Alfred Richard Orage - Last Years

Last Years

In May 1930, Orage returned to England and became seriously involved with political issues and was paramount in re-sparking interest in the Social Credit Movement. He was temporarily back in New York on 8 January 1931 to meet Gurdjieff's new demands. As Orage would confess to his wife, he would not be teaching the Gurdjieff System to any group past the end of the Spring. Orage was on the pier on 13 March 1931 to bid Gurdjieff farewell on his way back to France; the Orages sailed back to England on 3 July of the same year. Back in England, Orage founded a new journal, The New English Weekly, in April 1932. By the beginning of 1933, The New English Weekly was an established success with the critics but the economic effects of the Great Depression made it difficult as a monetary venture; they were hard put for money. On 18 May 1933, Orage published Dylan Thomas first poem, And Death Shall Have No Dominion. On September 1933, Jessie gave birth to a daughter, Ann. On January 1934, Senator Bronson Cutting presented before the Senate of the United States Orage's Social Credit Plan as one of the tools of Roosevelt's economic policies; the news appeared in the 2 February issue of The New English Weekly. At the beginning of August 1934, Gurdjieff asked Orage to revise a new edition of The Herald of Coming Good. On 20 August, Orage wrote his last letter to Gurdjieff: "Dear Mr. Gurdjieff, I've found very little to revise..."

Toward the end of his life, Orage was attacked by a severe pain below the heart, an ailment that had been diagnosed a couple of years back as simply functional and he did not again seek medical advice.

He was working on Social Credit and prepared a speech to be broadcast on "Property in Plenty". During the broadcast, he experienced an excruciating pain but continued the speech as if nothing were happening. After leaving the studio, he spent the evening with his wife and friends and made plans to see the doctor next day. On reaching home after midnight, he went to bed and died in his sleep.

On 6 November 1934, Gurdjieff was in New York City where he received the telegram "...from London saying that Mr. Orage had died the same morning." On hearing of Orage's death, Gurdjieff issued the following invitation: "I have just now learned of the death of Mr. Orage, who was for many years your guide and teacher and my inner world essence friend. I invite you to attend a meeting to pay homage to him and to speak in his memory, on Friday evening, November 9th, at 9 o'clock, in Miss Bentley's studio in Carnegie Hall, at which time, likewise, will be played some of his favorite music and some of those pieces dedicated to him which were composed by me while he was at the Prieuré." On 7 December 1934, in a letter to Ezra Pound, T. E. Lawrence expresses sadness at the death of A. R. Orage. Orage's former students of the Gurdjieff System left the enneagram inscribed on his tombstone.