This pioneering book provides the background history to F. M. ­Alexander’s life in Australia from 1869 to 1904, and to the origins of the ­Alexander Technique. It provides an account of the historical, social, and cultural context in which Alexander grew up, worked, and made his discoveries.

Alexander himself provided little of his own history and so it has taken the research of dedicated historians such as Rosslyn McLeod to trace his family history and provide the background to Alexander’s life, first in Tasmania and later in Melbourne and Sydney.

Alexander’s grandparents were transported convicts from Wiltshire, the grandfather arriving in Tasmania in 1831. They eked out a bare existence from farming in a harsh environment in North-Western Tasmania. A generation later F. M. Alexander was born in 1869 to a blacksmith and farmer. The characteristics of independence and self-sufficiency were to influence him in his discovery and development of the Alexander Technique.

After a number of temporary jobs, having started work at 16, he took up reciting as a career around 1893. It was in Melbourne that he started developing his technique. Following the successful solution to his voice problems he continued his reciting and acting career, but increasingly gave lessons in his ‘vocal and respiratory’ technique, which developed into what is now known as the F. M. Alexander Technique.

Rosslyn McLeod has gathered a rich picture of F. M. Alexander’s family, and his early life and career in Australia.

First published in 1994 this new edition contains additional information, pictures and appendices;

Appendix I: F. M. Alexander’s Autobiographical Sketch
Appendix II: List of Poems FM recited
Appendix III: A Selection of Poems FM recited
Appendix IV: The Dream of Matthias the Burgomaster
Appendix V: 1902 prospectus for the Sydney Dramatic and Operatic Conservatorium
Appendix VI: Self-Reliance and Perseverance