manuscript and Kevin Hinchey's documentary film script, so this public talk promises to be of interest to aficionados of Rangeley history.  We hope you'll join us Tuesday evening.