Biographical Studies of G.I. Gurdjieff
Issued Date: 7 Nov 2016
Abstract
The various published biographies and biographical notices of G.I. Gurdjieff (c.1865-1949) are of diverse style, quantity and content. While some have made considerable contributions to the subject, most attempts have reacted for or against Gurdjieff’s status as what might call an ‘Enlightened Master’. Little biographical writing on Gurdjieff has questioned the scope, reliability and prejudices of the sources. Further, possible resources have been neglected. The development in Gurdjieff’s ideas is often overlooked, his life is not sufficiently related to that development, and the lack of comparative research has failed to highlight Gurdjieff’s unique contributions. This article is structured in four parts. The first is an introduction, followed by an overview of existing biographical studies of Gurdjieff. The third part addresses bias in these studies, and this is followed by suggestions for future studies. It is concluded that fieldwork regarding the biography of Gurdjieff has been hampered by imperfect methodology. However, with better use of the source material, some of which has only recently been discovered, and a rigorous use of sources, a more balanced and nuanced picture of Gurdjieff’s life, and the development of his ideas and methods, should emerge.
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DOI: 10.1558/firn.31288
References
Azize, Joseph
2010 Solar Mysticism in Gurdjieff and Neoplatonism. Crossroads 5(1): 18–26.
2013 “The Four Ideals”: A Contemplative Exercise by Gurdjieff. ARIES 13: 173–203.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15700593-13130202
2016 The Practice of Contemplation in the Work of Gurdjieff. International Journal for the
Study of New Religions 6(2): 139–58. http://dx.doi.org/10.1558/ijsnr.v6i2.28944
Bennett, John G.
1956 The Dramatic Universe. Vol. I. The Foundations of Natural Philosophy. Hodder & Stoughton,
London.
1973 Gurdjieff: Making a New World. Harper & Row, New York.
1977 J.G. Bennett’s Talks on Beelzebub’s Tales. Compiled by A. G. E. Blake. Coombes Spring
Press, Sherborne.
1995 [1977] The Masters of Wisdom. Bennett Books, Santa Fe.
1997 [1962] Witness: The Story of a Search. Bennett Books, Santa Fe.
1997 [1966] The Dramatic Universe. Vol. IV. History. Bennett Books, Santa Fe.
Bevir, Mark
1999 The Logic of the History of Ideas. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. http://
dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511490446
Butkovsky-Hewitt, A.
1978 With Gurdjieff in St Petersburg and Paris. Routledge, London.
Smith, Joyce
1988 Call No Man Master. Gateway Books, Bath.
Fischer, David Hackett
1970 Historians’ Fallacies. HarperPerennial, New York.
Gurdjieff, George Ivanovich
1975 Life Is Real Only Then, When “I Am.” Privately printed by E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc. for
Triangle Editions, Inc. New York.
1985 [1963] Meetings with Remarkable Men. Penguin Arkana, London.
1988 [1933] The Herald of Coming Good. Sure Fire Press, Edmonds.
1993 [1950] Beelzebub’s Tales to his Grandson. Two River Press, Aurora.
2008 Transcripts of Gurdjieff’s Meetings 1941–1946. Book Studio, London.
2014 Gurdjieff’s Early Talks 1914–1931. Book Studio, London.
Hanson, R. P. C.
1998 The Search for the Christian Doctrine of God. T&T Clark, Edinburgh.
de Hartmann, Thomas and Olga
1992 [1964] Our Life with Mr Gurdjieff. Definitive edition. Penguin Arkana, London.
Jenkins, Keith
1991 Re-Thinking History. Routledge, London. http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9780203426869
Johnson, K. Paul
1995 Initiates of Theosophical Masters. State University of New York, Albany.
Long, Jerome H.
2005 Culture Heroes. Encyclopedia of Religion. Edited by Lindsay Jones, 2090–2093. 2nd
ed. Vol. 3. Macmillan Reference USA, Detroit. Gale Virtual Reference Library.
Online. Accessed February 29, 2016.
McCorkle, Annabeth W.
2012 The Gurdjieff Years, 1929–1949: Recollections of Louise Goepfert March. Expanded edn.
Eureka Editions, Utrecht.
Moore, James
1991 Gurdjieff: The Anatomy of a Myth. A Biography. Element Books, Dorset.
2005 Gurdjieffian Confessions. Gurdjieff Studies, Hove.
Ouspensky, P. D.
1949 In Search of the Miraculous. Harcourt Brace, New York.
1986 A Further Record: Extracts from Meetings 1928–1945. Penguin Arkana, London.
1992 [1951] A Record of Meetings. Arkana, London.
