Gurdjieff Remembered

by Fritz Peters

Introduction by Mary Ellen Korman. Only 11 years old when his aunt, Margaret Anderson, brought him to the Prieuré in June 1924, Fritz Peters spent five years with G.I. Gurdjieff, as described in the classic Boyhood with Gurdjieff. In Gurdjieff Remembered, Peters recounts his interactions with Gurdjieff from 1932 to 1947. Now living in America, Peters sees Gurdjieff as an adult and relates to him more as a spiritual teacher. As with Boyhood, Peters writes crisply and at times with humor, as when telling of the tumultuous train journey to Chicago. His unique relationship gives the reader a glimpse of the Being of G. I. Gurdjieff.

159 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1965

About the author

Born in Madison, Wisconsin, Arthur Anderson “Fritz” Peters was the author of both novels and memoirs, which touched on themes of spirituality, mental illness, homosexuality, self and society, always through the lens of an unrelenting individuality and nonconformism. Peters’ most successful novel was Finistère, published in 1951, which sold over 350,000 copies and was an influential and unapologetic work of early gay literature. Due to instability in his family life, Peters spent his childhood between Europe and the United States, often nurtured by those adults who were able and willing to assist. Central to his upbringing was his aunt Margaret Anderson and her partner Jane Heap, creators of The Little Review literary magazine, along with other members of their circle, such as Gertrude Stein. Most notably, the esoteric teacher George Gurdjieff interacted closely with Fritz from an early age and was hugely influential in Peters’ life and literature. Boyhood with Gurdjieff, Peters’ most popular memoir, paints these figures and their projects in a thoughtful and intimate light.

Reviews

[Scot · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fritz Peters spent his early teenage years living with G.I. Gurdjieff at his Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man in France after his mother suffered a nervous breakdown. His book "Boyhood with Gurdjieff," details these years and was an amazing read. "Gurdjieff Remembered," picks up where the first left off, with Peters returning to his mother in America, where she has another nervous breakdown and he is abandoned by his step-father and left to raise himself.

Peters could have floundered, but his experiences in France with Gurdjieff helped him develop a certain attitude about life that allowed him to move through the difficulties. At some point in his late teens, he reconnected with Gurdjieff and had many experiences. The book details these encounters through Peters' lens. It includes his thoughts on some of the idea of Gurdjieff, some of the stories about him, but much is focused more as a memoir of his life and how impacted he was by Gurdjieff in such a positive way.

Peters lived the old axiom, War is Hell, and thankfully, was able to take a leave to see Gurdjieff in Paris, who helped him recover not just physically, but spiritually. While there, he was also named successor, which strangely never played out, because Peters did not seem to believe that to be anything more than a joke or a way to shock others in the work.

If you are someone that is in the 4th Way or follow the work of Gurdjieff, this is worth a read, otherwise, it will not make much sense to the average reader.

[Mandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A vivid and fascinating memoir of the relationship between Fritz Peters and Gurdjieff from 1932 to 1947, and a sequel to the earlier memoir Boyhood with Gurdjieff. When his mother had a breakdown in the early 1920s, Fritz Peters was taken in by his aunt Margaret Anderson and her partner Jane Heap, editors of The Little Review. When he was 11 they took him to stay with Gurdjieff at his Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man. After his return to America, Peters remained close to Gurdjieff and here we see the man, considered a guru by many, through an adult’s more judgemental, although still admiring, eyes of an adult rather than through the eyes of a child in the previous book. For anyone interested in Gurdjieff’s teaching, this book is a must read, but even for those who aren’t, this is still a really interesting memoir, well-written, full of insight into both himself and his mentor, and a valuable addition to Gurdjieff studies.

[Luke Pete · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fritz Peters’s frantic attempt to redefine the Gurdijieff cult while chasing him around the world. This is something of a part II, I understand, a sequel to his childhood memoir of becoming an orphan and then a Sufist. Through his adult experiences in Chicago and Paris he continues the firuginrg-it-out-through-writing in meditative style, to discover the true meaning of life and cutting down other, false-followers of Gurdijieff. I found the book mostly forgettable and not my thing save this passage:
As a concluding statement about Gurdjieff, as a teacher, I would say that he was, without question, fanatic in the sense that, however conscious he might have been, his sense of dedication to the dissemination of his method must necessarily be considered compulsive. (He gave his birthday as January 1, in case anyone wishes to practise astrology with that date in mind.) Considering him as compulsive, automatically produces a sense of paradox. His method was based on becoming "conscious" as opposed to being "led" or "pulled" or "compelled", and one is, therefore, logically forced to ask: Why then did he teach?
Would a totally conscious man– conscious, for instance, of the fact that he could only fulfill or solve his own destiny (if that is possible)-- devote his life to an attempt to teach others? I can only reiterate my conviction that he absolutely had to be a teacher, that he was, therefore, some sort of self-created, inevitable Messiah which, it seems to me, finally brings him down to a very human level. However detached he may have been, how involved he must have been to have to teach.
Also, as if blindly drawn by some magnetic pull-some force larger than himself, his primary teaching activity, in the long run, was in America. This seems to me immensely suitable-where else is the search for God, for an authority, for guidance, so openly expressed, so desperately "needed"? There was real interest, of course, also in France and England, Germany and Russia, but it seems significant that, for the most part, his really ardent adherents are in the United States… A teacher, as Gurdjieff been the first to point out, needs pupils, (155).

And so pupils he shall have.