The Rudolf Steiner Archive

32

Rudolf Steiner to Edith Maryon

Stuttgart, 4 September 1919

My dear Miss E. Maryon,

I received your letter and was pleased to receive it. I am thinking a lot about the work in the sculpture workshop there and will be glad when I can take part in it again. There is a lot of work to be done here to set up the school. Every morning we start at 9 a.m. with a lecture on general pedagogy, followed by a quarter-hour break and then a second lecture on specific methodology and didactics. Then, after these two lectures, it is 11:30. The seminar begins in the afternoon from 3-6. Then there are usually some meetings. So it is lectures all day, so to speak. In between, I think about the work in Dornach, especially about our sculpture group.

With regard to the translation of my book, it will be the case that one person finds what the other person finds less good; and we will probably only be able to decide when we have seen the other translation. Our opinion of the translation that has been done is actually sufficient. The only result will be to delay publication of the translation, as has often been the case with my books, where one translator was always dissatisfied with the other. They should be satisfied with the translation we have already done, in which I was involved, and get the commission to publish it, instead of criticizing it too much. But we will see what happens when I am back in Dornach.

The school here opens on Sunday. The preparatory lectures and seminar exercises are to be completed this week. Then I would like to go to Berlin on Tuesday or Wednesday next week; I am scheduled to give lectures in Dresden from September 18 to 21; then here again on September 24 and soon after that I should be going back to Dornach.

It will be very satisfying for me to work in Dornach again and to be able to use the sculpture studio.

With warm greetings

Rudolf Steiner
currently in Stuttgart, Landhausstraße 70

35

Rudolf Steiner to Edith Maryon

Stuttgart, December 24, 1919

My dear Miss E. Maryon,

I send my warmest Christmas greetings to our sculptors. It goes without saying that I would like to be there with these greetings.

The Waldorf School has developed well so far. There is a good spirit there. The children like going there. And if you ask them: do you like going to school? They enthusiastically answer “yes”.

I had a lecture on the first day of my visit; then from morning to evening school visits for the first two days; in between meetings. There are still public lectures in Stuttgart on Saturday 27 December and Tuesday 30 December; in addition, an improvised course on natural science is taking place at the Waldorf School. Then another smaller course. In addition, there are a number of branch lectures. So there is enough to do in the short time, because between the lectures there are the discussions.

The return journey will be on January 4th. Once again, the warmest Christmas greetings

Rudolf Steiner
currently in Stuttgart, Landhausstraße 70

35

Rudolf Steiner to Edith Maryon

Stuttgart, December 24, 1919

My dear Miss E. Maryon,

I send my warmest Christmas greetings to our sculptors. It goes without saying that I would like to be there with these greetings.

The Waldorf School has developed well so far. There is a good spirit there. The children like going there. And if you ask them: do you like going to school? They enthusiastically answer “yes”.

I had a lecture on the first day of my visit; then from morning to evening school visits for the first two days; in between meetings. There are still public lectures in Stuttgart on Saturday 27 December and Tuesday 30 December; in addition, an improvised course on natural science is taking place at the Waldorf School. Then another smaller course. In addition, there are a number of branch lectures. So there is enough to do in the short time, because between the lectures there are the discussions.

The return journey will be on January 4th. Once again, the warmest Christmas greetings

Rudolf Steiner
currently in Stuttgart, Landhausstraße 70

39

Rudolf Steiner to Edith Maryon

Stuttgart, 12 March 1920

My dear Edith Maryon!

Thank you so much for the letters, which were a great pleasure to me. Everything I hear from there is important to me at a time when I cannot work there myself in our sculpture studio. I have had a lot of work here, but it is necessary. And I have weathered it better this time than I have in the past. However, I cannot give the messages I would like to give in detail, because there is not enough time. I have to go back to the school straight away. Wednesday and today were public lectures; in between there is now a great deal to be done. And so, with the warmest thoughts, I can only add that the intention is to leave here on Monday and arrive in Dornach on Tuesday. I do not yet know whether this intention will have to be changed. In any case, I must be in Zurich on Wednesday.

Kind regards,

Rudolf Steiner
currently in Stuttgart, Landhausstraße 70.

41

Rudolf Steiner to Edith Maryon

Stuttgart, June 15, 1920

My dear Edith Maryon!

I would have liked to have written long ago, but there has been an extraordinary amount to do, and since I also have a public lecture tonight, I can only write a few lines. Thank you very much for your letter. I think the matter of Baron Rosenkrantz can be arranged as he suggests. Even those personalities who are not practicing artists may come after all. Whether we can offer something from the mystery plays will depend on the possibility; we can try, can't we.

I will write about everything else tomorrow or the day after. In addition to the other lectures here, I also gave a lecture with slides about the building last Saturday.

