Abstract

Charlatan, magician, heroic man of action, revolutionary... Gurdjieff's rich and vivid life conjures up conflicting images. But who was the real Gurdjieff? On the fiftieth anniversary of Gurdjieff's death, James Moore draws on a lifetime's contact with Gurdjieffian pupils to tell the compelling and extraordinary stow of this eclectic revolutionary: his studies with the Red Hat Tibetan Lamas at the turn of the century, his travels disguised as a dervish, and how he was shot and almost killed twice. This inveterate and restless seeker of the truth coaxed from archaic sources relevant philosophy that drew tides of men and women to his cause. Through the humanity and dry humor of his writing, and through scholarship evidenced in an unprecedented note section, Moore offers the reader an entertaining and reliable introduction to one of the most remarkable men of this century.