P. D. Ouspensky

Gurdjieff International Review

P. D. Ouspensky

A Brief Bibliography

by J. Walter Driscoll


Major Writings

Works published or prepared for publication by P. D. Ouspensky

Tertium Organum: The Third Canon of Thought, a Key to the Enigmas of the World. Translated from the Russian by Nicholas Bessaraboff and Claude Bragdon. Rochester, N.Y.: Manas Press, 1920, 344p.; New York: Knopf, 1922; London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1923, 1934; 3rd American edition, New York: Knopf, 1945, 306p. A revised English translation by Eugenic Kadloubovsky under Ouspensky’s supervision, limited edition of 21 copies, Cape Town: Stourton Press, 1950, 192p. An Abridgement of P. D. Ouspensky’s ‘Tertium Organum,’ by Fairfax Hall, Cape Town: Stourton Press, 1961, 276p.; revised translation by E. Kadloubovsky and the author, New York: Knopf, 1981, 298p., index.

A New Model of the Universe: Principles of the Psychological Method in Its Application to Problems of Science, Religion and Art. Translated from the Russian by R. R. Merton, under the supervision of the author. New York: Knopf, 1931; London: Routledge, 1931, 544p.; 2nd revised edition, London: Routledge, 1934; New York: Knopf; 1934; reprinted 1943, 1961, (Knopf) and 1971 (Random House), 476p.; London: Routledge, 1949, 534p.

Psychological Lectures: 1934–1940. Privately printed and distributed. London [1940], 90p., limited edition of 125 copies. Six introductory lectures, issued by Ouspensky’s Historico-Psychological Society at 46 Colet Gardens in London. Posthumously published in five lectures as The Psychology of Man’s Possible Evolution. New York: Hedgehog Press, 1950, 98p.; London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1951, 95p., index; New York: Knopf, 1954, 114p.; 2nd edition enlarged [with a preface by John Pentland], New York: Knopf, 1974, 128p. (This edition contains a reprint of the article “Notes on the Decision to Work” and a previously unpublished autobiographical note.) London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1978, 95p.(Contains Ouspensky’s 1945 introduction.) 3rd edition, New York: Random House, 1981, 128p. (This edition contains a publisher’s note in place of the introductory note written for the 2nd edition. The two selections added to the 2nd edition are replaced by a lecture of Sept. 23, 1937.)

Strange Life of Ivan Osokin. Limited edition of 356 copies. London: Stourton, 1947, 179p.; New York and London: Holme, 1947, 166p.; London: Faber & Faber, 1948; New York, Hermitage House, 1955, 166p.; London: Faber & Faber, 1971, 204p.; Baltimore: Penguin, 1971 (“The Penguin Metaphysical Library” reprinted with a foreword by J[ohn] P[entland]), 1973, 204p.; New York: Arkana/Methuen, 1988, 162p.

In Search of the Miraculous: Fragments of an Unknown Teaching. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1949, 399p.; London: Routledge, 1949, 399p. Paperback edition, New York: Harcourt, Brace, no date [196?].

Notes and Archival Material

P. D. Ouspensky Memorial Collection. Sterling Memorial Library, Yale University, New Haven, Conn., Manuscript Group No. 840.

P. D. Ouspensky Memorial Collection: Manuscript Group 840. [An inventory] by Janet Elaine Gertz. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University, 1981, 9p.

Related Writings

Posthumous Publications And Adaptations

The Fourth Way: A Record of Talks and Answers to Questions Based on the Teaching of G. I. Gurdjieff. Prepared under the general supervision of Sophia Ouspensky. New York: Knopf, 1957, 446p.; London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1957, 446p., index; New York: Knopf, 1965, 446p., index; New York: Random House, 1971, 446p., index.

Conscience: The Search for Truth. Introduction by Merrily E. Taylor. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1979, 159p. Contains five texts previously published in limited editions in the 1950s by Stourton Press (Cape Town): Memory; Surface Personality; Self-Will; Negative Emotions and Notes on Work.

A Further Record Chiefly of Extracts from Meetings Held by P. D. Ouspensky between 1928 and 1945. Privately printed limited edition of 20 copies. Cape Town: Stourton Press, 1952, 347p., index. (Copy in the P. D. Ouspensky Collection, Yale.) Subsequently published as A Further Record: Extracts from Meetings 1928–1945. London and New York: Arkana, 1986, 318p., index

Autobiographical Fragment. Written in 1935, this brief sketch was first published in the second enlarged edition of his The Psychology of Man’s Possible Evolution (1974) Knopf, then in Remembering Pytor Demianovich Ouspensky (1978) a brochure compiled and edited by Merrily E. Taylor for Yale University Library. It was subsequently issued as an appendage to A Further Record: Extracts from Meetings, 1928–1945 Q.V. (1986) Routledge and Kegan Paul.

Adaptations

In Search of the Miraculous. Read by Laurence Rosenthal. Berkeley, California: Audio Literature, 1994. One 90 minute cassette audio tape abridged from the Harcourt Brace, 1949 edition.

In Search of the Miraculous: fragments of an unknown teaching. A film directed by Zivko Nicolic, script adaptation by Milan Peters, based on the book by P. D. Ouspensky. Fairway Films (Sydney, Australia) in association with Znak Productions in Belgrade, 1998, 42 min. black & white.

Material about P. D. Ouspensky

Blake, A. G. E.

Butkovsky-Hewitt, Anna

Eadie, Peter Macgregor

Henderson, Linda Dalrymple

Freemantle, Christopher

Lachman, Gary

Landau, Rom

Munson, Gorham

Nott, C. S.

Priestley, J. B.

Seton, Marie

Taylor, Merrily E.

Walker, Kenneth

Webb, James

Two Authors Particularly Influenced by Ouspensky

These are representative works by Ouspensky’s two most prominent pupils. While they contain no overt discussion of Ouspensky, their inspiration and framework clearly show his profound influence. Interested readers may want to explore the larger body of Nicoll’s and Collin’s work.

Nicoll, Maurice

Collin [Smith], Rodney

Copyright © 1999 J. Walter Driscoll
This webpage © 1999 Gurdjieff Electronic Publishing
Featured: Winter 1998/1999 Issue, Vol. II (2)
Revision: December 18, 2019