November 28, 1931.

Dear Mr. Draper

In accordance with the brief instructions given me by Mr. Gurdjieff I am presuming to take a little of your time to acquaint you with the following information.

Mr. Gurdjieff is again here in New York and is carrying out the actualization of his tasks in the same circumstances and conditions as have become fixed during his previous stays here.

At the present time Mr. Gurdjieff is working on the last version of the third series of the books he has resolved to write, and is devoting the greater part of his time during the pauses in this fundamental aim of his - pauses unavoidably necessary for acquiring possibilities of continuing further - to the organization which was started last year of a "group", with a program exactly corresponding to his ideas, of persons who joined either last year, this year or were chosen by him last year from among those who had previously been members of the group which had existed here for several years and which was called the "Orage-group".

Mr. Gurdjieff, remembering with a feeling of gratitude the good attitude in the past of all the people who constituted this former group, and counting with a sincere impulse of hope on the possibility that there may yet prove to be among them others who can correspond to this new group organized on quite another basis, has decided, in order to ascertain this, to set aside for the duration of his stay here in person, a part of his time required for rest, for meetings and conversations both with many members together and also with individual members of this former group.

Page-2-

For meetings with many together, or as you say here, for "general-meetings", he has set aside three evenings a week during the whole of his stay here in New York, namely, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evenings. These meetings are to be held at nine o'clock, at 204 West 59 St., Apt. Q, and the time and place for conversations with individual members will be established together with those who desire them, during these general meetings.

I take the liberty of informing you also that in consequence of Mr. Gurdjieff's continuing to be wholly occupied with questions of writing and here, in the present instance, with conversations with your compatriots, and in consequence of his not having, here either, the possibility of obtaining what is called "Dough", inevitably necessary for his ordinary life, and not, moreover, in the present instance, for himself alone, but also for several other "types" who, although indispensable to him for his fundamental aim, have unfortunately for him, as he expressed it, "an-extraordinary-appetite" and "the-idiotic-habit-of-sleeping-in separate-rooms", and also in consequence, in addition to all this, of several other considerations of his, ensuing from the practice here in the past, he will this time be compelled to be less ceremonious and will unfailingly exact, for the time he spends on all these meetings and conversations with you, genuine, definite, dollars; and furthermore, the dollars most desirable and most fully satisfying to him, will be those which have been earned by the sweat of one's own brow and which have not simply dropped into one's pocket as into a parasite's.

Every former member of the Orage group desiring to attend these general meetings, must "forego" give of his dollars, and moreover, the obligatory task is given to him, of handing these dollars to the translator-secretary on duty in such a way that no one else should see.

Page-3-

The requirement of doing this is obligatory, because, as has more
than once been noticed by devoted persons around Mr. Gurdjieff, the
very peculiar and at the same time very specific mixed impulse which
usually arose in these cases in almost every member of this former
group, and which consists of the feeling of having most honourably
fulfilled one's duty, always acts very harmfully on that particular
one of Mr. Gurdjieff's corns, which for some reason or other has
chosen its place of residence between the fourth and little toes
of his left foot, and every one who already knows Mr. Gurdjieff must
agree that the disturbance to even that one corn, presumably sensi-
tive to the highest degree, might very well cost more than five
dollars.

And anyone who desires to converse "teta-tete" must come
equipped with twenty-five dollars and while ordering something at
Child's or at some other place, must put them on the table within
the vision of Mr. Gurdjieff's right eye; but in this latter case,
he need not conceal the payment of these dollars from others, and
if he wish, his name may even be mentioned in one of the fashion-
able American journals.

(Translated from the
French by Mr. Loomis.)

THE LUCY JEANNE PRICE NEW YORK LETTER

WASHINGTON

NEW YORK

CLEVELAND

15 EAST FORTIETH STREET

WILLIAM OAKLEY CONWAY
LUCY JEANNE PRICE

TELEPHONE 9286 MURRAY HILL
4266

ASSOCIATED
PUBLICITY COUNSEL

THIS LETTER FROM THE NEW YORK OFFICE

February 21, 1924

Mrs. Muriel Draper
21 East Eighty-Ninth Street
New York

My dear Mrs. Draper:

I have been exceedingly interested in the
reports of the work of Giorgus Guardjieff, and it occurs to
us that it is something which the entire country should hear
about, accurately and sympathetically. We wonder if he or
any of those helping him to present his principles here have
considered the matter of having professional publicity aid
to the dissemination of his teachings.

