Charles Benjamin Purdom, usually credited as C. B. Purdom (15 Oct 1883 - 8 July 1965), was a British author

Author

An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

, drama critic

Critic

A critic is anyone who expresses a value judgement. Informally, criticism is a common aspect of all human expression and need not necessarily imply skilled or accurate expressions of judgement. Critical judgements, good or bad, may be positive , negative , or balanced...

, economist

Economist

An economist is a professional in the social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy...

 and editor of an English periodical called Everyman. Everyman covered books, drama, music and travel and featured articles by renowned authors such as Ivor Brown

Ivor Brown

Ivor John Carnegie Brown was a British journalist and man of letters.-Biography:Born in Penang, Malaya, Brown was the younger of two sons of Dr. William Carnegie Brown, a specialist in tropical diseases, and his wife Jean Carnegie. At an early age he was sent to Britain, where he attended Suffolk...

, Arthur Machen

Arthur Machen

Arthur Machen was a Welsh author and mystic of the 1890s and early 20th century. He is best known for his influential supernatural, fantasy, and horror fiction. His novella The Great God Pan has garnered a reputation as a classic of horror...

, G. K. Chesterton

G. K. Chesterton

Gilbert Keith Chesterton, KC*SG was an English writer. His prolific and diverse output included philosophy, ontology, poetry, plays, journalism, public lectures and debates, literary and art criticism, biography, Christian apologetics, and fiction, including fantasy and detective fiction....

, A. E. Coppard

A. E. Coppard

Alfred Edgar Coppard was an English writer, noted for his influence on the short story form, and poet.-Life:He was born, the son of a tailor and a housemaid, in Folkestone, and had little formal education...

, Bertrand Russell

Bertrand Russell

Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, and social critic. At various points in his life he considered himself a liberal, a socialist, and a pacifist, but he also admitted that he had never been any of these things...

 and many others. He was also the earliest biographer of Meher Baba

Meher Baba

Meher Baba , , born Merwan Sheriar Irani, was an Indian mystic and spiritual master who declared publicly in 1954 that he was the Avatar of the age....

. He died in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 in 1965.

First biographer of Meher Baba

Purdom was a devoted life-long follower of the Indian

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

 silent teacher Meher Baba

Meher Baba

Meher Baba , , born Merwan Sheriar Irani, was an Indian mystic and spiritual master who declared publicly in 1954 that he was the Avatar of the age....

 after meeting him in Devon

Devon

Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 on Baba's first visit to the West in 1931. Purdom was Meher Baba's original biographer, writing The Perfect Master: The Early Life of Meher Baba in 1937, which covers Meher Baba's life from 1911-1936, and The God Man: The Life, Journeys & Work of Meher Baba with an Interpretation of His Silence & Spiritual Teaching in 1964. He also wrote an early single-volume edition of Meher Baba's discourses

Discourses (Meher Baba)

Discourses is a book by Meher Baba that has received seven editions since 1939 and is still in print. Besides God Speaks it is considered the second most important of Meher Baba's books by followers of Meher Baba.- Overview:...

 titled God to Man and Man to God: The Discourses of Meher Baba (1955) and co-wrote with author Malcolm Schloss a detailed account of a group visit with Meher Baba in India titled Three Incredible Weeks with Meher Baba: September 11 - September 30, 1954.

Selected publications

• The Garden City: A Study of the Development of a Modern Town, J.M. Dent & Sons, London, 1913
• The Building of Satellite Towns: A Contribution to the Study of Town Development and Regional Planning, J.M. Dent & Sons, London, 1925
• The Swan Shakespeare; a Player's Edition - 3 Volumes , J.M. Dent & Sons, London, 1930
• Producing Plays: a handbook for producers & players, J.M. Dent, London 1930
• Everyman at War. Sixty Personal Narratives of the War, Dutton, New York, 1930 and J.M. Dent, London, 1939
• The Perfect Master: The Life of Shri Meher Baba, (Meher Baba's life from 1911-1936), Williams & Norgate Ltd, London, 1937. Reprinted as Perfect Master, The Early Life of Meher Baba, by Sheriar Press USA in 1976
• The New Order, J.M. Dent and Sons Ltd, 1941
• How Shall We Rebuild London?, J.M. Dent, London, 1946
• Economic Wellbeing, Nicholson and Watson, 1947
• Producing Shakespeare, Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons, London, 1950
• Life Over Again, J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd., London, 1951
• Drama Festivals and Their Adjudication; a Handbook for Producers, Actors, Festival Organisers, and Adjudicators, J.M. Dent and Sons Ltd., London, 1951
• Three Incredible Weeks with Meher Baba: September 11 - September 30, 1954
• Harley Granville Barker: Man of the Theatre, Dramatist, and Scholar, Salisbury Square, 1955
• God to Man and Man to God: The Discourses of Meher Baba, Victor Gollancz Ltd., London, 1955
• Bernard Shaw's Letters to Granville Barker, Phoenix House, London, 1956
• A Guide to the Plays of Bernard Shaw, Methuen & Co. Ltd, London, 1963
• The Letchworth Achievement, J.M. Dent & Sons, 1963
• What Happens in Shakespeare: a New Interpretation, John Baker Publ., London, 1963
• The God-Man: The Life, Journeys & Work of Meher Baba with an Interpretation of His Silence & Spiritual Teaching, George Allen & Unwin, London, 1964

External links

• 1932 Paramount Newsreel of Charles Purdom with Meher Baba in London