Relocating - please follow the link for new content

This archive will stay here - but you can find new posts (as well as this archive) at my new website which is at http://www.stuarteglin.com/. It's the new home for Stuart Eglin Online - including the blog, musings, and details of the publications and services which I have available. Take a look - it's worth a visit!

Wednesday 12 October 2005

M Scott Peck dies

I just found out today that M Scott Peck died at the end of September. He was 69. There is a full obituary in the Telegraph, a UK paper, which ends rather grudglingly and rudely in my view. Scott Peck wrote some fantastic books - to comment on his inability to write great songs seems like a mean-spirited sort of comment to me.

I read 'The Road Less Travelled' in the early 90s and was hugely influenced by it. The beginning 'Life is difficult' must be one of those great one-liners that helps with the process of growing up. It sits alongside 'life isn't meant to be fair' as one of those things that moved me forward in life.

I read several of his other books too - 'The Different Drum' is a wonderful book about building communities. My favourite book is 'In Search of Stones: A Pilgrimage of Faith, Reason and Discovery' which describes a journey which he made through Britain looking at ancient sites with standing stones. It's a spiritual read, and an enjoyable one too.

I was sad to hear that Scott Peck had left this life.

For a more recent post on this subject please click here

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree with Stuart Elgin the world is a darker place without Scott Peck.I too read the Road Less Travelled in the early 90s,and I can honestly claim it was "life changing". So rip sir, I for one am sorry to learn of your demise.

Stuart said...

Thanks very much for the comment. I've had a lot of 'hits' to this post as the news has gradually got through of Scott Peck's death. It's a shame that someone who had such a significant impact disappeared from this life so quietly.

Anonymous said...

I was delighted when I found "Glimpses of the Devil" - a Scott Peck book I had not read or knew as being published. I have read all his others, even Golf and the Spirit where, where, not being a golfer I had to pick out the spiritual bits! I could not finish "Glimpses of the Devil" as it seemed strange and below par and found myself wondering what had gone wrong with my hero. I found out today of Dr. Peck's death and am profoundly sad - sad at his death and at the fact I had read that rather derogatory newspaper article about him and allowed it to rather knock him off the pedestal I had put him on! His mix of psychology and spirituality helped me greatly in my recovery from alcoholism and I rather approved of his liking for gin and cigarettes thinking of him as a bit of a wounded healer I guess.
He had often talked about his facination with death and wanting to "go home" to be with his God. I wish him well on his journey and that his celestial 'debriefing' or whatever happens to us after we die is not too - like life - difficult.

Anonymous said...

I was just getting ready to read The Road Less Travelled again after having retrieved it from my attic. I thought that I would look up Scott Peck on Wikipedia and see what I could find before I started reading a book that I had thoroughy enjoyed and benefited from the first time. I have to say that after reading his obituary, though, I was put off by what I found characterized his life, at least according to several obituaries - infidelity, gin and smoking. This is the man who so eloquently wrote about the need for discipline and love. It gives me second thoughts about whether I should read the book again. Great writing, but now it seems somewhat hypocritical. My 2 cents...

Anonymous said...

Also, by the way, the qote from The Road Less Traveled is "Life is difficult", not "Life is complicated". Well, so much for being picky...

Stuart said...

Well spotted! I have edited the page to show the correct line. Sorry about that... Thanks for noticing it.