Rudolf Steiner: A Biography

Whoever follows Rudolf Steiner''s life will gain the impression that, from a certain point on, his constant attempt was to awake, in numerous ways, an active, working understanding for Anthroposophy. He used creative imagination to treat particular themes and tasks, ever anew, and in many forms. If we observe the variations of those presentations, we see in them the intentions that guided his whole life. A biography that shows Steiner''s intentions and efforts in the context of the times and his life circumstances will not only relate what happened, but also why. His work does not, as in many modern biographies, disappear behind the life story. This is one of the most comprehensive biographies of Rudolf Steiner, tracing his life and development through a profound look at his life and work, which encompassed numerous areas, including his Goethean research, philosophy, esoteric work, pedagogy, medicine, sociology, agriculture, architecture, painting, movement arts, and poetry. This biography, which tracks his divergent activities, shows how Rudolf Steiner was most concerned with bringing a new approach to knowledge through Spiritual Science and to revitalizing the most important areas of human culture and society. Includes 119 photographic reproductions. -- -- -- A student of Rudolf Steiner during the late 1890s describes him: I never again had a teacher like him. He was gaunt, shabbily dressed. He always wore an old coat; his trousers looked like corkscrews, much too short and worn out. At first he sported a van Dyke, then a mustache, then he was clean shaven.... Everyone loved him dearly, and I would have, as would most of the others, gone through fire for him.... He was loving and concerned in a way that I have never again discovered in another person. Funny--I often asked my fiancee whether he was really as poor as he seemed to be; during breaks he always took a dry roll out of his pocket and ate it with visible enjoyment. But if you think that they left him in peace during the break, you are way off base. The whole group gathered around him and the questions were endless. See more