For today, warmest greetings and the assurance that all anxiety is unfounded. I probably won't be back on Monday, but soon after.

Warmest greetings

Stuttgart, Landhausstraße 70
Rudolf Steiner

42

Rudolf Steiner to Edith Maryon

Stuttgart, 18 June 1920

My dear Edith Maryon!

Unfortunately, it is always impossible to write much here. Therefore, just these lines to say that I will not be able to travel back before Thursday or Friday the 25th next week. The work makes anything else impossible.

Hopefully the work there will continue, as I would like to be involved again. In addition to the slide lecture, there was also a public lecture here and yesterday a lecture for students at the local university. I am writing these lines in the Waldorf School, from where I send warm greetings.

Rudolf Steiner

44

Rudolf Steiner to Edith Maryon

Stuttgart, 23 June 1920

My dear Edith Maryon!

As things have turned out, I cannot be in Dornach before Sunday. I do not like it at all, but there is no other way.

Regarding the program proposed by Baron Rosenkrantz, I can only say that I will make every effort to carry it out. Naturally, I am prepared to show the visitors the building and the studio myself and discuss them in detail.

Now I can hardly say anything else from here, except that despite everything I will leave a lot of unfinished work here. What is lacking are purposeful, skilled people; and they are hard to find today. A task as large as the one begun here weighs heavily on the soul; and in the face of such a burden, it matters little whether one tires a little more or a little less. Certain things just have to be done.

I long to be back at work in our studio. Well, it won't be long now.

Warmest greetings for today

currently Stuttgart, Landhausstraße 70
Rudolf Steiner

46

Rudolf Steiner to Edith Maryon

Stuttgart, 26 July 1920

My dear Edith Maryon!

In a little while we will have a long meeting of the administrative council, so I just want to send a few lines before I leave for Dischingen tomorrow to see about our experiments. So far, everything that has been done unofficially has gone well. But the latter is becoming more and more of a worry. Unfortunately, there is little of the business acumen we so urgently need at present. The few people we have are overburdened. Others cannot be found at all. The lecture in Göttingen cannot take place because of the great resistance there.

I will arrange the concert for Baron Rosenkrantz's people only when I come back. There will then be plenty of time, and I would prefer it if nothing were said about it beforehand.

It will be a pleasure to be back in our Dornach studio and to work. I will return at the appointed time. For today,

warmest greetings

Stuttgart, Landhausstraße 70
Rudolf Steiner

54

Rudolf Steiner to Edith Maryon

Stuttgart, 12 November 1920
Landhausstrasse 70

My dear Edith Maryon!

Thank you very much for the letter which has just arrived. I am glad that the studio is doing well. Hopefully it will continue like this. My work here this time may be less exhausting on the surface, at least I think so, but it requires a lot of thought to put things in order that are out of order. If only people could really work together in a humanly good way; that alone is what is most lacking. There is so much to do that I was even able to attend a morning of teaching at the school for the first time today. But it seems to be going well.

Wednesday was a very well attended public lecture, and there should be a second one on Tuesday. Then there should be a lecture in Freiburg on Thursday, which should also be a public lecture, and a eurythmy performance on Friday. I hope to be in Dornach on the 21st. I will do everything I can to finish here before Thursday. It is not certain that this will be possible, but there could not be more than two days delay. It is just difficult to put things in order that are in disorder here.

Warmest greetings for today from

Dr. Rudolf Steiner 55. Edith Maryon to Rudolf Steiner Sculptor's Studio, Goetheanum, Dornach near Basel, 14 Nov. 1920 Dearest Teacher,

I am sending you a review of The Threefold State from a reputable newspaper in North England, and since I thought it rather good, I also ordered a few extra copies.

Mr. Gaze was unable to get a passport due to the shortness of time and has already left. He says that a second edition of “The Threefold State” will probably have to be published in the spring and thought it could be combined with all or some of the essays from “In Execution of the Threefold Order of the Social Organism”. I told him that it would be best to write to the author directly and ask for his wishes. Today I visited Mr. and Mrs. Sharp and congratulated them solemnly; the wedding was on Thursday. Friday I will visit little Schmiedel; proud Papa has already shown around a picture of the first birthday (8 days).

On Saturday we have a lecture by Dr. Boos at the Bernoullianum.

There is no news from Stuttgart, I can only hope that everything is going well and send warm greetings

Edith Maryon

Will Dr. Unger be able to get the stoves for the houses?

56

Rudolf Steiner to Edith Maryon
[telegram]

[postmark]
Dornach 22. XI. 1920
from Stuttgart No. 379/4

Fräulein Edith Maryon
Sculptor's Studio, Goetheanum,
Dornachbrugg near Basel.

Travel only possible on Wednesday or Thursday. Best regards,

Rudolf Steiner.