|
Date
|
|
Event |
| 1866
| ?Jan. |
G. born in Cappadocian Greek quarter of Alexandropol
on Russian side of Russo-Turkish border. |
| 1870-72
| |
Birth of G.'s only brother Dmitri Ivanovitch Gurdjieff
(?1870) and eldest sister (?1871). |
| 1873
| summer |
G.'s father Giorgios Giorgiades, impoverished when
rinderpest wipes out his large cattle herd, opens a
lumber-yard. |
| 1874-76
| |
Birth of two further sisters. |
| 1877
| |
Giorgiades' lumber-yard fails and he opens a small
carpentry shop. G. precociously begins to contribute to family
income. Russia declares war on Turkey (24 Apr.) and captures
Turkish border citadel town of Kars (18 Nov.).
|
| 1878
| |
Giorgiades moves his family to Kars, and
re-establishes his carpentry shop in the Greek quarter. Father Dean
Borsh of Russian military cathedral assumes responsibility for G.'s
private education, co-opting as tutors four graduates of the
Theological Seminary. G. reads intensively in library of Kars
military hospital. |
| 1879-80
| |
G. falls under moral influence of his tutor Dean
Bogachevsky. |
| 1881
| |
G.'s eldest and favourite sister dies. G. narrowly
escapes death in shooting accident on Lake Alageuz. He becomes
fascinated by witnessing certain 'paranormal phenomena'.
|
| 1882
| |
In an adolescent duel of sorts with Piotr Karpenko, G.
narrowly escapes death on an artillery range. |
| 1883
| |
Leaving home, G. moves to Tiflis but fails to enter
the Archdeacon's choir or the Georgian Theological Seminary. During
breaks from casual work as a stoker for the Transcaucasian Railway
Company, he makes pilgrimage on foot to Echmiadzin and studies for
three months at Sanaine Monastery under Father Yevlampios. He
develops close friendships with Sarkis Pogossian and Abram
Yelov. |
| 1884
| |
G. crystallizes his motivational question as to
significance of organic and human life. |
| 1885
| summer |
G. visits Constantinople (where he meets Ekim Bey) to
study the Mevlevi and Bektashi dervishes. He returns to
Alexandropol, where his parents now again live, via Hadji Bektash,
Konya, and Aksehir. |
| 1886
| |
G. and Pogossian, digging haphazardly in the ruined
city of Ani, find reference to the 'Sarmoung Brotherhood',
supposedly a wisdom school founded in Babylon c. 2500
BC. |
| 1887
| |
As a courier of the Armenian protectionist society,
the Armenakans, G. sets out with Pogossian for Kurdistan,
quixotically resolved to 'find the Sarmoung'. En route however, his
chance discovery near Zakho of a 'map of pre-sand Egypt' diverts him
circuitously to Alexandria (where Pogossian leaves him). In Cairo,
G. makes a strong bond with two elder seekers: Prince Yuri
Lubovedsky and Professor Skridlov. |
| 1888-9
| |
G. visits Thebes with Lubovedsky; Abyssinia and the
Sudan with Skridlov; and Mecca and Medina alone and in disguise. G.
and Skridlov visit remains of Babylon at Nippur, Iraq. Returning to
Constantinople, G. meets Vitvitskaia and escorts her to
Russia. |
| 1890-93
| |
As a political envoy (probably of the newly
constituted Armenian Social Revolutionary Party, the Dashnakzutiun)
G. visits Switzerland and subsequently bases himself in Rome.
|
| 1894-5
| |
Sultan Abdul Hamid II instigates massacre of
Armenians throughout Turkey. Again centred on Alexandropol, G.
