This is a unique collection of diaries and notes recording lessons with F. M. Alexander. These contemporary records capture Alexander's teaching and testify to his exceptional skills. These rare documents provide an important link with the teaching origins of the Alexander Technique. They make the reader part of a most exciting journey: the exploration of the self as a conscious, discriminating being. £14.95

Hardback (bound in buckram), 110 pages, 19 b/w illustrations on plates.

More details: The Philosopher's Stone

"The Philosopher's Stone" is a review from 1919 of F. M. Alexander's "Man's Supreme Inheritance" by the American historian James Harvey Robinson. This excellent introduction to the Technique contains the earliest existing account of a lesson with Alexander.

Eva Webb's "Diary of My Lessons in the Alexander Technique" from 1947 describes a typical series of lessons with Alexander and his assistant teachers.
"The Diaries of Frank and Grace Hand" reveals the pupils' perspective. The Hands recorded their impressions of lessons with Alexander in 1942 in New York.

"Recording of a Miracle" is the diary of an American, Mrs Buchanen, who was seriously ill before taking up the Alexander Technique. This classic case history from the early 1950s is a record of the remarkable changes in health and well-being which are possible with the Technique.

The first part of "The Journal of Sir George Trevelyan" introduces F. M. Alexander and his technique and explains why Sir George took up Alexander's work, training as a teacher 1931-34. The second part from 1936-37 records Alexander's instructions to his teachers and documents the attention to detail which he paid in the practice of his Technique. This edition is more complete than the one published in the Alexander Journal.

"How I came to have Lessons with F. M. Alexander" is by Anthony Ludovici who wrote in support of the Technique in several of his books. His story is both extraordinary and amusing.

Sample pages from books available in pdf.

F. M. Alexander teaching his Technique. All the 15 b/w photographs on plates show Alexander teaching.

Contents

Introduction by Jean M. O. Fischer
List of illustrations (15 b/w photographs showing Alexander teaching)
"The Philosopher's Stone" by James Harvey Robinson, 1919
"Diary of My Lessons in the Alexander Technique" by Eva Webb, 1947
"The Diaries of Frank and Grace Hand", 1942
"Recording of a Miracle" by Mrs Buchanen, 1950s
"The Journal of Sir George Trevelyan - Part One",1931-34
"The Journal of Sir George Trevelyan - Part Two" 1936-37
"How I came to have Lessons with F. M. Alexander" by Anthony Ludovici
Index of names

Publication notes

This compilation was first published July 1998 by Mouritz. "The Philosopher's Stone" by James Harvey Robinson was first published in The Atlantic Monthly in 1919. Eva Webb's diary was first published in George Bowden's F. Matthias Alexander and the Creative Advance of the Individual in 1965. The Diaries of Frank and Grace Hand have not previously been published. Mrs Buchanen's diary was first published i Louise Morgan's Inside Yourself in 1954. Parts of Sir George Trevelyan's diary was first published in The Alexander Journal no. 11 (1991) and no. 12 (1992). Anthony Ludovici's piece is an extract from his book Religions for Infidels (1961).

Hardback. 110 pages, 215 x 138 mm, 15 b/w illustrations. Printed on 90 gsm wove paper and bound in buckram ISBN 0-9525574-8-7.

Errata

Page 98, second paragraph from the bottom, 5th line: for “gentle pull on a chain back”, read “gentle pull on a chair back”.