Draft:Fritz Peters
 | This article, Draft:Fritz Peters, has recently been created via the Articles for creation process. Please check to see if the reviewer has accidentally left this template after accepting the draft and take appropriate action as necessary.
Reviewer tools: Preload talk Inform author |
Comment: There is currently a redirect from the title of this draft. If this draft is accepted, the redirect should be deleted, because the hatnote at the top of this page will take its place.You may ask about redirects and hatnotes at the Teahouse. Robert McClenon (talk) 07:01, 30 January 2024 (UTC)
 | This article's tone or style may not reflect the encyclopedic tone used on Wikipedia. (July 2024) |
Arthur Anderson “Fritz” Peters was an American author, who wrote on themes of spirituality, mental illness, homosexuality, self and society. A nonconformist, Peters' most successful novel was Finistère, published in 1951, which sold over 350,000 copies and was an influential and unapologetic work of early gay literature.[1][better source needed]
Draft:Fritz Peters | |
|---|---|
| Born | Madison, Wisconsin |
| Occupation | Author |
| Period | 1949-1978 |
| Notable works | Finistère (1951) |
| Relatives | Margaret C. Anderson Jane Heap |
Early life and education
Peters was born in Madison, Wisconsin. Due to instability in his family life, Peters spent his childhood between Europe and the United States. Fritz's parents' divorce and his mother’s nervous breakdown in the mid-1920s left young Fritz adrift. His aunt, Margaret Anderson, and her lover, Jane Heap stepped in to care for him and his brother. Margaret and Jane were bohemian royalty. They took Fritz to France, where he met Gertrude Stein, Hemingway, E.E. Cummings, and other avant garde greats.[2]
Most influentially, Margaret sent Fritz to study at the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man, founded by the controversial Russian mystic, G. I. Gurdjieff. When he first arrived at the Institute, Gurdjieff asked Fritz what he wished to learn there. He replied, “I want to know everything. Everything about man."[2] Gurdjieff became a father figure, eventually naming Fritz his "successor" and "true son".[3]
Fritz spent years coming to terms with his childhood trauma, war trauma, and homosexuality, all while battling severe mental illness – and transmuted his experiences into works of literature.
Bibliography
Novels
- The World Next Door (1949)
- Finistère (1951)
- The Descent (1952)
Memoirs
- Boyhood with Gurdjieff (1964)
- Gurdjieff Remembered (1971)
- Balanced Man (1978)