The true story of a government-ordered bookburning in America

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RANGELEY – In the 1930s, Wilhelm Reich—an Austrian research-physician, scientist and prominent anti-Nazi—arrived in America, four days before the outbreak of World War Two. In the 1940s, he established a laboratory and research center on an abandoned farm in Rangeley. In the 1950s, his books and published research journals were banned and burned by order of a United States Federal Court.

How could such a thing happen? What was in Reich’s published books and research journals that “merited” their actual destruction?

Learn more about this fascinating chapter of Rangeley history which will be presented by filmmaker and professor Kevin Hinchey and History of Science Professor James M. Strick, Ph.D. on Wednesday, Aug. 6 at 6 p.m. at the Rangeley Public Library.

Kevin Hinchey is one of the directors of the Wilhelm Reich Infant Trust in Rangeley, which operates the Wilhelm Reich Museum, administers Reich’s archives at the Countway Library of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and works with New York publisher Farrar, Straus & Giroux to publish Reich’s books. Hinchey is currently preparing a full-length documentary film about Reich. James Strick is a published science historian and professor at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, PA. His upcoming book about Reich’s biological research will be published by

Harvard University Press in Spring 2015. Professor Strick is also a principal consultant on the documentary film project.

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1 Comment

  1. It would be unfortunate if the sole focus of the referenced presentation was the “book burning”

    Certainly there are better news outlets for “sensationalisms”

    Dr Reich certainly was a somewhat “interesting personality” (then and now) and of “checkered reputation”

    Given the time period, his books may not have been the only books burned by “court order”

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