is prime mover in the foundation (1895) of the 'Seekers of Truth', a
heterogeneous and youthful grouping seeking traditional and esoteric
knowledge. |
| 1896
| |
G. goes to Crete, seeking traces of the ancient
'Imastun brotherhood', but also as an agent of the Ethniki Hetairia,
a Hellenist Spartacist society. The Greek population revolts
(Feb.) against Turks. While in the Sfakia region, G. is shot [TS7] and
evacuated, unconscious, to Jerusalem. He recuperates at
Alexandropol. |
| 1897
| |
Accompanying the Seekers of Truth, G. sets out [M183]
from Nakhichevan (1 Jan.) through Turkestan to Tabriz and Baghdad
(Expedition 1). (Episode of Ekim Bey and the Persian dervish.) To
facilitate wider travels in Central Asia, G. becomes a Tsarist
political agent and ? establishes some connection with the Buryat
Mongol Agwhan Dordjieff, a high Tibetan official. With the Seekers
G. travels from Orenburg through Sverdlovsk to Siberia (Expedition
2). |
| 1898
| |
In New Bokhara (Easter) G. befriends Soloviev a
physical and social derelict. Guided blindfold by intermediaries on
a twelve-day pony-trek from Bokhara, G. and Soloviev gain access to
the chief Sarmoung Monastery (purported source of G.'s profoundest
insights, symbolism and Sacred Dances). Unexpectedly they find
Lubovedsky already there but in failing health. To G.'s sorrow,
Lubovedsky promptly leaves to end his days under spiritual
supervision elsewhere. Following a period of monastic study, G.
explores the Gobi (?Taklamakan) desert with Skridlov and the Seekers
of Truth (Expedition 3). After Soloviev's accidental death [M165], G.
returned to Keriya Oasis. |
| 1899
| |
G. stays in Merv. In dervish disguise he and Skridlov
travel up the river Amu Darya (Oxus) into Kafiristan. (Episode of
Skridlov and Father Giovanni.) G. returns to Baku and studies
Persian magic. In Ashkhabad he and Vitvitskaia (only woman member of
the Seekers) earn large sums with his 'Universal Traveling
Workshop'. |
| 1900
| |
G. sets out (2 Jan.) from Chardzhou with Seekers
(Expedition 4) through the Pamirs to India [M252].
(Episode of Karpenko and the ez-ezounavouron.) The Seekers
then disband and separate. |
| 1901
| |
? G. presented to Tsar Nicholoas II (23 July) in
Livadia. ? Disguised as a Transcaspian Buddhist, G. enters Upper
Tibet and studies with the 'Red Hat' Lamas. ? He marries a
Tibetan. |
| 1902
| |
Shot a second time [TS9]
during a mountain clan affray, G. recovers in the Yangi Hissar oasis
on the edge of the Taklamakan desert. He takes an oath to abjure
hypnotism and animal magnetism except for scientific and altruistic
purposes. |
| 1903
| |
G. returns to Tibet. Col. Francis Younghusband
invades Tibet (5 Jul.) from India. |
| 1904
| |
British massacre Tibetans at Guru (31 Mar.)
Younghusband enters Lhasa (3 Aug.). Anguished at the untimely
killing of an initiated lama, G. resolves to combat the mass
suggestibility and hysteria which occasion wars. Hydropsy obliges
him to leave Tibet and return to his parents in Alexandropol. Having
recuperated, G. sets out again (winter) for Central Asia but, near
the Chiatura railway tunnel, is accidentally shot a third time [TS9] in a
skirmish between Cossacks and Gourians. With difficulty he goes via
Ashkabad to Yangi Hissar where he again recuperates.
|
| 1905-7
| |
?After two years in an indeterminate Central Asian
Sufi community, G. settles in Tashkent, the Uzbek capital of Russian
Turkestan. He briefly visits Samara, comforting Vitvitskaia on her
deathbed. |
|
| |
(Back to top
of page) |
| 1908-10
| |
Based in Tashkent as a 'Professor-instructor' in
supernatural sciences, G. begins teaching in a deliberately
charlatanesque mode, while studying the reaction among his
Europeanized Russian 'guinea-pigs'. He amasses considerable wealth
by trading in oil, fish, cattle, carpets, cloisonné, etc. Slowly he
gravitates west towards metropolitan Russia. |
| 1911
| |
G. synthesizes disparate stands of accumulated
knowledge into a cohesive system employing a special and at points
quasi-scientific, vocabulary. On 13 Sept. he renews his oath [H11] to
abjure hypnotism, etc., binding himself for twenty-one years to lead
an 'artificial life'. |
| 1912
| c. New Year |
G. arrives in Moscow and attracts his first associates
(his cousin Sergei Mercourov, Vladimir Pohl, and Rachmilievitch). ?
