Correspondence with Edith Maryon 1912–1924

GA 263 — 21 December 1919

Letter from Edith Maryon

Edith Maryon to Rudolf Steiner
Sculptor's studio, Goetheanum
Dornach, 21 Dec. 1919

Dear and esteemed teacher,

My life here has become quite different. I spend my time between the large and small Lucifer figures (one hopes that this does not lead to all kinds of fanciful thoughts and qualities?) The head of the small Lucifer is tilted so far forward that it is difficult to carve. I have already chipped away almost too much of the nose – but it can be repaired. Our studio looks very empty and abandoned, as if no one had worked there in a month.

I had a long talk with Mrs. Wedgwood about the people she has encountered – she is much less judgmental than I am and says that if you haven't lived through it yourself, you can hardly imagine how incredibly ugly and difficult it was in England during the war, and that the few hundred people who more or less understood the real significance of this war really went through a dreadful time. The whole air there is poisoned and polluted with lies, and people who had to hold themselves upright in such an atmosphere without any support or help, in the middle of a crowd of people who showed hostility as soon as it became known that someone was a pacifist – and feeling depressed by the horror of this war – really had a terrible time. She thought that many could not have held out if they had seen everything. That's why she has hope for these people, who at least want to hear, while the others are blind, deaf, and hostile to all other thoughts. Nevertheless, I think that one can easily understand what it looked like there, even without being there.

Dec. 22: Today I was at the key issues working group in the reading room. It was actually quite interesting, mainly a little speech by Mrs. W[fedgwood], which was clearly expressed, with a bit of humor, etc. The topic was capital. The questions were sometimes amusing. Mr. Monges wanted to know whether a dentist sold his work in exactly the same way as the day laborers and [that] could hardly understand the difference, and said he must feel like a slave

Mrs. Drury-Lavin spoke of the contentment and piety she had found among the English agricultural laborers and could not understand how they could belong to a bygone age that had no future. Both questions were asked in a very characteristic way.

I am looking forward to the public lectures in Basel.

With warm regards

Edith Maryon