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>>   Biographies Essays and poetry by Ron Price Poetry
TAGS: Bipolar disorder; Pioneering; Plans; Ron Price; Teaching
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Abstract:
Table of Contents for a memoir of six decades of teaching & international travel, an extensive personal account of the experience of a Western Bahai beginning in the 2nd epoch, 1944 to 1963, of the teaching Plans.
Notes:
See all of Ron Price's work in the Ron Price Collection.

Pioneering Over Four Epochs: An Autobiographical Study:
Poetry and essays

by Ron Price

1944-2013
This autobiographical study begins at the start of the three teaching Plans in: 1937, 1946 and 1953 respectively and integrates a lifespan, 1944 to 2013, a life-narrative, into the context of the history of the Bahai community back to 1753, the year of the birth of this Faith's chief precursor Shaykh Ahmad. The author includes over 2000 references from the humanities and social sciences within the western intellectual tradition. His account goes through to the early years of this new millennium, the first six decades from the inception of the Kingdom of God on earth, 1953-2013.

This author's work is much more than a blow-by-blow account of these years. He draws on many disciplines, on studies of autobiography and biography as well as a broad range of experience, to analyse his society, his Faith, his community and himself in those critical first eight decades of organized and systematic teaching Plans, 1937 to 2013. Readers will find here at Bahai Library Online the introductory sections, Parts 1, 2 and 3 of this epic 2600 page five volume 7th edition. These three Parts are an abridged, truncated, and necessarily provisional edition for BLO. This section, this post, contains the 8 prefaces to Part 1 and, as the title suggests, the work is a study of autobiography as a genre, an analysis of its process and its content, as much as if not more than, a study of Price's life, his society and his set of values, beliefs and attitudes---in a word---his religion.

The Office of Review of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahais of the United States has given him permission to post his work in this form on the internet. The 3rd edition of this document was originally posted at BLO in 2003 and it has been edited and revised many times. This 7th edition was posted here in celebration of the 50th anniversary just 21 months from now, in April 2013, of the first election of the Universal House of Justice back in 1963. An 8th edition of this memoiristic work is envisaged to be published on the internet in 2021 at the end of the first century of the Formative Age if, as the author points out, he lasts that long.


DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to the Universal House of Justice in celebration of the fiftieth anniversary in April 2013 of its first election in April 1963 and to Alfred J. Cornfield, my grandfather, whose autobiography was an inspiration to the one found here.

Caveats:

1. The document below is Part 1 of what is a necessary abridgement of a narrative work of 2600 pages; it has been truncated here to fit into the space provided for this document at Bahai Library Online. This document is both an outline and a curtailment of an epic-opus, an abbreviated, a compressed, a boiled down, a potted, a shorn, a mown, a more compact version of my larger epic-work. This abridgement of the 7th edition of my autobiography will include changes in the months ahead. When a significant number of changes are made an 8th edition will be brought out. I anticipate this 8th edition will be placed here at BLO in 2021, the end of the first century of the Formative Age of the Bahai Era. It is my hope, although I cannot guarantee, that this brief exposure here will give readers a taste, a desire, for more.

2. The inclusion of quotation marks, apostrophes and accents has often proved difficult as have the addition of footnotes. Hopefully this will be remedied at a later date.

Continue to Dedication and prefaces




Note from webmaster: until a Table of Contents is completed and linked, Ron's articles can be accessed from the Ron Price Collection, all items in which are listed below:

  1. 250 Years of the Creative and Performing Arts: 1742-1992: Pioneering Over Four Epochs, Section VIII Poetry, in Pioneering Over Four Epochs: An Autobiographical Study and a Study in Autobiography. Ron Price. Music, theatre, dance--the creative and performing arts--have played an important part in the life of humankind, in my life and in the experience of the Bahá'í community. Poetry here takes themes and experience from these areas of human activity. [more]

  2. An Account of 67 Years of My Experience With Bipolar Disorder: A Personal-Clinical Study of A Chaos Narrative. Ron Price. This is a 60,000 word, 150 page longitudinal, retrospective and prospective account of my experience with bipolar disorder and some other mental health problems over a 67 year period: October 2010 to October 1943. [more]

