Books on Gurdjieff and His Teaching

Kevin Langdon

This page is under construction. Some of the information about certain items is still to be supplied.

Hundreds of books have been written by and about Gurdjieff and his pupils. The following books, from the core of the Gurdjieff literature, provide a summary of Gurdjieff's ideas and a sense of his intense and practical work with pupils.

The listed editions are those currently available in bookstores and from Amazon.com, except as noted.

Books by Gurdjieff

George Ivanovich [G.I.] Gurdjieff

• All and Everything.
  The definitive formulation by Gurdjieff of his ideas. Difficult for those new to the teaching.

First Series: Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson: An Objectively Impartial Criticism of the Life of Man. Aurora, Oregon: Two Rivers Press, 1993 (under the title ``All and Everything: Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson'').
A critique of human life as seen by a visitor from beyond the solar system.

Second Series: Meetings with Remarkable Men. New York: Dutton, 1991.
Autobiographical narratives intended, according to Gurdjieff, ``to acquaint the reader with the material required for a new creation and to prove the soundness and good quality of it.''

Third Series: Life Is Real Only Then, When ``I Am''. London and New York: Viking Arkana, 1991.
While the Third Series is unfinished, it contains very interesting material from Gurdjieff's own self-observation. Currently out of print.

• Views from the Real World: Early Talks of Gurdjieff As Recollected by His Pupils. London and New York: Viking Arkana, 1991 (paper).
  Talks from 1917 to 1930, reconstructed from notes made by pupils separately (from memory, as note-taking was not permitted in meetings) and later assembled.

Personal Accounts

Margaret Anderson

• The Unknowable Gurdjieff. [bib data]

John G. Bennett

• Witness. [bib data]
  John Bennett's autobiography, primarily focused on Bennett's involvement with Gurdjieff and the work.

John G. and Elizabeth Bennett

• Idiots in Paris: Diaries of J.G. Bennett and Elizabeth Bennett, 1949. New York: Samuel Weiser, 1991 (paper).
  Excerpts from separate diaries, written long before their marriage, of John and Elizabeth Bennett during the final months of Gurdjieff's life.

Anna Butkovsky-Hewitt

• With Gurdjieff in St. Petersburg and Paris. [bib data]

Thomas and Olga de Hartmann

• Our Life with Mr. Gurdjieff. [bib data]

Rina Hands

• Diary of Madame Egout Pour Sweet: With Gurdjieff in Paris 1948-1949. [bib data]

Kathryn Hulme

• Undiscovered Country. [bib data]

C.S. Nott

• Teachings of Gurdjieff. [bib data]

Peter Demianovich [P.D.] Ouspensky

• In Search of the Miraculous: Fragments of an Unknown Teaching. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1994 (paper).
  An account of Ouspensky's work with Gurdjieff from 1915 until 1923. The most comprehensive introduction to Gurdjieff's teaching. [Also listed under Books About the Teaching.]

Fritz Peters

• Boyhood with Gurdjieff. [bib data]
  Peters was sent to the Prieure as a boy by his guardians, Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas. His view of what he saw there through the fresh eyes of a child is one of the most direct and candid accounts of the life around Mr. Gurdjieff.
• Gurdjieff Remembered. [bib data]
• My Journey with a Mystic. (the two books above published as a single volume) [bib data]

Ravi Ravindra

• Heart Without Measure: Work with Madame de Salzmann. Halifax, Nova Scotia: Shaila Press, 1999
  Ravi Ravindra's book about his work with Madame de Salzmann conveys the simplicity and directness of her approach to Gurdjieff's teaching.

A.L. Staveley

• Memories of Gurdjieff. [bib data]

Wolfe, Edwin

• Episodes with Gurdjieff. [bib data]

Books About the Teaching

Jane Heap

• The Notes of Jane Heap. [bib data]
  Jane Heap was a pupil of Ouspensky and Gurdjieff and was responsible for groups of her own. These notes to herself capture a great deal of the gist of the teaching, in a very practical form.

Alfred R. Orage

• On Love [bib data]
• Psychological Exercises [bib data]

Peter Demianovich [P.D.] Ouspensky

• In Search of the Miraculous: Fragments of an Unknown Teaching. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1994 (paper).
  An account of Ouspensky's work with Gurdjieff from 1915 until 1923. The most comprehensive introduction to Gurdjieff's teaching. [Also listed under Personal Accounts.]
• The Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution. New York: Random House, 1973 (paper).
  A brief summary of Gurdjieff's psychological ideas.

John Pentland

• Exchanges Within: Questions from Everyday Life Selected from Gurdjieff Group Meetings with John Pentland in California 1955-1984. New York: Continuum, 1997.
  John Pentland was appointed by Gurdjieff to lead the work in America after Gurdjieff's death. These exchanges from meetings provide a sense of Lord Pentland's practical understanding of Gurdjieff's ideas and methods and his ability to help pupils ``open a question.''

Jean Vaysse

• Toward Awakening. [bib data]

Scholarly Studies of Gurdjieff and His Work
All of these books are very subjective, in my opinion, and should be approached with caution.

John G. Bennett

• Gurdjieff: Making a New World. [bib data]

James Moore

• Gurdjieff: A Biography. [bib data]

James Webb

• The Harmonious Circle. [bib data]

Reference Works

Walter Driscoll and the Gurdjieff Foundation of California

• Gurdjieff Bibliography. [city:] Garland Press, 1984 (out of print).
  The definitive compilation of the Gurdjieff literature up until its publication date. Each item is succinctly annotated.

The Society for Traditional Studies

• Guide and Index to G.I. Gurdjieff's All and Everything, Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson. Toronto: The Society for Traditional Studies, 1971.
  A comprehensive index of terms used in Beelzebub's Tales, with notes and many excerpts.

Other Books

Jacob Needleman and George Baker, editors (English edition; Bruno de Panafieu edited the original, French edition)

• Gurdjieff: Reflections on the Man and His Teaching
  A collection of essays, including some authors very close to Gurdjieff and his work and others less so.

Peter Demianovich [P.D.] Ouspensky

• Strange Life of Ivan Osokin. [bib data]
  The story of a man who meets a magician with the power to send him back into the past where he can do things differently the second time around--or can he?

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