G. marries Julia Ostrowska in St Petersburg. |
|
| mid. |
G. reads Tertium Organum, identifying its
author P.D. Ouspensky as a prospective pupil. |
| 1913
| |
In St Petersburg, under the assumed name of 'Prince
Ozay', G. cultivates Lev Lvovitch (?and Shamzaran Badmieff).
|
|
| winter |
In St Petersburg G. informally takes his first English
pupil, the musical student Paul Dukes. |
| 1914
| spring |
In St Petersburg (having abandoned 'Prince Ozay'
persona) G. interests Dr Leonid Stjoernval. |
|
| Aug. 1 |
Germany declares war on Russia. (St Peterburg renamed
Petrograd on Sept. 1). |
|
| Nov. 13 |
G. advertises his ballet, The Struggle of the
Magicians, in Golos Moskvi (attracting Ouspensky's
attention). |
|
| Dec. |
G. supervises his pupils' writing of sketch,
Glimpses of Truth. |
| 1915
| April |
In Moscow G. accepts Ouspensky as pupil. (A week later
Ouspensky returns to Petrograd.) |
|
| autumn |
G. intermittently visits Petrograd where he lectures
and meets Ouspensky and his associates. |
| 1916
| Feb.-Aug. |
Period of concentrated activity: increasingly centred
on Petrograd, G. conveys virtually his entire 'System' of ideas to a
group which expands from six (incl. Stjoernval, Ourspensky, and
Andrei Zaharoff) to thirty. |
|
| Aug. |
On a visit to Finland, G. promotes in Ouspensky an
intense telepathic experience. |
|
| c. Dec. 16 |
In Petrograd G. accepts as pupil the composer, Thomas
de Hartmann (and in Feb. 1917 his wife Olga). |
| 1917
| Feb. 23 |
Parting from his pupils, a 'transfigured' G. finally
leaves Petrograd, setting out via Moscow for Alexandropol with Julia
Ostrowska. |
|
| Mar. 16 |
Revolution: forced abdication of Tsar Nicholas II;
formation of Kerensky government. |
|
| Mar.-Jun. |
G. lives in retirement with his family in
Alexandropol. |
|
| Jul. (early) |
G. sets out for Petrograd but on reconsideration
settles in Essentuki in Caucasus. |
|
| Jul.-Aug. |
With thirteen pupils summoned from Moscow and
Petrograd (incl. Ouspensky and Zaharoff), G. undertakes six weeks'
intensive psycho-somatic experimentation at Essentuki.
|
|
| Aug. (end) |
The de Hartmanns join G. at Essentuki. Ouspensky's
trust in G. begins to waver. G. moves to Tuapse on Back Sea
Coast. |
|
| Aug.-Dec. |
G. and his nucleus (augmented in Oct. by Dr and Mme
Stjoernval) wander up and down Black Sea coast to avoid embroilment
in Civil War. 7 Nov. (OS 26 Oct.) Bolshevik revolution brings
Lenin to power. |
| 1918
| spring |
G. returns to Essentuki (Jan.). Perceiving
Alexandropol as under Turkish threat, G. invites his family to join
him (all comply except his father and eldest sister); he summons his
pupils (12 Feb.) and begins intensive work. Ouspensky separates from
G. (Mar.). |
|
| Jul. (mid) |
G.'s eldest sister and her family reach him in
Essentuki as refugees, bringing news that Turks have shot his father
in Alexandropol on 15 May. |
|
| Jul. (late) |
As Essentuki becomes increasingly threatened by Civil
War, G. plants a fabricated newspaper story of his forthcoming
'scientific expedition' to Mount Induc. |
|
| Aug. 6 |
Posing as a scientist, G. leaves Essentuki with a
following of fourteen (which does not include G.'s family or
Ouspensky). They go by train to Maikop where hostilities detain them
three weeks. |
|
| Aug.-Sept. |
Crossing Red and White lines five times, G. leads his
party on foot over northern Caucasus range to Black Sea port of
Sochi (where many pupils, incl. Zaharoff, leave him). |
| 1919
| Jan. (mid) |
G., with his residual nucleus (Mme Ostrowska, the
Stjoernvals, and the de Hartmanns), voyages south from Sochi to
Poti, They entrain for the Georgian capital Tbilisi, where they
settle. |
|
| spring |
G. meets and accepts as pupils the artist Alexandre
Salzmann and his wife Jeanne (Easter). Prompted by the arrival in
Tbilisi of his brother Dmitri, G. sends Olga de Harmann (early May)
on a return trip to Essentuki to retrieve possessions and carry
messages. |
|
| summer |
In collaboration with Jeanne Salzmann, G. gives first
public demonstration of his Sacred Dances (Movements in Tbilisi
Opera House (22 Jun.). He summers in Borjom
(Jul.-Aug.). |
|
| autumn |
Having returned to Tbilisi, G. constitutes (mid-Sept.)
his Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man (founder
members: Dr Leonid Stjoernval, Thomas and Olga de Hartmann,
Alexandre and Jeanne Salzmann, and ? Julia Ostrowska). |
|
| winter |
G. continues to teach his 'System' under the auspices
of the Georgian Menshevik social democratic republic. After
accepting Elizabeta Galumnian and Olga Hinzenberg ('Olgivanna') as
pupils, G. begins intensive work on The Struggle of the
Magicians. |
| 1920
| spring |
Marked deterioration in socio-political conditions
in Georgia, and in viability of G.'s Institute. He accepts as
pupil Major Frank Pinder (Mar.). |
|
| May (late) |
G. leads a party of thirty pupils on foot from Tbilisi
to Black Sea port of Batoum, where they embark for Constantinople
(Istanbul). |
|
| Jun. |
G. settles in Constantinople (7 Jun.) and rents an
apartment in Koumbaradji Street in Péra. Ouspensky (in
Constantinople since Feb.) confides his own group of pupils to
G. |
|
| Jun.-Aug. |
With Ouspensky and Thomas de Hartmann respectively, G.
works on the scenario and music of The Struggle of the
Magicians; they study the ceremony of the Mevlevi
dervishes. |
|
| Sept. |
G. rents substantial accommodation at 13 Abdullatif
Yemeneci Sokak near the Galata Tower. |
|
| |
(Back to top
of page) |
|
| Oct. |
G. re-animates his Institute, giving public lectures
and semi-public rehearsals of the Sacred Dances. (Ouspensky
disassociates himself and withdraws to Prinkipo.) |
|
| Nov. (mid) |
G. learns that his sister Anna Anastasieff and all her
children (excepting her son Valentin) have just been massacred by
Turks at Baytar. |
|
| Dec. |
Thanks to Alexandre Salzmann, G. receives a letter
from Jacques-Dalcroze in Geneva, inviting him to settle at Hellerau
near Dresden. G. accepts and applies for visas. |
| 1921
| Jan. (early) |
G. renews contact with the Sultan's nephew, Prince
Mehmet Sabaheddin, and briefly meets Capt. J.G.
Bennett. |
|
| May (mid) |
Following several months of declining public interest,
G. closes his Institute and retires to the island of
Prinkipo. |
|
| Aug. |
On receipt of visas, G. with his nucleus travels by
train from Turkey to Germany; departs Constantinople (13th); arrives
Sofia, Bulgaria (15th); arrives Belgrade, Serbia (16th); arrives
Budapest, Hungary (17th) and departs (21st); transits Czechoslovakia
and arrives Berlin (22nd). (Around this time, Ouspensky leaves
Constantinople for London but his wife Sophie chooses to accompany
G.) |
|
| Sept. |
Having settled in the suburb on Schmargendorf, G.
adopts Olga de H. as his private secretary. |
|
| Nov. 24 |
In Berlin G. gives his inaugural lecture in
Europe. |
|
| winter |
Accompanied by the Salzmanns, G. visits the Dalcroze
Institute at Hellerau, and through Harald Dohrn seeks part
possession; a legal case ensues. |
| 1922
| Feb. 13 |
G. pays his first brief visit to London, capturing the
allegiance of Ouspensky's many prominent pupils, notably the editor
A. R. Orage. |
|
| Mar. 15 |
On G.'s second and last visit to London, he confirms
his ascendancy and clashes with Ouspensky. While influential pupils
seek UK residential status for G., he returns to
Berlin. |
|
| Late spring |
G. issues his third prospectus in English, German, and
French. |
|
| Jun. |
G. loses civil action to acquire Hellerau possession,
and is effectively barred from settling in Britain. |
|
| Jul. 14 |
G. brings his pupils from Germany to Paris, hires
facilities at the Dalcroze Institute, and delegates Olga de H. to
seek a large property. |
|
| Oct. 1 |
On the basis of generous financial help from England,
G. acquires and moves to his most famous seat: the Prieuré des
Basses Loges at Fontainebleau-Avon. |
|
| Oct. |
G. is simultaneously occupied with Prieuré
administration and Parisian business ventures. On 17 Oct. he accepts
as a permanent Prieuré guest the terminally ill new Zealand
authoress Katherine Mansfield. |
|
| Nov. |
G. begins intense work on the Sacred Dances. At end of
Nov. he institutes the building of a large Study House in the
Prieuré grounds. |
|
| Dec. 16 |
G. averts a major fire at the Prieuré. |
| 1923
| Jan. |
G. acquires notoriety after Katherine Mansfield dies
(9th) and is buried on the same day (12th) that the Study House is
opened. |
|
| Feb. |
Reporters (notably E. C. Bowyer) and academics
(notably Prof. Denis Saurat) interview G. at the Prieuré and produce
popular but not unsympathetic accounts. |
|
| May |
G. learns to drive. At his new Paris apartment, 9 Rue
du Commandant-Marchand, he entertains Ezra Pound. |
|
| summer |
G.'s 'open evenings' of his music, Sacred Dances,
etc., given in the Prieuré Study House, are regularly attended by
local dignitaries and occasionally by cultural figures, e.g.
