Neill, A S
Entry updated 28 October 2024. Tagged: Author.
(1883-1973) UK educationist, in active service during World War One, who gained fame for revolutionary theories about the teaching of children and who cofounded the International School – which operated initially on the Continent from 1921, then (from 1924) under the name Summerhill in the UK – to put them into practice. Fictionalized accounts like A Dominie's Log (1916) and its sequels popularized his arguments, and his Scientific Romance, The Last Man Alive (1938), is narrated by a teacher to his pupils, who respond within this Club Story frame to the tale's gradual unveiling. A Disaster (see Last Man) – a Poison gas that turns all but the young protagonists of the tale to stone – is readably conveyed, though perhaps without the gravitas of the default Scientific Romance of this era, which was usually couched for adult readers. [JC]
Alexander Sutherland Neill
born Forfar, Scotland: 17 October 1883
died Aldeburgh, Suffolk: 23 September 1973
works
- The Last Man Alive (London: Herbert Jenkins, 1938) [illus/Sonia Araquistain/hb/Alfred E Kerr]
links
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