Timeline
| Year | Age | Events in Lindsay's life | Arts | World events |
| 1876 |
March 3rd — David Lindsay born, Lewisham.
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| 1879 | 3 |
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
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Thomas Eddison invents the light bulb.
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| 1883 | 7 |
Thus Spake Zarathustra by Nietzsche
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| 1886 | 11 |
Daimler produces the first motor car.
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| 1888 | 12 |
Sunflowers by Van Gogh
The Secret Doctrine by Madame Blavatsky
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Jack the Ripper murders in London.
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| 1889 | 13 |
About this time, Lindsay's father leaves the family.
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| 1890 | 14 |
The world's first stretch of underground electric railway opens beneath London.
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| 1891 | 15 |
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
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| 1892 | 16 |
Starts work in the city for Price Forbes (est. 1873, still going), a firm of Lloyd's underwriters.
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| 1893 | 17 |
Alexander Graham Bell makes the first long-distance telephone call.
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| 1894 | 18 |
Final volume of Capital by Karl Marx
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| 1895 | 19 |
Lilith by George MacDonald
The Time Machine by H G Wells
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Lumière brothers demonstrate a cinema projector capable of showing 16 frames a second.
Oscar Wilde imprisoned.
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| 1897 | 21 |
Dracula by Bram Stoker
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| 1900 | 24 |
Einstein's General Theory of Relativity published, as is Freud's Interpretation of Dreams.
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| 1901 | 25 |
Death of Queen Victoria.
Accession of Edward VII.
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| 1902 | 26 |
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
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End of the Boer War (began 1899).
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| 1903 | 27 |
First manned flight.
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| 1904 | 28 |
Ghost Stories of an Antiquary by M R James
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| 1905 | 29 |
The Gods of Pegana by Lord Dunsany
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| 1907 | 31 |
The Hill of Dreams by Arthur Machen
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| 1908 | 32 |
The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson
The Man Who Was Thursday by G K Chesterton
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| 1910 | 34 |
Edward VII dies, and is succeeded by George V.
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| 1912 | 36 |
The Night Land by William Hope Hodgson
A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
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| 1914 | 38 |
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Start of World War I.
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| 1915 | 39 |
The Trial by Franz Kafka (not published till 1925)
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| 1916 | 40 |
March — Enlisted as a Private.
October — Called up for service in the Foot Guards at Caterham.
December 21st — marries Jacqueline Silver.
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| 1917 | 41 |
Russian Empire collapses because of the revolution.
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| 1918 | 42 | July — Moved to the Army Pay Corps. |
End of World War I.
Women (over the age of 30) gain the right to vote in the UK.
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| 1919 | 43 |
January — Demobilised from the Army.
Move to Porth, Cornwall.
April — Starts writing A Voyage to Arcturus.
First daughter, Diana, born.
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Jurgen by James Branch Campbell
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| 1920 | 44 |
March — A Voyage to Arcturus finished, and published.
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Medusa by E H Visiak
The Golem (silent film) dir. Paul Wegener
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Formation of the League of Nations.
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| 1921 | 47 |
April — The Haunted Woman finished, declined by Methuen
The Haunted Woman serialised in The Daily News
August — starts writing Sphinx
October — Methuen reconsider and agree to publish The Haunted Woman
Second daughter, Helen, born[?].
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| 1922 | 46 |
Feb — The Haunted Woman published.
Mar — first draft of Sphinx finished.
May — Sphinx completed.
June — abandons first attempt at The Ancient Tragedy. Works on it again in July & October.
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The Worm Ouroboros by E R Eddison
The Waste Land by T S Eliot
Ulysses by James Joyce
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Establishment of the BBC.
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| 1923 | 47 |
April — Sphinx accepted; published later in the year.
May — The Adventures of M. de Mailly finished.
June-October — again works on The Ancient Tragedy.
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Weird Tales begins publication
Three Stories and Ten Poems by Ernest Hemingway
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| 1924 | 48 |
February — starts writing The Violet Apple.
July — finishes The Violet Apple; John Long reject it.
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Surrrealist Manifesto by André Breton
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Britain's first Labour government.
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| 1925 | 49 |
September — L H Myers writes to Lindsay with praise for Arcturus.
November — The Adventures of M. de Mailly accepted for publication by Melrose.
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Invention of television.
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| 1926 | 50 |
Feb — The Adventures of M. de Mailly published in the UK.
Feb — finishes revising The Violet Apple.
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| 1927 | 51 |
Mar — A Blade for Sale published in the US.
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The Near and the Far by L H Myers
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| 1928 | 53 |
Starts work on Devil's Tor.
About this time writes a fairy play for his daughters at Christmas.
Death of Lindsay's mother.
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The Call of Cthulhu by H P Lovecraft
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Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin.
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| 1929 | 54 | Moves to Ferring, near Worthing, on the South Coast. |
Crash of the Wall Street Financial Markets marks the start of the worst period of the Great Depression.
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| 1931 | 55 |
November — Devil's Tor accepted by Putnam.
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Last and First Men by Olaf Stapledon
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| 1932 | 56 |
January — Devil's Tor accepted; published later in the year.
Starts The Witch.
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Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
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| 1933 | 57 |
Modern Man in Search of a Soul by C G Jung.
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| 1936 | 60 |
First continuous television service started by the BBC.
Death of George V. His son Edward VIII succeeds.
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| 1937 | 61 |
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is the first full-length animated film.
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Edward VIII abdicates to marry Mrs Simpson. George VI becomes king.
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| 1938 | 62 |
They move to Hove.
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Out of the Silent Planet by C S Lewis
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| 1939 | 63 |
Stops working on The Witch.
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The Wizard of Oz (film)
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Start of World War II.
Start of the IRA's bombing campaign.
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| 1940 | 66 |
C S Lewis, in a lecture to Merton College, entitled "The Kappa Element in Romance" (later revised as "On Stories") praises A Voyage to Arcturus
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| 1941 | 65 |
Lindsay's friend, author L H Myers, kills himself.
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| 1943 | 67 |
A Voyage to Venus by C S Lewis
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| 1945 | 69 |
July 16th &mdash Lindsay dies.
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End of World War II.
August — atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
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| 1946 |
Gollancz republish A Voyage to Arcturus.
29th Nov — the BBC Third Programme present a discussion on Lindsay's works; Jacqueline Lindsay describes it as "a complete fiasco".
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| 1956 |
A Voyage to Arcturus radio adaptation on the BBC's Third Programme.
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| 1964 |
J B Pick's essay, "The Work of David Lindsay", published in Studies in Scottish Literature is one of the earliest critical studies of Lindsay's work.
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| 1968 |
A Voyage to Arcturus gets its first mass-market paperback release, from Ballantine Books in the US.
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| 1970 |
The Strange Genius of David Lindsay by J B Pick, Colin Wilson and E H Visiak published.
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| 1971 |
Adam International Review publish Lindsay's surviving letters to E H Visiak.
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| 1972 |
Lines Review publish some of Lindsay's Philosophical Notes.
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| 1976 |
The Violet Apple and The Witch published.
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©
Murray Ewing 2009