Diaghilev and Sinclair Lewis. |
|
| Dec. |
Although fatigued, G. produces his first major public
demonstration of Sacred Dances in Europe. Premièred (16th) at the
Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, it has a mixed reception. G. extricates
his mother and sister from Russia and domiciles them at the
Prieuré. |
| 1924
| spring |
With c. thirty-five pupil-dancers, G. sails
(4 Jan.) on the s.s. Paris for America, where public
demonstrations in New York (Jan.-Feb.) and Philadelphia, Boston, and
Chicago (Mar.) secure the interest of significant new pupils
(notably Margaret Anderson, Muriel Draper, Jane Heap, Gorham Munson,
C. S. Nott, and Jean Toomer). G. founds New York branch of his
Institute (8 Apr.). |
|
| summer |
G. returns to France (Jun.). He loses occupancy of
Commandant-Marchand and acquires a new apartment at 47 Boulevard
Peréire. Driving alone from Paris to Fontainebleau, G. has a near
fatal motor-car crash (8 Jul.). Nursed by his wife and mother, he
makes a slow and painful recovery-against medical expectation. Still
convalescent, G. formally 'disbands' his Institute (26 Aug.) but in
fact disperses only his less dedicated pupils. |
|
| autumn- winter |
G. empowers Orage to supervise the Work in America
(Oct.). Having resolved in future to propagate his ideas by writing,
G. commences (16 Dec.) his magnum opus:
Beelzebub. |
| 1925
| Mar. |
Orage's report that the first installment of
Beelzebub in unintelligible, heralds G.'s long stylistic
struggle. |
|
| summer |
G.'s mother dies of chronic liver disease at the
Prieuré (end Jun.). G. begins intensive period of musical
composition with Thomas de Hartmann (29 Jul.). |
|
| winter |
G.'s wife Mme Ostrowska contracts cancer. Neither
orthodox radiotherapy nor G.'s unorthodox treatment gives
satisfactory results. |
| 1926
| Jan. 8 |
Mabel Dodge Luhan offers G. substantial property at
Taos, New Mexico, but (1 Feb.) he declines. |
|
| Feb.-Jun. |
G. struggles intensely but unavailingly for Julia
Ostrowska's life but she dies (26 Jun.). Ouspensky attends her
funeral. |
|
| Jul. |
Aleister Crowley briefly visits Prieuré and G.
emphatically repudiates him. |
| 1927
| spring |
Short of money, G. is obliged to relinquish his flat
in Boulevard Péreire (16 Apr.). G. culminates his musical
collaboration with Thomas de Hartmann (1 May). |
|
| summer |
Many American pupils and voyeurists visit Prieuré. G.
meets, but fails to impress, his future secretary Solita Solano. He
repudiates the poet Waldo Frank. |
|
| autumn |
Convinced by a serious decline in health that he has
insufficient time to undertake a necessary and radical revision of
Beelzebub he undergoes a crisis (6 Nov.) and contemplates
suicide. |
| 1928
| Jan. (mid) |
A. R. Orage, accompanied by his young bride Jessie,
makes a brief, stormy, and final visit to the Prieuré. |
|
| May 5 |
To stimulate his writing G. vows to 'banish' on
various pretexts all those who make his life too
comfortable. |
|
| summer (early) |
G. encourages senior pupils away on extended visits:
Mme Ouspensky to England, and the Salzmanns to Frankfurt. He
discourages Jane Heap from settling at the Prieuré, but mandates her
to start an 'artists' group' in Montmartre. |
|
| summer (late) |
Alexandre Salzmann defends G. against ideological
attacks of French occultist René Guénon. |
|
| autumn |
Provisionally satisfied with Beelzebub, G.
