G.I.Gurdjieff: A New Life

by Paul Beekman Taylor, Gert-Jan Blom (Foreword)

A New Life Since the last full life of G. I. Gurdjieff appeared in 1991, a number of books have corrected received facts and disclosed new information on selected portions of his life; but, the recent availability of formerly guarded records in the former Soviet Union, and the accumulation of facts in web sites concerning Gurdjieff, his family and his followers, call for disclosure. Considering the rapid expansion of interest in his work, there is need for a fresh historical account of the man who brought the “Fourth Way” into the consciousness of tens of thousands of people. Relying on extant evidence, this biography begins with a broad survey of known facts concerning his family and his upbringing, including a review of the conflicting evidence of the exact date of his birth. Taylor traces the likely movements of Gurdjieff in Asia and in Russia at the beginning of the twentieth century, and details his work from 1915 until the end of his life forty-four years later. Taylor outlines his attempts to establish the Institute in the United States at Olgivanna and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin East in Wisconsin, Mabel Luhan’s ranch in Taos, New Mexico, Marjorie Content and Jean Toomer’s Mill House in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, and New York City where his emissary, A. R. Orage, had formed a well-organized and faithful body of followers of Gurdjieff’s ideas since 1924. This biography stands apart from other biographical writings about Gurdjieff by emphasizing his relations with the many children for whom he played a fatherly role in the Caucasus, Fontainebleau, and New York City. It includes as well a review of Gurdjieff’s misunderstood relations with the women who bore his children. In effect, this scan of his life covers virtually every significant aspect of his extraordinary life and brings to light photographs which have not been available to readers.

Genres: Biography

248 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Fred Jenkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Taylor is the most authoritative life of Mr Gurdjieff to date. He includes documentary sources not available to (or overlooked by) earlier biographers, such as Webb and Moore. He corrects a number of inaccuracies in earlier writers, especially in the notoriously difficult chronology of G's activities. His discussion of the composition and publication of Beelezebub, along with the brief exposition on his website, makes it clear that the 1950 edition is authoritative and the 1992 revision gratuitous at best. Taylor may be as good as it gets. That said, earlier works remain necessary. When Taylor feels something is well covered by his predecessors, he often refers the reader to them for details. He also has a tendency to refer to his own earlier books rather than directly citing his sources, so those also must be consulted frequently.

The book is quite readable, in a moderately academic style. There are a number of typos: more than one instance of Zarahoff for Zaharoff, incorrect dates in some parenthetical references, etc. Perhaps Taylor was overly generous in thanking his copyeditor in the preface.