Patterson, W. P.
1992 Eating the “I.” Arete Communications, San Anselmo.
Perry, Whitall N.
1978 Gurdjieff in the Light of Tradition. Perennial Books, Middlesex.
Petsche, Johanna J. M.
2015 Gurdjieff and Music. Brill, Leiden. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/9789004284449
Rawlinson, Andrew
1997 The Book of Enlightened Masters. Open Court, Chicago.
Roth, Allen
1998 Sherborne: An Experiment in Transformation. Bennett Books, Santa Fe.
de Salzmann, Michel
1985 A Footnote to the Gurdjieff Literature. In J. W. Driscoll and the Gurdjieff Foundation
of California, Gurdjieff: An Annotated Bibliography, xv–xxv. Garland Publishing,
New York.
Speeth, Kathleen Riordan
1989 The Gurdjieff Work. 2nd ed. Jeremy P. Tartcher/Putnam, New York.
Sutcliffe, Steven J.
2014 Hard Work: Locating Gurdjieff in the Study of Religion/s. Journal for the Academic
Study of Religion 27(3): 262–84. http://dx.doi.org/10.1558/jasr.v27i3.26500
2015 Gurdjieff as a Bricoleur: Understanding the “Work” as a Bricolage. International
Journal for the Study of New Religions 6(2): 117–37. http://dx.doi.org/10.1558/ijsnr.
v6i2.29056
Taylor, Paul Beekman
2007 [2004] Inventors of Gurdjieff. Gurdjieff International Review 8(1). Online. Accessed
March 1, 2016.
2008 G.I. Gurdjieff: A New Life. Eureka Editions, Utrecht.
2010 Gurdjieff in the Public Eye. Eureka Editions, Utrecht.
2012 Real Worlds of G.I. Gurdjieff. Eureka Editions, Utrecht.
Tridgell, Susan
2004 Understanding our Selves: The Dangerous Art of Biography. Peter Lang, Berlin.
Trueman, Carl R.
2010 Histories and Fallacies. Crossway, Wheaton.
Vaysse, Jean
1979 Toward Awakening. Harper & Row, San Francisco.
Walker, Kenneth
1951 Venture with Ideas. Neville Spearman, London.
1963 The Making of Man. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London.
Washington, Peter
1993 Madame Blavatsky’s Baboon. Secker & Warburg, London
Webb, James
1974 [1971] The Occult Underground. Open Court, La Salle.
1976 The Occult Establishment. Open Court, La Salle.
1980 The Harmonious Circle: The Lives and Work of G. I. Gurdjieff, P. D. Ouspensky, and Their
Followers. Thames & Hudson, London.
Williams, Rowan
2002 Arius: Heresy and Tradition. Revised edn. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids.
Yates, Frances
2001 [1979] The Occult Philosophy in the Elizabethan Age. Routledge, London.
2010 Solar Mysticism in Gurdjieff and Neoplatonism. Crossroads 5(1): 18–26.
2013 “The Four Ideals”: A Contemplative Exercise by Gurdjieff. ARIES 13: 173–203.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15700593-13130202
2016 The Practice of Contemplation in the Work of Gurdjieff. International Journal for the
Study of New Religions 6(2): 139–58. http://dx.doi.org/10.1558/ijsnr.v6i2.28944
Bennett, John G.
1956 The Dramatic Universe. Vol. I. The Foundations of Natural Philosophy. Hodder & Stoughton,
London.
1973 Gurdjieff: Making a New World. Harper & Row, New York.
1977 J.G. Bennett’s Talks on Beelzebub’s Tales. Compiled by A. G. E. Blake. Coombes Spring
Press, Sherborne.
1995 [1977] The Masters of Wisdom. Bennett Books, Santa Fe.
1997 [1962] Witness: The Story of a Search. Bennett Books, Santa Fe.
1997 [1966] The Dramatic Universe. Vol. IV. History. Bennett Books, Santa Fe.
Bevir, Mark
1999 The Logic of the History of Ideas. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. http://
dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511490446
Butkovsky-Hewitt, A.
1978 With Gurdjieff in St Petersburg and Paris. Routledge, London.
Smith, Joyce
1988 Call No Man Master. Gateway Books, Bath.
Fischer, David Hackett
1970 Historians’ Fallacies. HarperPerennial, New York.
Gurdjieff, George Ivanovich
1975 Life Is Real Only Then, When “I Am.” Privately printed by E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc. for
Triangle Editions, Inc. New York.
1985 [1963] Meetings with Remarkable Men. Penguin Arkana, London.