commences his second book Meetings. |
| 1929
| Jan. |
Accompanied only by the de Hartmanns, G. embarks on
s.s Paris for his second visit to America. They resist his
promptings to make independent lives. |
|
| spring |
Between arrival in New York (23 Jan.) and departure
for France (5 Apr.) G. renews contacts with pupils and amasses
funds. |
|
| summer (early) |
G. again prompts Mme Ouspensky to visit England. He
finally prevails on the de Hartmanns to leave the Prieuré and helps
them settle in Courbevoie. He appoints Louise Goepfert as his
secretary (Jun.). |
|
| autumn |
G. facilitates the departure of Fritz Peters from the
Prieuré (Sept.). On visits to Frankfurt and Berlin with Louise
Goepfert and Olga de Hartmann, G. intentionally alienates Olga.
The Wall Street stock market crash (Oct. ) affects G.'s American
followers. |
|
| |
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of page) |
| 1930
| spring |
After burning all his personal papers, and engineering
a painful and final parting from Olga de Hartmann, G. sails (Feb.)
aboard s.s. Bremen on his third trip to America. In New
York he intentionally creates difficulties, sabotaging negotiations
with Alfred Knopf to publish Beelzebub. He sails for France
(Apr.) leaving Orage disillusioned. |
|
| autumn (late) |
In Paris Alexandre Salzmann attracts René Daumal
(subsequently G.'s first French pupil). |
|
| winter |
On a fourth trip to America, G. effectively breaks
with Orage. Arriving in New York (13 Nov.), he demands (1 Dec.) of
Orage's pupils that they repudiate their teacher. Orage himself
returns (10 Dec.) from holiday in England and surprisingly endorses
G.'s action, repudiating himself. G. leaves for Chicago (29
Dec.). |
| 1931
| Jan. |
Returning to New York, G. has an inconclusive
encounter with certain intellectuals, including John Watson, the
behaviourist. |
|
| Mar. 13 |
After a final parting from Orage, G. sails for France,
leaving the American groups in disarray. |
|
| spring |
G. briefly receives Thornton Wilder at the
Prieuré. |
|
| summer |
G. refuses Ouspensky access to the Prieuré, creating a
final breach. Mme Ouspensky leaves Asnières and moves permanently to
England. |
|
| autumn |
G. is involved in a theatrical incident with a
revolver. |
|
| winter |
G. sails (Nov.) on fifth, brief visit to the USA,
focusing on Jean Toomer's Chicago group. In New York the
author-adventurer Nadir Khan ('Achmed Abdullah') mistakes G. for the
Lama Agwhan Dordjieff. |
| 1932
| Jan. 16 |
G. sails for Cherbourg on the s.s.
Bremen. |
|
| Feb. |
In Paris G. is approached by the American lesbian
authoress, Kathryn Hulme, a member of Jane Heap's group; he shows
her the Prieuré, now run down. |
|
| May 11 |
G. supervises the enforced closure of the Prieuré and
dispersal of its final occupants; he takes a room in the Grand
Hôtel, adjoining the Café de la Paix. |
|
| Aug. |
Orage refuses an opportunity to renew contact with
G. |
|
| Sept. 13 |
G. begins drafting his controversial, autobiographical
tract Herald. |
|
| winter |
On a disastrous sixth visit to America G. gives an
impression of venality, alienating Jean Toomer and his Chicago
group. |
| 1933
| Mar. 7 |
G. writes bizarre 'Supplementary Announcement' to
Herald. |
|
| Apr. |
Alexandre Salzmann, critically ill, meets G. at the
Café Henri IV in Fontainebleau. |
|
| May? |
G. loses the Prieuré irrevocably after the mortgagees
foreclose. |
|
| autumn |
G. commences his seventh visit to the USA. From his
apartment at the Henry Hudson Hotel, he renews contact with New York
pupils of Orage. |
| 1934
| spring |
Death of Alexandre Gustav Salzmann (3 Mar.). G. visits
the Chicago groups (May), intentionally alienating Fritz Peters on
the train journey. |
|
| summer |
G. pays an extended visit to Olgivanna at Taliesin,
Wisconsin (Jun.-Jul.), deeply impressing her husband Frank Lloyd
Wright. Mabel Dodge Luhan refuses G.'s request (18 Aug.) for the
