David Lindsay (1876-1945) was a British author now most famous for the philosophical novel A Voyage to Arcturus (1920). 1876 (MDCCCLXXVI) is a leap year starting on Saturday. ... 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1945 calendar). ... An author is the person who creates a written work, such as a book, story, article or the like. ... A Voyage to Arcturus is a novel by the Scottish writer David Lindsay. ...

Lindsay was born into a middle-class Scottish Calvinist family who had moved to London, although growing up he spent much time in Jedburgh, where his family originally came from. Although he won a scholarship to university, he was forced by poverty to go into business and he became an insurance clerk at Lloyd's of London. He was very successful but, after serving in the First World War, at the age of forty, he moved to Cornwall with his young wife to become a full-time writer. He published A Voyage to Arcturus in 1920 but it was not a success, selling fewer than six hundred copies. This extremely strange work was not obviously influenced by anybody, but further reading shows links with other Scottish fantasists (for example, George MacDonald), and it was in its turn a central influence on C.S. Lewis's Out of the Silent Planet. The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Scots (ethnic group). ... In an unadorned church, the 17th century congregation stands to hear the sermon. ... London is the capital city of the United Kingdom and of England and is the most populous city in the European Union. ... Location within the British Isles Jedburgh (Referred to locally Jedart or Jethart) is a royal burgh in the Scottish Borders, lying on the Jed Water, a tributary of the River Teviot. ... A scholarship is an award of access to an institution or a financial aid award for an individual (a scholar) for the purposes of furthering their education. ... Western Illinois University A university is an institution of higher education and of research, which grants academic degrees at all levels (bachelor, master, and doctorate) in a variety of subjects. ... World map showing percentage of people living under national poverty lines. ... Wall Street, Manhattan In economics, business refers to the social science of managing people to organize and maintain collective productivity toward accomplishing particular creative and productive goals. ... A clerk can be someone who works in an office and whose duties include record-keeping or correspondence. ... Lloyd’s Building, London (with the blue cranes). ... Combatants Allies: Serbia, Russia, France, Romania, Belgium, British Empire, United States, Italy, and others Central Powers: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, Ottoman Empire Casualties Military dead: 5 million Civilian deaths: 3 million Total of dead: 8 million Military dead: 4 million Civilian deaths: 3 million Total dead: 7 million The First... Cornwall (Cornish: Kernow) is a county at the extreme South-West of England on the peninsula that lies to the west of the River Tamar. ... 1920 (MCMXX) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar) // Events January January 3 - Babe Ruth is traded by the Boston Red Sox to the New York Yankees for $125,000, the largest sum ever paid for a player at that time. ... George MacDonald (December 10, 1824 – September 18, 1905) was a Scottish author, poet, and Christian minister. ... Clive Staples Lewis (November 29, 1898 – November 22, 1963), commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis, was an author and scholar. ... Out of the Silent Planet is the first novel of a science fiction trilogy written by C. S. Lewis, sometimes referred to as the Space Trilogy or Ransom Trilogy. ...

Lindsay attempted to write a more "commercial" novel with his next work The Haunted Woman (1922), but this was barely more successful than theVoyage. He continued to write novels, including the humorous potboiler The Adventures of Monsieur de Mailly, but after Devil's Tor in 1932 he found it increasingly difficult to get published, and spent much of his time on his last work The Witch which was unpublished in his lifetime. A potboiler is an artistic work (usually written) created for the sole purpose of making money quickly or to maintain a steady income for the artist, thus implying that artistic values were subordinate to saleability. ...

He and his wife opened a boarding house in Brighton, but they did not prosper and their marriage underwent considerable strain. The house was damaged by the first bomb to fall on Brighton in the Second World War and Lindsay, who was in his bath at the time, never recovered from the shock. He died of an infection resulting from an abscess in his tooth. Brighton is a town on the south coast of England, which together with its immediate neighbour Hove forms the city of Brighton & Hove. ... Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ... Abscess An abscess is a collection of pus collected in a cavity formed by the tissue on the basis of an infectious process (usually caused by bacteria or parasites) or other foreign materials (e. ... This article or section is missing references or citation of sources. ...

A Voyage to Arcturus has been described as the major "underground" novel of the 20th century. The secret of Lindsay's apparent strangeness as a novelist lies in his metaphysical assumptions. Like the gnostics he seems to have viewed the "real" world as an illusion, which must be rejected in order to perceive genuine "truth". In The Haunted Woman, the two main characters discover a room which seems to exist only some of the time; while they are there together, they can see more clearly and express themselves honestly. In The Violet Apple, the fruit of the title is of the species eaten by Adam and Eve, and Lindsay's description of its effects is a startling, lyrical episode in a novel which is otherwise concerned with rather ordinary matters. Gnosticism is a blanket term for various religions and sects most prominent in the first few centuries A.D. General characteristics The word gnosticism comes from the Greek word for knowledge, gnosis (γνῶσις), referring to the idea that there is special, hidden mysticism (esoteric knowledge) that only a few possess. ... It has been suggested that portions of this article be split into a new article entitled Adam. ...

Lindsay's austere vision of "true reality" seems to have been influenced by Scandinavian mythology. After being out of print for many decades, Lindsay's work has become increasingly available, and he is now seen as being perhaps the major Scottish fantasist of the 20th century, the missing link between George Macdonald, and more modern writers such as Alasdair Gray who have also used surrealism and magic realism in their work. In 1971, Arcturus was produced as a 35mm feature film by William J. Holloway. It was the first film to be funded by a National Endowment for the Arts grant and has recently been re-released. Harold Bloom has also been interested in (or obsessed with might be a better phrase) Lindsay's life and career, going as far as to publish a novel,Flight to Lucifer, which he thought of as a Bloomian misprision, a combination homage and deep revision, of A Voyage to Arcturus. Bloom however has conceded that his late-comer imitation is overwhelmed by Lindsay's great original. George MacDonald (December 10, 1824 – September 18, 1905) was a Scottish author, poet, and Christian minister. ... Alasdair Gray (born December 28, 1934) is a Scottish writer and artist. ... Kay Sage. ... Magic realism (or magical realism) is a literary genre in which magical elements appear in an otherwise realistic setting. ... Harold Bloom, Literary Critic Dr. Harold Bloom (born July 11, 1930) is an American professor and prominent literary and cultural critic. ... Misprision (from O. Fr. ...

Bibliography

• A Voyage to Arcturus (1920)
• The Haunted Woman (1922)
• Sphinx (1923)
• The Adventures of Monsieur de Mailly (1926)
• Devil's Tor (1932)
• The Violet Apple and The Witch (1976)

Further reading

• The Strange Genius of David Lindsay: An Appreciation (1970) by J. B. Pick, E. H. Visiak and Colin Wilson
• The Life and Works of David Lindsay (1983) by Bernard Sellin

Edward Harold Physick (July 20, 1878 - 30 August 1972) was an English writer, known chiefly as a critic and authority on John Milton; also a poet and fantasy writer. ... Colin Henry Wilson (born June 26, 1931) is a prolific British writer. ...

External links

Wikisource has original works written by or about:

David Lindsay (novelist)

• Works by David Lindsay at Project Gutenberg
• A Voyage to Arcturus