Our Life with Mr Gurdjieff

This is the intimate, enlightening account of the years that Russian composer Thomas de Hartmann and his wife, Olga, spent as pupils and confidants of the immensely influential spiritual teacher G. I. Gurdjieff, an association that lasted from 1917 through 1929. Our Life with Mr Gurdjieff is essential reading for all those interested in Gurdjieff’s Work or in understanding his unique and revolutionary way of working with his students. Gurdjieff first came to wide public notice in Europe in the 1920s. But, in certain notable circles, his reputation was already legendary. The de Hartmanns met him in Russia in 1917. Following him from Petrograd to Constantinople, Berlin, and Paris, they endured war and revolution, privation and illness, but never wavered in their devotion to his teaching. When they later emigrated to the United States, they became founding members of the Gurdjieff Foundation in America. After Thomas de Hartmann’s death, his wife published his book, Our Life with Mr Gurdjieff, a richly informative and very personal evocation of what it meant to be pupils of Gurdjieff. The present edition has been fully revised and substantially expanded from memoirs of Olga de Hartmann.