"Edward Steiner, professor of religious studies at Grinnell in the early years of the 20th century, forged a personal bond with Leo Tolstoy, a hugely generous contributor to the artistic and spiritual wealth that Russia has given the world. Having read War and Peace as a student in Berlin in the 1880s, Steiner walked (!) to Moscow to meet the author, and meet him he did--in a reception warm enough to bring the Grinnell professor back to Russia on three later visits to Tolstoy. In his boo... (show more)

"Edward Steiner, professor of religious studies at Grinnell in the early years of the 20th century, forged a personal bond with Leo Tolstoy, a hugely generous contributor to the artistic and spiritual wealth that Russia has given the world. Having read War and Peace as a student in Berlin in the 1880s, Steiner walked (!) to Moscow to meet the author, and meet him he did--in a reception warm enough to bring the Grinnell professor back to Russia on three later visits to Tolstoy. In his book Tolstoy the Man (New York: The Outlook Company, 1904), Steiner describes the Tolstoyan influence on the philosophy of religious studies for which Grinnell College became famous—religion as a guide to progressive social action. We must frown on writing in Burling Library books, but we can be grateful to one student of that era for using a page of the Tolstoy book to record the infectiousness with which Steiner taught Tolstoy's art and vision: "Dr. Steiner, you make me love Tolstoy, and more yet his way of thinking and doing an d teaching; and, in your own great, humble life and example, methinks I see Tolstoy at his best, living still."" -Written by the late John Mohan, Grinnell College Russian Professor
http://www.grinnell.edu/academic/Russian/offcampus/article/ (show less)