  3. Autobiographical Poetry 1995: Pioneering Over Four Epochs, Section VIII: Booklets 12-17, in Pioneering Over Four Epochs: An Autobiographical Study and a Study in Autobiography. Ron Price, Poetry: Section VIIIAfter writing poetry very occasionally for thirty years,1962-1992,I began to write it seriously in that Holy Year, May 1992-May 1993. By the end of 1995 I had written some 2000 prose-poems. The prose-poems in this collection come from the year 1995.
    [more]

  4. Autobiographical Poetry 1996: Pioneering Over Four Epochs, Section VIII: Booklets 17-23, in Pioneering Over Four Epochs: An Autobiographical Study and a Study in Autobiography. Ron Price, Volumes 17-23This poetry comes from the fourth year of my writing poetry extensively. By extensively I mean some 500 poems per year, for the most part autobiographical. [more]

  5. Autobiographical Poetry 1997: Pioneering Over Four Epochs, Section VIII: Booklets 23-28, in Pioneering Over Four Epochs: An Autobiographical Study and a Study in Autobiography. Ron Price, Poetry: Section VIIIThe poetry on this document was written in 1997 when I was age 52-3 and living in Perth Western Australia. I had been a member of the Bahá'í Faith for 38 years. [more]

  6. Autobiographical Poetry 1998: Pioneering Over Four Epochs, Section VIII: Booklets 28-33, in Pioneering Over Four Epochs: An Autobiographical Study and a Study in Autobiography. Ron Price, Poetry: Section VIIIThis is the fourth year, beginning in 1995, that I have put poetry on this site. The previous 15 years(1980-1994)of my poetic writings are not on the web only in my personal files in my study in Tasmania. [more]

  7. Autobiographical Poetry 1999: Pioneering Over Four Epochs: 1999: Booklets 33-40, in Pioneering Over Four Epochs: An Autobiographical Study and A Study in Autobiography. Ron Price, Section VIII: PoetryThese poems were written in 1999 and are part of an annual series of prose-poetry I began sending to Bahá'í Library Online in September 2003. The first year in this series contains poetry I wrote in 1995. [more]

  8. Autobiographical Poetry 2000: Pioneering Over Four Epochs: Poetry Booklets 40-43, in Pioneering Over Four Epochs: An Autobiographical Study and a Study in Autobiography. Ron Price, Section VIII: PoetryThis poetry was written during the year 2000, the twentieth year of my writing poetry. I wrote four booklets of poetry that year, numbers 40 to 43. They are all part of Section VIII of a larger work also entitled: Pioneering Over Four Epochs. [more]

  9. Autobiographical Poetry 2001: Pioneering Over Four Epochs: Poetry Booklets 44 to 47, in Pioneering Over Four Epochs: An Autobiographical Study and a Study in Autobiography. Ron Price, Poetry: Section VIIIThe poetry in this collection I wrote during 2001. It is part of a larger collection begun in 1980 and part of, section VIII of an autobiography entitled: Pioneering Over Four Epochs. [more]

  10. Autobiographical Poetry 2002: Pioneering Over Four Epochs, Section VIII: Booklets 48-51, in Pioneering Over Four Epochs: An Autobiographical Study and a Study in Autobiography. Ron Price, Poetry: Section VIIIAfter 30 years of writing occasional pieces of poetry(1962-1992), I have now written poetry 15 years much more extensively and intensively(1993-2005). The poetry here comes from just one year, 2002. It does not represent all the poetry I wrote that year. [more]

  11. Autobiographical Poetry 2003-4: Pioneering Over Four Epochs, Section VIII: Booklets 51-53, in Pioneering Over Four Epochs: An Autobiographical Study and a Study in Autobiography. Ron Price, Poetry: Section VIIIThe poetry in this section was written during the two years 2003-4 and is part of Section VIII of a larger autobiographical work: Pioneering Over Four Epochs. The type of poetry I write is known as prose-poetry, arguably the most common type of poetry. [more]

