Tending Rudolf Steiner’s Legacy

An evening with Zoï Doehrer, Executive Director of Rudolf Steiner Library, and John Scott Legg, Managing Director of Steiner Books

The impulse to collect and publish Rudolf Steiner’s books and lectures began in this country during Rudolf Steiner’s lifetime. The St. Mark’s Group founded in 1910 was a study group (still active in New York City) that first met in a Carnegie Hall studio and had a collection of books and articles to lend to their members and mail out to those at a distance. SteinerBooks (Anthroposophical Press) was formally founded in 1928 but its founder Henry Monges was actively engaged in collecting English translations of Rudolf Steiner’s books and lectures as early as 1917. Both the Library and Publishing initiatives have accompanied the growth of anthroposophy in this country with consistent dedication to caring for the work of Rudolf Steiner and other anthroposophical authors. Both also have found their homes here in Columbia County.

John Scott and Zoï now continue with the expertise and enthusiasm of their predecessors. The last few years have seen major changes for both organizations. For SteinerBooks, it was the deaths of colleagues Christopher Bamford, Gene Gollogly, and Marsha Post within a couple of years. In the past decade, the library relocated from Harlemville to Philmont, then to Hudson. In 2019, it separated from the Anthroposophical Society of America and ownership moved to the Rudolf Steiner Cultural Foundation. Ownership was later transferred to the Circle of Friends, who now make up the library’s Board of Directors.

Please join us for this March Branch Evening to hear from John Scott and Zoï something of their journey into the world of books, their current projects and plans, their challenges and ways that we can help and support the efforts to preserve and expand the spiritual legacy of Rudolf Steiner. –Gloria Kemp, for the Branch Council