ranch she originally volunteered in Jan. 1926. Back in New York
(Sept.), G. gives two unfortunate interviews to the popular writer
Rom Landau. |
|
| autumn- winter |
G. repudiates Herald and calls in all copies
(Oct.). Shocked to learn of Orage's death (5 Nov.), and wishing to
avoid a spate of empty condolences, G. travels to Washington,
Boston, Chicago and certain Southern States. |
| 1935
| Jan. |
G. returns to New York. |
|
| Apr.-May |
Conjectural events attend G.'s completion (9 Apr.) of
the Prologue to Life is Real. He travels to Washington
anticipating, from a Senator Bronson Cutting, generous financial
support to repurchase the Prieuré. Profoundly depressed when Cutting
dies (6 May) in an air crash, G. applies unsuccessfully to return to
Russia. Doubly disappointed, he abandons writing and
disappears. |
|
| Jun.-Aug. |
G. makes putative but unsubstantiated journeys to?
Germany, Leningrad and Central Asia. |
|
| Sept. |
Rom Landau publishes his bestseller God is My
Adventure, vilifying G. and confusing him with
Dordjieff. |
|
| Oct. |
G. reappears in Paris. Jane Heap moves (18th) from
Paris to London. Three of her American women pupils immediately
gravitate to G. who constitutes his first Parisian group (21st) in
Hôtel Napoleon Bonaparte. |
|
| Christmas |
G. takes new apartment in Rue Labie near the Salle
Pleyel. |
| 1936
| spring |
G. constitutes 'The Rope' (early Jan.), an exclusively
lesbian group meeting in Rue Labie (initially comprising Elizabeth
Gordon, Solita Solano, Kathryn Hulme and 'Wendy'.) He makes many
tours by car to European locales. |
|
| Jun. |
G. gives Georgette Leblanc, Margaret Anderson and
Monique entrée to his current work, though not to 'The
Rope'. |
|
| Jul. (end) |
Having temporarily suspended group work with his
lesbian pupils, G. makes his first token contact with René Daumal
and Jeanne de Salzmann's Sèrves group. |
|
| Aug. |
Unable to afford a château he has located on the
Marne, G. moves to a small Paris apartment at 6 Rue des Colonels
Rénard. |
|
| winter |
On reconvening his lesbian group (Oct.), G. finds
Georgette Leblanc seriously ill, but he alleviates her
condition. |
| 1937
| spring |
G. resumes extensive car trips. His brother Dmitri
contracts cancer. |
|
| Aug. |
Dmitri dies, despite G.'s effort to help
him. |
|
| autumn |
'The Rope' and subsidiary lesbian groupings
effectively dissolve (as Kathryn Hulme and Wendy settle in America,
and Anderson and Leblanc in Normandy). Solita Solano becomes G.'s
secretary. |
| 1938
| |
Dr Leonid Stjoernval dies near Reims. (Apr.). As
Jeanne de Salzmann adds the author Luc Dietrich to her existing
circle of pupils (René and Vera Daumal, Philippe Lavastine, Henri
and Henriette Tracol, etc.), G. implicitly confirms her as his
deputy. |
| 1939
| spring |
Accompanied by Solita Solano, G. sails (Mar.) on s.s.
Paris on his brief penultimate trip to America. The
international crisis steadily worsens. Having resisted pressure
to settle in New Jersey, G. sails (19 May) on s.s. Normandie
for France. |
|
| summer |
G. contemplates trip to England to assist Mme
Ouspensky medically, but Ouspensky disapproves and the plan is
dropped. |
|
| autumn |
Outbreak (1 Sept.) of the Second World War.
G. remains in Paris (throughout War) at 6 Rue des Colonels Rénard,
which he stocks with provisions. |
| 1940
| spring |
Jeanne de Salzmann's group, meeting at 54 Rue du Four,
grows in size and influence. G. consolidates his contact with
Philippe Lavastine and René Daumal. |
|
| Jun. |
With Allied resistance collapsing, G.'s
followers attempt (12th) to relocate him in the countryside but he
returns to 6 Rue des Colonels Rénard (14th) just as Germans
occupy Paris. |
|
| winter |
Food being scarce and the weather exceptionally harsh,
G. begins helping an extended family of needy neighbors. Jeanne de
Salzmann formally presents her French group to G.
