Zirkoff B. - Foreword (5)

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Foreword

by Boris de Zirkoff

H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writtings, vol. 14, page(s) xxi-xxiii

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xxi

FOREWORD TO VOLUME XIV

This volume is the last of the numbered series of the H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings. Its final production is due to the patient labor of several persistent fellow-students, since a number of quotations had to be completed, or foot-noted, after the passing of the Editor, Mr. Boris de Zirkoff.

Nicholas Weeks gave valuable assistance in every phase of the work, including proofreading and indexing. Jeanne Sims, of Los Angeles, was always ready to proofread and be consulted in various ways. We thank Mr. David Reigle especially for his knowledge of Sanskrit and Tibetan terms, as well as the resources of his Eastern School Reference Library. We owe a great debt to Mr. Richard I. Robb who contributed the major portion of the Bio-Bibliography, and completed the unfinished entries of Mr. de Zirkoff. Mr. John Drais redrew and corrected some of the Hebrew letters.

Aside from these associates we welcomed the sustained interest & proofreading of Mr. & Mrs. Hector Tate; the research of Mr. Hannah Fadel, Vern Haddick and of Karen Skubish of the Newberry Library. Anne Redlich helped located several obscure dates for our Index. From abroad, Ted Davy, Gen. Sec. of the T.S., Canada, Mr. & Mrs. Wilfried Goltz (who traced the Von Haller poem) and several T.S. Lodge members in London, helped smooth the way. The Chicago Theosophical students of Vonda Urban & Irene Stashinski were willing helpers all along. These included Arnie Coleman, Norman Zuefle and Vonda herself. Virginia Ross had computer typeset a rendition of the Introduction to appear in this volume, as part of the xxiiSD2 Symposium in San Diego. I also thank Joy Mills and Virginia Hanson of Ojai, California for valuable suggestions regarding Boris de Zirkoff’s Introduction. As always, Emmett Small of Point Loma Pubs. was available for consultation, for which we are very grateful.

Much time was saved by checking references in the wonderful resources of the nearby Pasadena T.S. Research Library. These were augmented by many valuable suggestions of their archivist, Mr. Kirby von Mater, and librarians John von Mater and Manuel Oderberg. Because we wished to provide references to Mr. C. Jinarâjadâsa’s partial printing of the Würzburg MS. in The Theosophist, the Theosophical University Press staff’s willingness to make photocopies from their set of volumes is greatly appreciated.

The Würzburg MS. itself was no longer available on microfilm, and Mr. de Zirkoff’s typescript from the aging copy at Adyar needed rechecking. The T.S. of America in Wheaton provided a micro-flo copy which enabled us to cross-check the “To the Reader’s” section, included in our Appendices. More about the procurement of this MS. is to be found therein. Throughout the text however, we refer to the WMS. (Würzburg MS.), whenever a portion from the original material of H.P.B. throws added light on the passage. Any additional material is entered in brackets, as well as any word not clear in the typescript, or any footnote reference to The Theosophist reprint available. Certain anomalies need to be explained. On p. 336, and again on p. 342, reference is made to an Appendix which apparently H.P.B. was planning to add to her work. These have remained untraced, and are not to be confused with the Appendices of this current volume. For the Sinnett MS. of Incident in the Life of H.P. Blavatsky, which appears amidst the latter, we are indebted to Mr. Michael Gomes, who sent them from Adyar.

We have kept to H.P.B’s British spelling for some English words, whenever possible, but have tried to update xxiiithe Sanskrit and Tibetan.

Last, but not least, we thank Boris’ long-time friend and printer Everett Stockton, for overseeing the typesetting of Mr. de Zirkoff’s last numbered volume, and Mr. Pete Pedersen, the publication manager of T.P.H. Wheaton, who searched the archives for illustrative and historial material now at Olcott Library.

DARA EKLUND Assistant Compiler

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA

Fall 1985