Unless you have and have already made ar-
rangements for that work, Mr. Conway and I should very much
appreciate an opportunity to talk to the proper persons about
it. We have done publicity for varied interests and with con-
siderable success and I think I may say that through our own
personal interests, we would have a better understanding of
the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man and the
opportunities for its reaching the people of this country than
would the average publicity writer or reporter.

I shall be glad if you can let me know to
whom I should apply for an appointment to present this pro-
posal in the event that you yourself are not the one.

"POSTAL TELEGRAPH"

"J105 61 CABLE = P AR I S 905P AUG 31 1933

LC ISRAEL SOLON =

"71 W 23 ST MASONIC BLDG NEW YORK=

"HAVE SENT YOU TODAY HUNDRED COPIES OF PRINTED FIRST BOOK STOP URGENTLY ASK NOT TO WAIT ARRIVAL AND DETAILED LETTER BUT TO COLLECT IMMEDIATELY AND TELEGRAPH AS MUCH MONEY AS POSSIBLE STOP SITUATION MUST BE SAVED PRIOR TO ALREADY SEIZED TO PAY DEBTS AND WILL SHORTLY BE PUT UP FOR SALE GURDJIEFF."

WHAT CAN WE DO? WHAT CAN YOU DO?

An Emergency Meeting Will Be Held Next Tuesday Evening, September fifth, nineteen hundred thirty-three; in Room sixteen twelve, Seventy-one West Twenty-third Street, New York City.

"POSTAL TELEGRAPH"

"DGEY PRK 623

"BERLIN 32 22 1510

"NLT SOLON 71 WEST 23 STREET NY

"GURDJIEFF HERE TRANSLATING HIS LAST WORK STOP STARTS
AMERICA APRIL 13 BREMEN STOP NECESSARY ALTOGETHER FIFTEEN

HUNDRED DOLLARS FIVE IMMEDIATELY

"MARCH GOEPFERT ADMIRAL SCHROEDERSTR 20"

Those wishing to help, must help to their utmost and must do it at once.

Transmit all monies to Mr. Allan R. Brown, 11 Broadway, New York City, New York.

71 West 23 St.
October 6, 88.

Dear Mrs. Draper:

You must have received my notice of the 38 books
which I received, and that I have decided to charge
$5.50 each for them, though I might leave it to
each purchaser to decide for herself how much she
wishes to pay between the sums of 8 and 108 French
Francs. I mean to let you have a book for the five
you sent, of course, but shall wait till you come
back home, for there are 8 Registration Blanks to be
filled out by each purchaser, and that you must do.

I had a good laugh at myself for the Gertrude
Stein Luhan. It would appear that I had classed
them together some years ago and had learned no
more about them since, and so had kept them in
my little old unconscious, as the recent slang
would have it. In fact, this was no funnier of
me than most if not all the normal things I do
day by day, but the others being the rule, I do
not see them as being funny. Take all the behaviors
of the New Economics Group, see Orage Group. How
disappointed we all were when Gurdjieff told us that
we could observe ourselves! I wonder how many of
them (of us) ever give that angle of it another
thought?

I cabled Gurdjieff $200, that I had sharked together
somehow. All the former sheep did not give a penny--
for the best of reasons, of course. I got an odd
letter from "Mr. Gurdjieff" written by the colored
boy Rex Lee, who you may or may not remember, as
the elevator boy in 59 St. There is no doubt but
that Mr. G.'s position is desperate; that he can
not extricate himself from it, is quite another
matter. I am not able to answer that.

Carmel, California, Dec. 29th. 33

My dear Mrs Draper:

I heard from Una Jeffers that you had
been here and how little time you had to spend. Of course, I
was sorry that it had to be so; but understood your compulsion.

Now as your note and the appeal for Mr. Gurdjieff:
I must ask you to remember that to us He is just a name, the
author of a very perplexing book, which Mr Orage introduced
to us and which without Mr. Orage would have meant just nothing
at all

We know what Mr. Gurdjieff's attitude to his Americans
has consistently been. They are sources of "muttonand wool"
Also we know how he drove Mr. Orage with his greed and was not
above trickery to get more and yet more money.

Now do you blame us, who are none of us rich that we
hesitate to send our pennies to a man who should be able to
provide a living for himself altho perhaps not for all the clan
whom we hear活 with him in patriarchal fashion.