  12. Autobiographical Poetry 2005: Booklets 54-57: Pioneering Over Four Epochs, Section VIII:Poetry, in Pioneering Over Four Epochs: An Autobiographical Study and A Study in Autobiography. Ron Price, Section VIII-PoetryThe first poem that I wrote was at the start of my pioneering life in 1962, but I did not keep any of my poems until 1980. I now have 27 years of poetry in my collection. The poetry here is from the 25th year of this collection of poetry--2005. [more]

  13. Autobiographical Poetry Volumes 1 to 5: Pioneering Over Four Epochs, in Pioneering Over Four Epochs: An Autobiographical Study and A Study in Autobiography. Ron Price, A Pot Pourri From 1995-2001This document contains poetry, prose, interviews, essays, pages from my memoirs, indeed, a pot pourri of material from the years 1995 to 2001. [more]

  14. Bahá'í Administration: 1953-2003: Pioneering Over Four Epochs, Section VIII Poetry, in Pioneering Over Four Epochs: An Autobiographical Study and A Stidy in Autobiography. Ron Price, Poetry: Section VIII [more]

  15. Comments On The Print and Electronic Media: 1844-2044: Pioneering Over Four Epochs, Section VIII Poetry, in Pioneering Over Four Epochs: An Autobiographical Study and A Study in Autobiography. Ron Price. [more]

  16. Emergence of a Bahá'í Consciousness in World Literature: The Poetry of Roger White. Ron Price. Begun in the last years of Roger White's life, this book had an initial approval by White who read the first draft before he passed away in 1993. The book is essentially a study of White's verse with a short biography and an analysis of the Bahá'í Faith. [more]

  17. Essays on Poetry: Pioneering Over Four Epochs: Section VIII Poetry, in Pioneering Over Four Epochs: An Autobiographical Study and A Study in Autobiography. Ron Price. The essays on the subject of poetry are, for the most part, introductions to my 63 booklets of poetry. My intention is to place as many of the essays I have written on the subject of poetry in this document. [more]

  18. Film, Television, Media and Poetry: Pioneering Over Four Epochs, Section VIII Poetry. Ron Price. [more]

  19. Interviews With Ron Price About Poetry: Pioneering Over Four Epochs: Section VIII, in Pioneering Over Four Epochs: An Autobiographical Study and a Study in Autobiography. Ron Price, Poetry: Section VIIIThis series of 26 interviews held in the 13 years between 1996 and 2009 is essentially about my poetry. The interviews concerned the poetry I wrote between 1992 and 2009. The interviews are simulated and will hopefully help readers who are "into" my poetr [more]

  20. Nature Poetry: Pioneering Over Four Epochs: Section VII Poetry. Ron Price. [more]

  21. Pioneering Over Four Epochs: Sections X.I Photographs and XI Memorabilia, in Pioneering Over Four Epochs: An Autobiographical Study and a Study in Autobiography. Ron Price, Sections X.1 and XII have added some photographs going as far back as 1908 and a brief sketch of my family history going back my great-great grandparents lives in the 1830s and 1840s. But there is little flesh on the bones of this long period elaborating on the photographs. [more]

  22. Pioneering Over Four Epochs: An Autobiographical Study and a Study in Autobiography: Part 2, in Pioneering Over Four Epochs. Ron Price. [more]

  23. Pioneering Over Four Epochs: An Autobiographical Study and A Study In Autobiography: Part 3, in Pioneering Over Four Epochs. Ron Price. This autobiography/memoir of a Bahai over six decades of teaching and international travel is one of the few extensive personal accounts of the experience of a Western Bahai beginning in the second epoch (1944-1963) of the Formative Age. [more]

  24. Pioneering Over Four Epochs: Section VIII - Poetry - The Heroic Age: 3rd Epoch: 1892-1921, in Pioneering Over Four Epochs: An Autobiographical Study and a Study in Autobiography. Ron Price. [more]

  25. Pioneering Over Four Epochs: Section VIII Poetry - The Formative Age: 1st Epoch (1921-1944), in Pioneering Over Four Epochs: An Autobiographical Study and A Study in Autobiography. Ron Price. [more]

  26. Pioneering Over Four Epochs: Section VIII: Poetry 2006, in Pioneering Over Four Epochs: An Autobiographical Study and a Study in Autobiography. Ron Price. [more]

