Questions and Answers

There are certain people, both real or imaginary, who will always remain children in our memory.

From Peter Pan and his followers in Neverland, to Christopher Robin dragging Winnie the Pooh behind him, to the precocious rascals of the Our Gang comedies and the Depression-era tap dancing and ever-smiling Shirley Temple, these young ‘uns are ageless!

I’m adding to this menagerie of Shangrila cuties, Arthur Anderson Peters, who wrote under the name Fritz Peters.  Fritz would have turned 100 years old today.

It was the wonderful chapter in his memoir, BOYHOOD WITH GURDJIEFF, which inspired me to write my picture book GERTRUDE AND ALICE AND FRITZ AND TOM.  I just couldn’t resist retelling the story of two young boys, Fritz and his brother Tom, reveling under the tutelage of GertrudeandAlice in 1920s Paris.  (Woody Allen, there’s a Paris sequel for you!)  And Fritz’s quote about his years at the boarding school outside of Paris helped to make the decision to do the book even easier:

 “I have never forgotten that winter.  The long evenings of reading and study in our warm rooms [and] looking forward to my visits to Paris with Gertrude and Alice.”

On his 100^th birthday, I pay tribute to Fritz Peters, a tribute that is long overdue.

Tribute has been defined as “a gift, testimonial, compliment, or the like, given as due or in acknowledgement of gratitude or esteem.”

Fritz wrote eight books  between 1949 and 1978 with many of them reviewed in the New York Times, but, in my opinion,  he has never really been given his due as a writer  (The Times also featured his obituary in December of 1979. )

Only one of his books, FINISTERE, is still in print while BOYHOOD WITH GURJIEFF is available as an e –book.

The due that I feel is due ( a bit of Steinese)  is not couched in the biographical data of his life with its ups and downs or an analysis of the man and his writing;  I leave that up to the biographers and scholars, several of whom have, over the years, published periodic articles or have been working on books which as far as I know have not been published..

 

The due that I would like to offer Fritz Peters on his 100th birthday is gratitude for a tough life lived, but one which still allowed his lifelong quest to make a living as a writer to produce a book like BOYHOOD WITH GURDJIEFF. He wrote the book almost forty years after he and Tom experienced  life at the Gurdjieff institute, yet his insights and feelings are as fresh as daily, handwritten letters home.

And the gift I give you, Fritz, on your 100th birthday is the wish to stay forever young in my memory and in the memory of those who read your works or pick up a copy of  my book which is made even more memorable because of Tom Hachtman’s drawings.

As I was thinking of writing this tribute, I contacted Kate Peters, Fritz’s daughter and asked her if she’d send me any photographs of her father.  She sent me several, all of which I had never seen before.  (Thanks Kate !) The one that I felt captured the astute, yet mischievous forever young boy was taken in the 1920s with his brother Tom and their aunt, Margaret Anderson.

In the photo a cocky looking Tom poses with his knee balanced on a bench, while a stoic looking Fritz stares directly into the camera looking a bit like Beaver Cleaver – another forever young ‘un! Both boys are in short-sleeved shirts while Aunt Margaret appears to be wearing a fur coat in what looks like a resort.

Tom’s eyes are shut, while Fritz maintains a stern stare as if he is looking into the future – one which will be uncertain and at times unsettling, but one into which he will rush to pursue his dreams: the stare of someone who will remain forever young.

Aunt Margaret just looks confused and out of place !

And so Fritz Peters, Happy Birthday and “may flights of angels sing thee”  to Neverland to join Master Pan, Christopher and Pooh, all of those rascals and Miss Twinkle Toes!

 

PS

Contact me if you’d like to purchase a copy of GERTRUDE AND ALICE AND FRITZ AND TOM at the special 100th birthday price of $10.

Tagged Finistere, Fritz Peters, Gertrude and Alice and Fritz and Tom, Margaret Anderson, Tom Hachtman