Rudolf Steiner (b. Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner, 1861-1925) was born in the small village of Kraljevec, Austro-Hungarian Empire (now in Croatia), where he grew up. As a young man, he lived in Weimar and Berlin, where he became a well-published scientific, literary, and philosophical scholar, known especially for his work with Goethe's scientific writings. Steiner termed his spiritual philosophy
anthroposophy, meaning "wisdom of the human being." As an exceptionally developed seer, he based his work on direct knowledge and perception of spiritual dimensions. He initiated a modern, universal "spiritual science" that is accessible to anyone willing to exercise clear and unbiased thinking. From his spiritual investigations, Steiner provided suggestions for the renewal of numerous activities, including education (general and for special needs), agriculture, medicine, economics, architecture, science, philosophy, Christianity, and the arts. There are currently thousands of schools, clinics, farms, and initiatives in other fields that involve practical work based on the principles Steiner developed. His many published works feature his research into the spiritual nature of human beings, the evolution of the world and humanity, and methods for personal development. He wrote some thirty books and delivered more than six thousand lectures throughout much of Europe. In 1924, Steiner founded the General Anthroposophical Society, which today has branches around the world.
Owen Barfield (1898-1997), the British philosopher and critic, has been called the "First and Last Inkling," because of his influence and enduring role in the group known as the Oxford Inklings. The Inklings included C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Charles Williams. It was Barfield who first advanced the ideas about language, myth, and belief that became identified with the thinking and art of the Inklings. He is the author of numerous books, including
Poetic Diction: A Study in Meaning; Romanticism Comes of Age; Unancestoral Voice; History in English Words; and
Worlds Apart: A Dialogue of the 1960s. His history of the evolution of human consciousness,
Saving the Appearances: A Study in Idolatry, achieved a place in the list of the "100 Best Spiritual Books of the Century."
Daisy Aldan (1918-2001) was a Pulitzer-nominated poet and highly regarded translator and teacher. She was also an anthroposophist and a teacher at Emerson College in the UK. Her earliest book of poems was published in 1946, followed by The Destruction of Cathedrals and Other Poems in 1963, with a preface by Anaïs Nin, whom Aldan had met in 1959. Seven: Seven (Poems and Photographs) was published in 1965. During the 1970s, she published seven books of experimental and lyrical poetry.
Her nonfiction and prose works focus on the topic of poetry and consciousness. In 1979, she published her novella, A Golden Story.
Aldan also edited important poetry magazines, including Folder Magazine of Literature and Art (1953-1959) and, from 1961 to 1962, the magazine Two Cities (coedited with Anaïs Nin, and so named because it was based in New York and Paris). She also edited and published translations of works by Stephane Mallarmé, Anaïs Nin, Albert Steffen, and Rudolf Steiner.
Aldan founded Tiber Press in 1953, publishing her own work and that of poets and artists who are today household names, including Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, and Jackson Pollock.
Writing and publishing were insufficiently lucrative, so to support herself Aldan worked as a teacher at New York's High School of Art and Design, from which she retired in 1973 to devote herself to writing. An article in the New York Times Book Review compared Aldan to e.e. cummings for "combining daring technique with sentimental conception"--a quality that evolved into spiritualism informed by her study of Rudolf Steiner, with the result that her later work failed to engage the avant-garde audience that she had originally attracted.
Daisy Aldan passed away at Kateri Residence in New York City at 82, followed by a service at The Christian Community.
John Fentress Gardner (1912-1998) was a lecturer and writer on education, spirituality, and America. After studies at Teachers' College, Columbia University, he became faculty chair at the Waldorf school in Garden City, New York. He directed the Waldorf Institute for Liberal Education in conjunction with Adelphi University and was founding chair of the Council for Educational Freedom in America, director of the Waldorf Institute for Liberal Education, and chair of the Myrin Institute for Adult Education in New York City.
Ernst Lehrs (1894-1979) was born in Berlin. Having fought in World War I, he studied science and graduated with a PhD in 1923. He became a senior teacher at the first Waldorf school in Stuttgart, Germany, and in 1935 moved to The Netherlands, where he worked as a teacher, before moving to Britain as a Jewish refugee from the Nazis. In 1952 he returned to Germany and worked as a lecturer at the newly established course in anthroposophic special education in Eckwälden, where he remained until his death.
Ruth Pusch, born Ruth Barnett, was raised in New Haven, Connecticut. After a period of time spent in Dornach, Switzerland, as a student of spiritual science, she married the actor Hans Pusch in 1932 while in the U.S. Together, they returned to Dornach, where Ruth studied eurythmy with some of the pioneers of that new art form. She later taught eurythmy in New York City and was an early teacher at the Waldorf School New York City. She and her husband were also active in bringing the anthroposophic impulse to the dramatic arts in North America. Along with Hans, Ruth Pusch also helped translate Rudolf Steiner's four mystery plays.
Hans Pusch, a skilled actor and director and a leading member of the Goetheanum stage group, later becoming an early beacon of Anthroposophy in North America. Hans began acting at the age of sixteen in Lucerne, Switzerland, where he performed in amateur productions of German classics with other young people during World War I. His performances caught the attention of the great film director Murnau, who offered to take Hans to Hollywood and train him for an acting career. Later, in Santa Barbara, Hans opened a speech studio, where he conducted courses in speech, eurythmy, gymnastics, play-reading groups, and introductory courses on Rudolf Steiner and his writings. Hans developed a repertory theater that performed Shakespeare, Thornton Wilder, Anouilh, Fry, and Eugene O'Neill. For the rest of his life, Hans Pusch worked tirelessly in the New York City area to translate, perform, and promote Rudolf Steiner's mystery dramas, as well as Goethe's Faust, as expressions of the essence of Anthroposophy.
