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About Boyhood with Gurdjieff (Unabridged)

When Peters’ mother suffered a nervous breakdown in the early 1920s, young Fritz was adopted by his aunt, Margaret Anderson, and her partner, Jane Heap. They were editors of The Little Review, the literary magazine that launched the writings of James Joyce, e. e. cummings, Hemingway, and other avant-garde greats. They moved to France where they raised Fritz among Gertrude Stein’s salon. Anderson and Heap introduced Peters to many influential figures, but most significant to him was G. I. Gurdjieff, founder of the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man in Fontainebleau. When Fritz first arrived there, Gurdjieff asked him what he wanted to learn. The boy replied, “I want to know everything. Everything about man. I think it is called psychology or maybe philosophy.” Gurdjieff answered with a sigh, “Your answer makes life difficult for me. I am the only one who teaches what you ask. You make more work for me.” Thus, Fritz became perhaps the most intimate student of this mercurial mystic, but Gurdjieff was more than just a teacher to Fritz. He was a father figure whose influence Peters never shook, and always struggled to integrate. This stunning memoir covering Peters’ first years at the Institute retains a child’s naive perspective while offering photorealistic recall of Gurdjieff, the workings of his intentional community, and the eccentric characters who lived there.