Anthony Damiani (1923-1984) was interested in philosophy and meditation from an early age. He first became aware of PB through his book The Secret Path; he wrote PB and they met for the first time in New York City in the 1940s. Whenever possible, Anthony met with PB thereafter, until PB withdrew from all contact with his students in the late 1950s. Shortly thereafter Anthony moved to upstate New York to devote himself to his spiritual studies and soon found himself inspired to open a Bookstore—the American Brahman Bookstore. Within weeks of opening this wonderful bookstore Anthony found himself surrounded by a large group of young people eager to learn from him. Anthony directed their attention toward his own teacher, Paul Brunton, and to other sages as well.
After about ten years of classes and visits by individual students with PB, PB agreed to visit Anthony’s study center, Wisdom’s Goldenrod. Subsequent to that visit, in his lattermost years, PB agreed to accept help from individual students of Anthony’s; PB died only three years later, at which time all of his writings were shipped to Wisdom’s Goldenrod where Paul Cash and Timothy Smith would care for them. Anthony immediately began reading these notes—all of which were new to him—and realized what an extraordinary gold mine of spiritual wisdom they are. He then conceived of the project of publishing a somewhat reduced version of these notebooks before doing anything else. Anthony thus set the basic policies and priorities of the notebook publications.
Due to the particular non-profit charter of Wisdom’s Goldenrod, it could not undertake the publications itself without losing its non-profit status. Consequently Kenneth Hurst formed the PBPF as an entity that could equally serve the goals of Anthony and Kenneth. Robert Larson chimed in with an extremely significant donation of both funds and publishing expertise. Sadly, Anthony died soon after the publication project began and just around the time that the PBPF managed to get its not-for-profit status. Even so, much of what he said about PB continues to guide our editorial practices—and our spiritual practices as well.
