Tarr (Oxford World's Classics) (6 page)

1882

(18 Nov.) Percy Wyndham Lewis born to Charles Edward and Anne Stuart Lewis in Amherst, Nova Scotia, Canada, by Lewis’s account on his father’s yacht.

1888–93

Family lives on Isle of Wight.

1893

Parents separate. Lives with mother in England.

1897–8

Educated at Rugby School.

1898–1901

Attends Slade School of Art in London; expelled.

1904–8

Moves to Paris. Travels within France, Germany, Holland, and Spain, which provided the subject matter for his earliest fiction.

c
.1908

Begins to draft first version of
Tarr
, a narrative about a German and a duel, to be called ‘Otto Kreisler’.

1908

(Dec.) Returns to London.

1909

Meets Ezra Pound and Ford Madox Ford (then known as Ford Madox Hueffer). Earliest stories published in
English Review
.

1910

Art critic Roger Fry mounts revolutionary art exhibition ‘Manet and the Post-Impressionists’ in London. Early stories appear in
The Tramp: an Open Air Magazine
.

1911

Joins the Camden Town Group of artists.

1912

Displays large canvas
Kermesse
(now lost) at the Allied Artists’ Association exhibition at the Royal Albert Hall. Other artwork included in Fry’s ‘Second Post-Impressionist Exhibition’.

1913

Briefly joins Roger Fry’s Omega Workshop, then breaks with Fry over accusation of stolen commission for the Ideal Home Show. Portfolio of drawings for Shakespeare’s
Timon of Athens
published.

1914

Founds Rebel Art Centre with Kate Lechmere. (20 June) first issue of Vorticist journal
Blast
appears under Lewis’s editorship, including play
Enemy of the Stars
and contributions by Pound, Ford Madox Ford, and T. E. Hulme. (4 Aug.) England declares war on Germany, entering the First World War.

1915

Meets T. S. Eliot. (July) Second and last issue of
Blast
, ‘WAR NUMBER’ appears, including contribution by Eliot and announcement of death of Vorticist sculptor Gaudier-Brezska in the war. Completes original version of
Tarr
.

1916

Enlists in the Royal Garrison Artillery, as Gunner and then Bombardier. Fights in third battle of Ypres.
Tarr
begins to appear in serial form in
The Egoist
(Apr. 1916–Nov. 1917). While Lewis is at the front, Pound helps arrange sale of
Tarr
to Knopf in New York.

1917

Gains commission as an official war artist for Canadian Corps headquarters. Short story ‘Cantleman’s Spring Mate’ published in
Little Review
: its sexual frankness leads to suppression of the issue by the US Post Office.
The Ideal Giant
(play). T. E. Hulme killed near Lewis’s battery.

1918

Tarr
appears in America and England. Returns to London. Meets future wife Gladys Anne Hoskins (‘Froanna’).

1919

First one-man show, exhibition of war art, ‘Guns’ at Goupil gallery.
The Caliph’s Design: Architects! Where is your Vortex?
published by Egoist Press.

1920

(9 Feb.) Mother dies. Lewis forms ‘Group X’, which disbands after single exhibition in March. Meets James Joyce with T. S. Eliot during trip to Paris.

1921

(Apr.) Edits first issue of arts journal
The Tyro
. Exhibition, ‘Tyros and Portraits’. Begins period of ‘going underground’ to work on massive book project
The Man of the World
.

1922

(Mar.) Second and last issue of
The Tyro
.

1924

(Feb.–Apr.) Two excerpts from
The Apes of God
published in T. S. Eliot’s journal
The Criterion
.

1926

The Art of Being Ruled
(political and cultural analysis).

1927

Time and Western Man
(philosophical, cultural, and literary analysis).
The Wild Body
(short stories).
The Lion and the Fox
(study of Shakespeare). Edits first issue of
The Enemy: A Review of Art and Literature
(three issues to 1929).

1928

The Childermass
(novel). (Dec.) Revised version of
Tarr
published by Chatto and Windus.

1929

Paleface: The Philosophy of the ‘Melting Pot’
. Meets W. B.
Yeats.

1930

The Apes of God
(novel).
Satire and Fiction
. (9 Oct.) Marries Froanna.

1931

Hitler. The Diabolical Principle
.

1932

The Doom of Youth. Filibusters in Barbary. Snooty Baronet
(novel).

1933

The Old Gang and the New Gang. One Way Song
(poetry).

1934

Men Without Art
(literary and cultural criticism).

1936

Left Wings over Europe, or How to Make a War about Nothing. The Roaring Queen
(novel; suppressed).

1937

Blasting and Bombardiering
(autobiography).
Count Your Dead: They are Alive! The Revenge for Love
(novel). Exhibition of paintings and drawing at Leicester Galleries. Begins to lose his sight from pituitary tumour.
Twentieth Century Verse
special Lewis issue.

1938

The Mysterious Mr Bull
. Portrait of T. S. Eliot rejected by Royal Academy.

1939

The Jews, Are They Human?
(polemic against anti-Semitism).
The Hitler Cult: and How it will End
. Tate Gallery acquires
Portrait of Ezra Pound
. (3 Sept.) England declares war on Germany. Lewis and wife move to Canada and United States for six years.

1940

America, I Presume
.

1941

Anglosaxony: A League that Works. The Vulgar Streak
(novel).

1945

(Aug.) Returns to London.

1946–51

Art critic for
The Listener
.

1948

America and Cosmic Man
.

1949

(May) Retrospective Exhibition, Redfern Gallery.

1950

Rude Assignment
(autobiography). Tumour diagnosed.

1951

Loses sight. ‘The Sea-Mists of the Winter’ (essay on blindness).
Rotting Hill
(short stories).

1952

The Writer and the Absolute
.

1953

Special Lewis issue of
Shenandoah
.

1954

Self Condemned
(novel).
The Demon of Progress in the Arts
.

1955

Monstre Gai
and
Malign Fiesta
(novels,
The Human Age, Books 2 and 3
; sequels to
The Childermass
).

1956

The Red Priest
(novel). (18 July) Dramatization of
Tarr
broadcast on the BBC Third Programme. (July–Aug.) Tate Gallery exhibition
Wyndham Lewis and Vorticism
.

1957

(7 Mar.) Death, Westminster Hospital, London.

1973

The Roaring Queen
(novel), published posthumously.

1977

Mrs Dukes’ Million
(novel,
c
.1908–9), published posthumously.

1979

(Apr.) Death of Froanna.