(Oct.). |
| 1941
| |
G.'s French group meeting at 6 Rue des Colonels Rénard
enlarges. Hitler's invasion of Russia (22 Jun.) and America's
declaration of war on Germany (11 Dec.) predicate the ultimate
liberation of Paris. Georgette Leblanc dies (20 Oct.) of
cancer. |
| 1942
| spring |
To obtain further credit, G. fabricates story that he
has been give a Texas oil-well. |
|
| May 29 |
G. advises his Jewish pupils to 'go underground' when
the Germans oblige them to wear the yellow Star of David.
They are harboured by Christian group members. |
|
| Jun. (late) |
Jeanne de Salzmann presents Luc Dietrich to
G. |
|
| Jul.16-17 |
G.'s advice is vindicated as Parisian Jews are
deported in 'Operation spring Wind'. René and Vera Daumal no
longer have access to G. |
|
| Nov. |
Germans overrun France's Unoccupied
Zone. |
| 1943
| |
Further influx of French pupils. G. active in teaching
enneagram-based Movements at the Salle Pleyel and developing his
ritual 'Toasts to the Idiots'. |
| 1944
| |
Death of René Daumal (21 May) and Luc Dietrich (12
Aug.) precedes liberation of Paris (25 Aug.). In autumn G.
is arrested for currency offences but discharged. |
| 1945
| |
Hitler's suicide (30 Apr.) and VE Day (6 May).
G. receives first visits of American pupils (Kathryn Hulme and
Fritz Peters). He attracts unwarranted criticism over the death of
Irène-Carole Reweliotty (11 Aug.) Japan's surrender (14 Aug.)
ends war. Lise Tracol becomes G.'s residential
housekeeper. |
| 1946
| |
G.'s relationship with Katherine Mansfield is
pilloried in the magazines l'Illustration (19 Jan.). First
influx of London pupils to Paris from Jane Heap's
group. |
| 1947
| |
Ouspensky returns to England (Jan.) from America. G.
invites him to Paris but Ouspensky declines. When Ouspensky dies (2
Oct.) Mme Ouspensky, still at Mendham, makes overtures to
G. |
| 1948
| Jan. |
Mme Ouspensky advises her husband's British followers
at Lyne to contact G. |
|
| summer |
G. summons Ouspensky's pupils (Jun.) but they still
vacillate. He reintegrates J. G. Bennett in his work (after
twenty-five years) and cures his wife Winifred (Aug.). G. recovers
astonishingly after serious injury in a car crash (8 Aug.) and
promptly issues a general invitation to Paris: pupils of Jane Heap,
Ouspensky, Mme Ouspensky, Orage, Bennett (but not Nicoll) commingle
with French. |
|
| winter |
Eager to buy the Château de Voisins and to publish
Beelzebub, G. sails for New York (arr. 17 Dec.). Here he
raises funds and authorizes Mme Ouspensky to publish
Fragments. |
| 1949
| spring |
Announcing Beelzebub's imminent publication,
G. nominates three literary executors (J. G. Bennett, Lord Pentland,
and René Zuber). He sails for France (Feb.) in Queen Mary
with large entourage (including Iovanna Lloyd Wright). |
|
| summer |
G. makes car expeditions to Vichy (Jun.); Geneva
(Jul.) to meet Mme Stjoernval; and finally Montignac (Aug.) to see
the Lascaux cave paintings. His ideas are favourably mentioned on
Italian radio in connection with the Montessori system. |
|
| Sept. |
G. announces he will sail for New York on 20 Oct.; he
buys La Grand Paroisse, ostensibly as a new centre. |
|
| Oct. |
Under intense pressures G.'s health fails. Having
choreographed (No. 39) his last Movement (11th), he collapses at
Movements class (14th). Nursed by Lise Tracol and surrounded by
doctors, his condition fluctuates. Receipt of Beelzebub's
proofs (21st) suggests the apotheosis of his life's work.
Seriously ill, he supervises the Toasts to the Idiots for the last
time (24th). He is taken by ambulance to the American Hospital at
Neuilly (26th), where Dr Welch performs an abdominal puncture. G.
gives his final instructions to Jeanne de Salzmann (27th), becomes
unconscious (28th), and dies around 10.30am (29th). Religious
services are held on successive days. |
|
| Nov.3 |
G. is buried in the family plot at Fontainebleau-Avon.
Under the leadership of Jeanne de Salzmann, his groups re-dedicate
themselves to practise and transmit his
ideas. |
