I could never have dreamt that there were such goings-on
in the world between the covers of books,
such sandstorms and ice blasts of words,
such staggering peace, such enormous laughter,
such and so many blinding bright lights,
splashing all over the pages
in a million bits and pieces
all of which were words, words, words,
and each of which were alive forever
in its own delight and glory and oddity and light.
—Dylan Thomas, “Notes on the Art of Poetry”
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“The things I want to know are in books; my best friend is the man who’ll git me a book I ain’t read.”
—Young Abe Lincoln (as conjectured by Carl Sandburg)
It should come as no surprise that those of us here at SteinerBooks love books. (It’s a wonderful thing to love what you do.) I have my own (ever-expanding) list of “essential books,” and perhaps we all do. Looking just now over the records (“the numbers”) of the books sold this past year, I was struck by the fact that, once again, a book that Rudolf Steiner himself considered to be “essential” for those wishing to understand his work as a whole was our top-seller for 2020. This is the book most widely known as How to Know Higher Worlds. The fact that this book is a perennial seller is a testament, I think, to the living, contemporary importance of Steiner’s work, and that in order to really grasp what this work is and means for humanity, seekers, the merely curious, and others must encounter and digest the “basic works” of Steiner such as this one. That people continue to do this is just one more essential filament in the bright light of hope shining into this New Year.
Happy New Year and may the light of courage, understanding, and resolve illuminate your path through the days ahead.
