did-you-know? rent-now

Amazon no longer offers textbook rentals. We do!

did-you-know? rent-now

Amazon no longer offers textbook rentals. We do!

We're the #1 textbook rental company. Let us show you why.

9781578630349

Shadows of Heaven : Gurdjieff and Toomer

by
  • ISBN13:

    9781578630349

  • ISBN10:

    1578630347

  • Format: Paperback
  • Copyright: 1998-05-01
  • Publisher: Red Wheel/Weiser
  • Purchase Benefits
  • Free Shipping Icon Free Shipping On Orders Over $35!
    Your order must be $35 or more to qualify for free economy shipping. Bulk sales, PO's, Marketplace items, eBooks and apparel do not qualify for this offer.
  • eCampus.com Logo Get Rewarded for Ordering Your Textbooks! Enroll Now
List Price: $18.95
  • Digital
    $24.69
    Add to Cart

    DURATION
    PRICE

Supplemental Materials

What is included with this book?

Summary

Shadows of Heaven traces the relations between the American poet-novelist Nathan Jean Toomer and the Armenian Greek savant and teacher Georgii Ivanovich Gurdjieff, from 1924 until Gurdjieff's death in 1949, as well as each man's relationship with Edith Annesley Taylor and her son Paul, the author of this book. Edith loved Toomer and bore Gurdjieff's daughter. Edith's son, who lived as a young child with his sister at Gurdjieff's Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man at Avon near Fountainebleau, was adopted into Toomer's household in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, before studying with Gurdjieff in 1948 and 1949. Toomer's recollections of this period reveal an initial enthusiasm for a way of self-perfection under Gurdjieff's guidance, wavering under the influence of the women he loved and waning as he grew weary of Gurdjieff's financial and moral demands upon him. Edith Taylor's memoirs record an extraordinary attraction to both Gurdjieff and Toomer, complicated by a fear of full commitment to either. Gurdjieff seemed indifferent to her bearing him a daughter, while Toomer assumed a father's role for the son Edith bore another. Caught in the middle of this tense triad of interests was the English critic-publisher A. R. Orage, who was close to all three parties. Orage's wife, Jessie, was Edith's best friend. Her diary entries from 1926 to 1934 testify to the tension between Toomer, Gurdjieff, and Taylor, as well as to her own complex relationship with all three. Finally, Paul Taylor's record of his later experiences with Toomer and Gurdjieff reveal striking similarities and differences in the teaching methods of both. This book is probably the first to reveal something ofGurdjieff's "love life" with the mothers of his children. Several new descriptions of Gurdjieff's voyages with his pupils reveal aspects of Gurdjieff's character not documented elsewhere. Taylor's portrait of Toomer adds to existing biographical studies by documenting his use of Gurdjieff's ideas in the instruction he gave Paul and his daughter Margery. No works on Orage reveal the extent to which he mediated others' difficult relations with Gurdjieff, particularly his own wife's. Excerpts from Jessie Orage's diaries in the book testify, to the magnetic attraction Gurdjieff exercised over those he felt vital to the dissemination of his ideas.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements ix
Chapter 1. Memory and Design
1(14)
Chapter 2. Living with Toomer
15(24)
Chapter 3. Growing with Toomer
39(24)
Chapter 4. The Ascent: With Gurdjieff 1924-1926
63(56)
Photographs
between pages 118-11
Chapter 5. The Descent: From Gurdjieff 1927-1939
119(46)
Chapter 6. Beelzebub's Last Sojourn on Earth
165(20)
Chapter 7. Gurdjieff's Teaching Text
185(14)
Chapter 8. Returning to Toomer
199(22)
Chapter 9. Shadowing Gurdjieff and Toomer
221(16)
Bibliography 237(4)
Index 241(5)
About the Author 246

Supplemental Materials

What is included with this book?

The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

The Used, Rental and eBook copies of this book are not guaranteed to include any supplemental materials. Typically, only the book itself is included. This is true even if the title states it includes any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

Rewards Program