You will I fear think we quite outrageous when I
tell you what I as spokesman for our group have done with a few
dollars I have collected. I have sent the cheque not to you who
asked me for it but to M. Orage, thinking that Orage who is
closer to the scene might be able to know whether Mr. Gurdjieff
was really <u>needing</u> and not just <u>wanting</u> money. I have asked
Mr. Orage if he sends it to him to do so, concealing its
source. Also I said that if M. Gurdjieff was not in real
straits, that he would put the money in his own magazine
for which we understand Mrs <u>Hare</u> is seeking to collect a
considerable sum.

If you were a small- minded woman you would be very
much annoyed at me for this. I cannot believe you are either
unable or unwilling to get our attitude. And when you understand
I am sure you will forgive.

Our premises may be all wrong; but we have had several
visitors come to Carmel, who had been long and intimately at
the Prieure and marvelled much at the "king can do no wrong"
attitude toward a man who to an outsider can separate theory
and practice more completely than almost any one of whom we
ever have heard and whose cry for money has always been so very
insistent. I am sending a copy of this letter to M.. Orage so
he may know just how hard-boiled we are

Mar 7-1934

"NLT SOLON 71 West 23 NEW YORK

"MUST GO AMERICA IMMEDIATELY NECESSARY YOU SEND 3 FARES

YESTERDAY SHIPPED YOU SEVEN BOOKS

"GURDJIEFF"

We hope that you will be able to help towards his passage. Make checks payable to Allan R. Brown (11 Broadway, N.Y.C.)

71 WEST 23RD STREET
MASONIC BUILDING
ROOM 1603

TELEPHONES 2237 2238 2239

GRAMERCY 5

ORGANIZED DEC. 7, 1921

NEW YORK September seventh

Dear Mrs. Draper:

On the advice of Rita, I am writing this to you, though I had mailed you a copy of G's. cable to your New York City address, and which was probably forwarded to you.

If you believe, as I do, that things do bear their stamp on their faces, then you will agree with me, I hope, that this cable from G. is proof of genuine distress. What you are able to do about it, I don't know: that you will do the utmost possible for you to... of that I am absolutely certain. Again, Rita has suggested (in our efforts to find a purse in the street, as it were), that you might be able to find an opening of speaking about this emergency to Gertrude Stein Luhan. What can and might do is not known to me. I know from Jean Toomer's own recent letter that two thousand dollars which Gertrude Stein had given to Toomer for G. "no longer exists." and that G. had recently said that this was the second time that Toomer had robbed him (G).

As you well know, it is not possible to raise any money worth mentioning at this time among the members of the former Group. So far it is doubtful if we shall be able to raise even two hundred dollars. Those who still have money, have, for one "reason" and another fallen away or are even openly hostile, blaming G for their own failures. Orage is not among us, and he might not be willing to help even if he were here. What else is there left us to do?

Have you a suggestion you might care to make? Is there any other one you might influence? Think hard.

Sincerely yours,

Dear

Since there are already crystalized in my common presence
unchangeable data for engendering in me - always according to the
flow of corresponding associations - the impulse of gratitude
to you for your good manifestations towards me personally as well
as towards all my actualizations during those years when my whole
time was devoted to writing alone, I find it expedient to send you
meanwhile just the last pages of the second chapter of the second
series of my writings which have only just been translated into
English.

I have decided to send these pages to you chiefly in order
that when you learn the contents of my expositions at the end
of this chapter, you may, even with your still immature reflec-
tion, become aware, firstly, upon what unparallelled great tasks my
mercilessness this year towards you and towards people similar
to you here has been based, and what events having a character of
happiness or unhappiness may issue from this for everybody, both
those of the present as well as of the future generations; and
secondly, having understood that you are already in the objective
sense - that is, for me - owing to your erroneous mental conclu-
sions and to your abnormal transubstantiations of facts you have
seen and heard but which do not concern you at all, as Mullah
Nassr Eddin would say "sitting-in-a-galosh-up-to-the-eyebrows", you
should understand and feel that subjectively you are "sitting-in-a-
galosh" also.

This fact sometimes can - as I am quite sure - serve as a
lesson for certain people for the possibility of acquiring chances
to obtain well-being in the future.

At the same time, I am writing to you two letters, the gist

- 2 -

of the contents of which is quite opposed to each other.

The despatch of either of these letters will depend on
your reaction to this first letter of mine.

Sincerely wishing you the fulfillment
of all your, in the objective sense,
good wishes,