1988 [1933] The Herald of Coming Good. Sure Fire Press, Edmonds.
1993 [1950] Beelzebub’s Tales to his Grandson. Two River Press, Aurora.
2008 Transcripts of Gurdjieff’s Meetings 1941–1946. Book Studio, London.
2014 Gurdjieff’s Early Talks 1914–1931. Book Studio, London.
Hanson, R. P. C.
1998 The Search for the Christian Doctrine of God. T&T Clark, Edinburgh.
de Hartmann, Thomas and Olga
1992 [1964] Our Life with Mr Gurdjieff. Definitive edition. Penguin Arkana, London.
Jenkins, Keith
1991 Re-Thinking History. Routledge, London. http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9780203426869
Johnson, K. Paul
1995 Initiates of Theosophical Masters. State University of New York, Albany.
Long, Jerome H.
2005 Culture Heroes. Encyclopedia of Religion. Edited by Lindsay Jones, 2090–2093. 2nd
ed. Vol. 3. Macmillan Reference USA, Detroit. Gale Virtual Reference Library.
Online. Accessed February 29, 2016.
McCorkle, Annabeth W.
2012 The Gurdjieff Years, 1929–1949: Recollections of Louise Goepfert March. Expanded edn.
Eureka Editions, Utrecht.
Moore, James
1991 Gurdjieff: The Anatomy of a Myth. A Biography. Element Books, Dorset.
2005 Gurdjieffian Confessions. Gurdjieff Studies, Hove.
Ouspensky, P. D.
1949 In Search of the Miraculous. Harcourt Brace, New York.
1986 A Further Record: Extracts from Meetings 1928–1945. Penguin Arkana, London.
1992 [1951] A Record of Meetings. Arkana, London.
Patterson, W. P.
1992 Eating the “I.” Arete Communications, San Anselmo.
Perry, Whitall N.
1978 Gurdjieff in the Light of Tradition. Perennial Books, Middlesex.
Petsche, Johanna J. M.
2015 Gurdjieff and Music. Brill, Leiden. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/9789004284449
Rawlinson, Andrew
1997 The Book of Enlightened Masters. Open Court, Chicago.
Roth, Allen
1998 Sherborne: An Experiment in Transformation. Bennett Books, Santa Fe.
de Salzmann, Michel
1985 A Footnote to the Gurdjieff Literature. In J. W. Driscoll and the Gurdjieff Foundation
of California, Gurdjieff: An Annotated Bibliography, xv–xxv. Garland Publishing,
New York.
Speeth, Kathleen Riordan
1989 The Gurdjieff Work. 2nd ed. Jeremy P. Tartcher/Putnam, New York.
Sutcliffe, Steven J.
2014 Hard Work: Locating Gurdjieff in the Study of Religion/s. Journal for the Academic
Study of Religion 27(3): 262–84. http://dx.doi.org/10.1558/jasr.v27i3.26500
2015 Gurdjieff as a Bricoleur: Understanding the “Work” as a Bricolage. International
Journal for the Study of New Religions 6(2): 117–37. http://dx.doi.org/10.1558/ijsnr.
v6i2.29056
Taylor, Paul Beekman
2007 [2004] Inventors of Gurdjieff. Gurdjieff International Review 8(1). Online. Accessed
March 1, 2016.
2008 G.I. Gurdjieff: A New Life. Eureka Editions, Utrecht.
2010 Gurdjieff in the Public Eye. Eureka Editions, Utrecht.
2012 Real Worlds of G.I. Gurdjieff. Eureka Editions, Utrecht.
Tridgell, Susan
2004 Understanding our Selves: The Dangerous Art of Biography. Peter Lang, Berlin.
Trueman, Carl R.
2010 Histories and Fallacies. Crossway, Wheaton.
Vaysse, Jean
1979 Toward Awakening. Harper & Row, San Francisco.
Walker, Kenneth
1951 Venture with Ideas. Neville Spearman, London.
1963 The Making of Man. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London.
Washington, Peter
1993 Madame Blavatsky’s Baboon. Secker & Warburg, London
Webb, James
1974 [1971] The Occult Underground. Open Court, La Salle.
1976 The Occult Establishment. Open Court, La Salle.
1980 The Harmonious Circle: The Lives and Work of G. I. Gurdjieff, P. D. Ouspensky, and Their
Followers. Thames & Hudson, London.
Williams, Rowan
2002 Arius: Heresy and Tradition. Revised edn. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids.
Yates, Frances
2001 [1979] The Occult Philosophy in the Elizabethan Age. Routledge, London.
