Charles Purdom

Charles Purdom
Charles Benjamin Purdom (15 October 1883 – 8 July 1965) was a British author, drama critic, town planner, and economist. He was one of the pioneers and founders of the first garden cities, Letchworth and Welwyn Garden City, the latter of which he was appointed Finance Director between 1919–1928. He was then made Honorary Secretary, then Treasurer of the International Federation for Housing and Planning (1931–1935). He was also founder of the Letchworth and Welwyn Garden City Theatre Society, now the Welwyn Drama Club. He won the Howard Walden cup at the Welwyn Garden City Drama Festival and the David Belasco cup in New-York in 1927. He was an author of many books on city development, on Shakespeare and Bernard Shaw plays, Harley Granville-Barker, and on producing plays. He was editor of an English literary periodical called Everyman, covering books, drama, music and travel and featured articles by renowned authors such as Ivor Brown, Arthur Machen, G. K. Chesterton, A. E. Coppard, and Bertrand Russell. He was General Secretary of British Equity (1939–1940) and joint secretary of the London Theatre Council. He was also the earliest biographer of Meher Baba. He was father of the actor Edmund Purdom. He died in Welwyn Garden City in 1965.
First biographer of Meher Baba
Purdom was a devoted follower of the Indian silent teacher Meher Baba after meeting him in Devon, England on Baba's first visit to the West in 1931. Purdom was Meher Baba's original biographer, writing The Perfect Master: The Early Life of Meher Baba in 1937, which covers Meher Baba's life from 1911–1936, and The God Man: The Life, Journeys & Work of Meher Baba with an Interpretation of His Silence & Spiritual Teaching in 1964. He also wrote an early single-volume edition of Meher Baba's discourses titled God to Man and Man to God: The Discourses of Meher Baba (1955) and with author Malcolm Schloss co-wrote a detailed account of a group visit with Meher Baba in India titled Three Incredible Weeks with Meher Baba.
Selected publications
The Garden City: A Study of the Development of a Modern Town, J.M. Dent & Sons, London, 1913
The Building of Satellite Towns: A Contribution to the Study of Town Development and Regional Planning, J.M. Dent & Sons, London, 1925
The Swan Shakespeare; a Player's Edition – 3 Volumes , J.M. Dent & Sons, London, 1930
Producing Plays: a handbook for producers & players, J.M. Dent, London 1930
Everyman at War. Sixty Personal Narratives of the War, (Selected from Everyman Magazine), Dutton, New York, 1930 and J.M. Dent, London, 1939
The Perfect Master: The Life of Shri Meher Baba, (Meher Baba's life from 1911–1936), Williams & Norgate Ltd, London, 1937. Reprinted as Perfect Master, The Early Life of Meher Baba, by Sheriar Press USA in 1976
The New Order, J.M. Dent and Sons Ltd, 1941
How Shall We Rebuild London?, J.M. Dent, London, 1946
Economic Wellbeing, Nicholson and Watson, 1947
Producing Shakespeare, Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons, London, 1950
Life Over Again (Autobiography), J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd., London, 1951
Drama Festivals and Their Adjudication; a Handbook for Producers, Actors, Festival Organisers, and Adjudicators, J.M. Dent and Sons Ltd., London, 1951
Harley Granville Barker: Man of the Theatre, Dramatist, and Scholar, Salisbury Square, 1955
God to Man and Man to God: The Discourses of Meher Baba, Victor Gollancz Ltd., London, 1955
Bernard Shaw's Letters to Granville Barker, Phoenix House, London, 1956
A Guide to the Plays of Bernard Shaw, Methuen & Co. Ltd, London, 1963
The Letchworth Achievement, J.M. Dent & Sons, 1963
What Happens in Shakespeare: a New Interpretation, John Baker Publ., London, 1963
The God-Man: The Life, Journeys & Work of Meher Baba with an Interpretation of His Silence & Spiritual Teaching, George Allen & Unwin, London, 1964
Three Incredible Weeks with Meher Baba: 11–30 September 1954, Sheriar Press, Myrtle Beach, 1979
References
External links
Charles Purdom at meherbabatravels.com
Divine Drama, the Valiant Life of Charles B. Purdom
1883 births
1965 deaths
British theatre critics
English biographers
English economists
Followers of Meher Baba
General Secretaries of Equity (trade union)