Georg Ivanovitch Gurdjieff

A serious car accident in 1924 forced Gurdjieff to reassess his situation and in the following decade, he immersed himself solely in the writing of his books, a trilogy known as All and Everything. The first book, Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson aimed to destroy "mercilessly" all previous beliefs about humankind, the universe and God. The second, Meetings with Remarkable Men, describes the characters of members of the group "Seekers of the Truth," whom he portrays as collaborators in his own search. The third, Life is Real Then, Only When "I Am" can be called autobiographical.
Gurdjieff and de Hartmann continued to compose and, between 1925 and 1927, produced some 170 new compositions in close collaboration. When he had completed his third book in 1935, Gurdjieff saw his Institute closed and sold in the aftermath of the Depression, and interest in his work gradually diminished. After the war, pupils from England and America reconnected with him at his Paris apartment, where he presided over dinners -in which he was the patriarch- and summarised his teachings for the last time. He died in Neuilly, near Paris, the 29th of October 1949.