  27. Pioneering Over Four Epochs: Section VIII: Poetry, in Pioneering Over Four Epochs: An Autobiographical Study and A Study in Autobiography. Ron Price. [more]

  28. Pioneering Over Four Epochs, Section VI.2: Published Work: History of The Bahá'í Faith in The Northern Territory of Australia and Other Pieces, in Published Essays in The Print Media Including the Internet. Ron Price, Volume I at Bahai Library Online. This Bahai Library Online document contains The History of the Bahá'í Community in the Northern Territory of Australia: 1947-1997. This history is written in three dozen short instalments of a few hundred words each. [more]

  29. Pioneering Over Four Epochs: A Century of Precursors: 1744-1844: Section VIII Poetry, in Pioneering Over Four Epochs: An Autobiographical Study and A Study in Autobiography. Ron Price. There were four epochs from 1844 to 1944 and a precursor period which, here, I define as 1744 to 1844. The poetry in this document is related to that century before the declaration of the Bab. [more]

  30. Pioneering Over Four Epochs: Literary Work As Epic: Epic Poetry, Epic Narrative and the Epic of Bahai History, in Pioneering Over Four Epochs: An Autobiographical Study and a Study in Autobiography. Ron Price. In the ten year period September 1997 to September 2007 the concept, the organizing principle, the basis for my magnum opus Pioneering Over Four Epochs, as epic, found its first shaping. [more]

  31. Pioneering Over Four Epochs: Notebooks-Section IX: Autobiography: Section IX, in Pioneering Over Four Epochs: An Autobiographical Study and a Study in Autobiography. Ron Price, Section IX: NotebooksThe Notebooks I now possess were collected over a thirty year period, 1980 to 2010, from the age of 35 to 65. This collection of some 300 Notebooks is in the form of two-ring binders, arch-lever files & plastic ring-bound booklets. [more]

  32. Pioneering Over Four Epochs: prefaces. Ron Price. Extensive prefaces and opening matter for Pioneering over Four Epochs. [more]

  33. Pioneering Over Four Epochs: Section VI.1 Essays: Unpublished Essays, in Pioneering Over Four Epochs. Ron Price. This is section VI.1 of my autobiography: unpublished essays. I wrote some 300 essays as a student, as a teacher-lecturer, as a Bahá'í-publicity officer writing items for the media, as a poet-writer and simply as a person with literary needs and interests [more]

  34. Pioneering Over Four Epochs: Section X.2 Diary or Journal: Section X.2 Journal, in Pioneering Over Four Epochs: An Autobiographical Study and a Study in Autobiography. Ron Price. I began the process of diary and journal making on January 19th 1980, nine years after my international pioneering life began, eighteen years after my homefront pioneering life began and twenty-seven years after my association with the Bahá'í Faith began. [more]

  35. Pioneering Over Four Epochs: The Heroic Age: The 2nd Epoch: 1853-1892: Pioneering Over Four Epochs Section VIII: Poetry, in Pioneering Over Four Epochs: An Autobiographical Study and a Study in Autobiography. Ron Price, Section VIII: PoetryThe prose-poetry in this document involves, in various ways, the Person of Bahá'u'lláh, His life and teachings. I try to bring that Life into my own time and life in this poetry by means of the metaphorical nature of Bahá'í history. [more]

  36. Pioneering Over Four Epochs: The Heroic Age: The First Epoch: 1844-1853: Section VII Poetry, in Pioneering Over Four Epochs: An Autobiographical Study and a Study in Autobiography. Ron Price. [more]

  37. Poems On the Afterlife: Pioneering Over Four Epochs: Section VII Poetry. Ron Price. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, as I approached the age of 40, I began to take a serious interest in the afterlife. This was largely the result of personal trauma and difficulties. I began to seek the assistance of holy souls by means of intercession. [more]

  38. Poetry About Philosophy: Section VIII: Poetry: Pioneering Over Four Epochs: Section VIII Poetry, in Pioneering Over Four Epochs: An Autobiographical Study and a Study in Autobiography. Ron Price, Poetry: Section VIIIThe poetry in this section is concerned with various aspects of philosophy in the western tradition and Bahá'í philosophy in particular. The concept of the manifestation of God is pivotal to Bahá'í philosophy and to this poetry. [more]

