the Violet Apple.org.uk
Timeline
Year
Age
Events in Lindsay's life
Arts
World events
1876
Age: 0
March 3rd — David Lindsay born, Lewisham.
 
 
1879
Age: 3
 
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Thomas Eddison invents the light bulb.
1883
Age: 7
 
Thus Spake Zarathustra by Nietzsche
 
1885
Age: 9
May — Starts at Colfe’s Grammar School, Lewisham.
 
 
1886
Age: 10
 
She by H Rider Haggard
Daimler produces the first motor car.
1888
Age: 12
April — Lindsay's father does not come home, and is pronounced missing.
Sunflowers by Van Gogh
The Secret Doctrine by Madame Blavatsky
Jack the Ripper murders in London.
1890
Age: 14
Jan — finishes at Colfe’s Grammar School
 
The world’s first stretch of underground electric railway opens beneath London.
1891
Age: 15
Starts work in the city for Price Forbes (est. 1873, still going), a firm of Lloyd’s underwriters.
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
 
1893
Age: 17
 
 
Alexander Graham Bell makes the first long-distance telephone call.
1894
Age: 18
 
Final volume of Capital by Karl Marx
 
1895
Age: 19
 
Lilith by George MacDonald
The Time Machine by H G Wells
Lumière brothers demonstrate a cinema projector capable of showing 16 frames a second.
Oscar Wilde imprisoned.
1897
Age: 21
 
Dracula by Bram Stoker
 
1899
Age: 23
 
 
Start of the Boer War.
1900
Age: 24
 
 
Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity published, as is Freud’s Interpretation of Dreams.
1901
Age: 25
 
 
Death of Queen Victoria.
Accession of Edward VII.
1902
Age: 26
 
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
End of the Boer War.
1903
Age: 27
 
 
First manned flight.
1904
Age: 28
 
Ghost Stories of an Antiquary by M R James
 
1905
Age: 29
 
The Gods of Pegana by Lord Dunsany
 
1907
Age: 31
 
The Hill of Dreams by Arthur Machen
 
1908
Age: 32
 
The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson
The Man Who Was Thursday by G K Chesterton
 
1910
Age: 34
 
 
Edward VII dies, and is succeeded by George V.
1912
Age: 36
 
The Night Land by William Hope Hodgson
A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
 
1914
Age: 38
 
 
Start of World War I.
1915
Age: 39
September — death of his brother, Alexander.
 
 
1916
Age: 40
March — enlisted as a Private.
October — called up for service in the Foot Guards at Caterham.
December 21st — marries Jacqueline Silver. At this time he is living at Golder’s Green, London.
 
 
1917
Age: 41
 
 
Russian Empire collapses because of the revolution.
1918
Age: 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.
1919
Age: 43
February 25th — demobilised from the Army.
Move to Porth, Cornwall.
April — starts writing A Voyage to Arcturus.
Oct — First daughter, Diana, born.
Jurgen by James Branch Cabell
 
1920
Age: 44
March — A Voyage to Arcturus finished. Starts The Haunted Woman.
September — A Voyage to Arcturus published.
The Golem (silent film) dir. Paul Wegener
Formation of the League of Nations.
1921
Age: 45
April — The Haunted Woman finished, declined by Methuen.
August — starts writing Sphinx.
August–September — The Haunted Woman serialised in The Daily News.
October — Methuen reconsider and agree to publish The Haunted Woman.
 
 
1922
Age: 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.
Nov — Second daughter, Helen, born.
The Worm Ouroboros by E R Eddison
The Waste Land by T S Eliot
Ulysses by James Joyce
Establishment of the BBC.
1923
Age: 47
May — The Adventures of M. de Mailly finished.
June-October — again works on The Ancient Tragedy.
December — Sphinx published.
Weird Tales begins publication
Three Stories and Ten Poems by Ernest Hemingway
 
1924
Age: 48
February — starts writing The Violet Apple.
July — finishes The Violet Apple; John Long reject it.
Surrrealist Manifesto by André Breton
Britain’s first Labour government.
1925
Age: 49
September — L H Myers writes to Lindsay with praise for Arcturus.
November — The Adventures of M. de Mailly accepted for publication by Melrose.
 
Invention of television.
1926
Age: 50
Feb — The Adventures of M. de Mailly published in the UK.
Feb — finishes revising The Violet Apple.
 
 
1927
Age: 51
Mar — A Blade for Sale published in the US.
The Near and the Far by L H Myers
 
1928
Age: 52
Starts work on Devil’s Tor.
May — Death of Lindsay’s mother.
About this time writes a fairy play for his daughters at Christmas.
The Call of Cthulhu by H P Lovecraft
Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin.
1929
Age: 53
Moves to Ferring, near Worthing, on the South Coast.
Medusa by E H Visiak
Crash of the Wall Street Financial Markets marks the start of the worst period of the Great Depression.
1931
Age: 55
November — Devil’s Tor accepted by Putnam.
Last and First Men by Olaf Stapledon
 
1932
Age: 56
January — Devil’s Tor accepted; published later in the year.
Starts The Witch.
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
 
1933
Age: 57
 
 
Modern Man in Search of a Soul by C G Jung.
1936
Age: 60
 
 
First continuous television service started by the BBC.
Death of George V. His son Edward VIII succeeds.
1937
Age: 61
 
First English translation of The Trial by Franz Kafka
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is the first full-length animated film
Edward VIII abdicates to marry Mrs Simpson. George VI becomes king.
1938
Age: 62
The Lindsays move to Hove.
Out of the Silent Planet by C S Lewis
 
1939
Age: 63
Stops working on The Witch.
The Wizard of Oz (film)
Start of World War II.
Start of the IRA’s bombing campaign.
1940
Age: 64
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.
 
 
1943
Age: 67
 
Perelandra by C S Lewis
 
1944
Age: 68
Lindsay’s friend, author L H Myers, kills himself.
 
 
1945
Age: 69
July 16th — Lindsay dies.
 
End of World War II.
August — atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
 
 
1946
 
Gollancz republish A Voyage to Arcturus.
29th Nov — on the BBC Light Programme, "Books and Writers", presents a discussion on Lindsay’s works; Jacqueline Lindsay describes it as "a complete fiasco".
1956
 
A Voyage to Arcturus radio adaptation on the BBC’s Third Programme.
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.
1968
 
A Voyage to Arcturus gets its first mass-market paperback release, from Ballantine Books in the US.
1970
 
The Strange Genius of David Lindsay by J B Pick, Colin Wilson and E H Visiak published.
1971
 
Adam International Review publish Lindsay’s surviving letters to E H Visiak.
1972
 
Lines Review publish some of Lindsay’s Philosophical Notes.
1976
 
The Violet Apple and The Witch published.