  39. Poetry on the Seven Year Plan: 1937-1944: Pioneering Over Four Epochs Section VIII: Poetry, in Pioneering Over Four Epochs: An Autobiographical Study and a Study in Autobiography. Ron Price, Section VIII: PoetryThe poetry in this section has a wide range of relationships with the first Bahá'í teaching Plan launched in 1937. I was born in the summer of 1944,when Shoghi Effendi celebrated the completion of that Plan with the publication in August of God Passes By. [more]

  40. Poetry on the Ten Year Crusade: 1953-1963: Pioneering Over Four Epochs: Section VIII Poetry, in Pioneering Over Four Epochs: An Autobiographical Study and A Study in Autobiography. Ron Price, Section VIII: PoetryThe poetry here is related to the 10 Year Crusade: 1953-1963. I began my pioneering life during this period and this poetry brings together secular, Bahá'í and personal history. [more]

  41. Prose-Poetry of the Five Year Plan: 21 April 2006 to 21 April 2007, in Pioneering Over Four Epochs: An Autobiographical Study and A Study in Autobiography. Ron Price, Section VII: Poetry [more]

  42. Prose-Poetry of the Five Year Plan: 2006-2011: Part 2, in Pioneering Over Four Epochs: An Autobiographical Study and A Study in Autobiography. Ron Price, Section VII: PoetryThis is the 2nd in a series of prose-poetry selections written during the Five Year Plan (2006-2011). [more]

  43. Reflections on a Culture of Learning and Growth: Community and Individual Paradigm Shifts: A Contemporary, Historical, Futuristic and Very Personal Context. Ron Price. [more]

  44. Reviews Of: Books, Articles, Creative Activities and Community Functions: Pioneering Over Four Epochs: Sections V & VI: Published & Unpublished Work, in Pioneering Over Four Epochs: An Autobiographical Study and a Study in Autobiography. Ron Price, Sections V and VIIn my pre-pioneering and pioneering life as a Bahá'í(1953-2007) I wrote: reviews, commentaries of books and community activities, summaries of media programs and live performances. Those posted here were written in the 4th and 5th epochs of the Formative [more]

  45. The 10th Stage of History: The First 50 Years: 1963-2013: Pioneering Over Four Epochs, Section VIII Poetry, in Pioneering Over Four Epochs: An Autobiographical Study and a Study in Autobiography. Ron Price, Section VIII: PoetryIn 1953 Shoghi Effendi outlined a ten stage sequence or framework for the study of contemporary history from a Bahá'í perspective. In this framework the 10th and final stage began in 1963. Virtually all of my pioneering life has taken place in this stage. [more]

  46. The Arc Project: A Poetic Experience: Pioneering Over Four Epochs, Section VIII Poetry, in Pioneering Over Four Epochs: An Autobiographical Study and a Study in Autobiography. Ron Price, Section VIII: PoetryIn the late 1980s I began to write more and more poetry as the construction projects on Mt. Carmel proceeded and the unfolding magnificence of the Terraces came more and more into view at the Bahá'í World Centre. [more]

  47. The Letters of Ron Price: 1960-2010: Pioneering Over Four Epochs: Section VII--Letters, in Pioneering Over Four Epochs: An Autobiographical Study and a Study In Autobiography. Ron Price, Section VII: Letters (Unpublished). This document attempts to place the 10,000 letters, emails and internet posts I wrote from 1960 to 2010 in a general perspective. As far as I know none of the collected letters of any Bahais in the 1st or 2nd century of the Bahai Era have been published. [more]

  48. Unpublished Essays: Autobiography: Section VI.1, in A Study In Autobiography and A Study of Autobiography. Ron Price, 5th EditionAfter 57 years of association with the Bahá'í Faith, 1953-2010, I had collected some 200 unpublished essays written during the 4th and 5th epochs (1986-2010). I wrote many essays in epochs 2 & 3(1944-1986), but they are virtually all lost in times sands. [more]

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