David Lindsay

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David Lindsay (born March 3, 1876 in Blackheath , London , † July 16, 1945 in Hove ) was a British writer who wrote mostly fantastic literature. Hardly read during his lifetime - only around 600 copies of his first novel A Voyage To Arcturus were sold when it was first published - his novels are now among the standard works of classic science fiction and fantasy literature.

Life

On his father's side, David Lindsay came from an old Scottish family who traced their roots back to the nobility of the highlands ; the mother was English. He spent most of his childhood in his father's Scottish homeland. He later went back to London, where he was unable to study despite a scholarship offered to him because the family had been in financial worries since 1891 due to the sudden disappearance of his father (later it turned out that he had emigrated to Canada and had a new family there founded). Instead of studying, Lindsay had to earn money from 1898 as an employee of a partner in the insurance exchange Lloyd's . In his spare time he learned German so that he could read Nietzsche and Schopenhauer in the original. He was also so successful in his work that he was offered a director post; however, drafting into the army intervened in the First World War . The 38-year-old first came to the Grenadier Guards and later served in the Royal Army Pay Corps without ever leaving England during his service.

After the war he lived in Cornwall with his wife, whom he had married in 1916, and tried his hand at writing as a freelance writer, but without resounding success during his lifetime. He had to shorten the novel A Voyage to Arcturus , written between April 1919 and March 1920 , by 15,000 words in order to see it in print. The second novel, The Haunted Woman , was initially rejected by the publisher and appeared in sequels in the Daily News, shortened by 20,000 words . Only then was a book published in 1922. Lindsay's subsequent works were rejected again and again; only one, The Adventure of Monsieur de Mailly , was released in the USA (under the title Blade for Sale ). The last publication in his lifetime was Devil's Tor in 1932 , and again the sold circulation stagnated at 650 copies.

Lindsay recently suffered greatly from the failure of his works and became increasingly impoverished. His tragic end came when the first bomb to fall on Brighton during World War II hit his home and destroyed the bathroom he was in. Although the bomb did not detonate, Lindsay suffered a shock and stopped speaking. An abscessed tooth eventually led to blood poisoning with death.

plant

A Voyage to Arcturus from 1920 describes a mystical nightmare voyage to and on a grotesque planet. Lindsay's second novel, The Haunted Woman from 1922, is similarly mysterious, albeit significantly more earthly, and cleverly mixes the genre of the convention with that of the love and the English haunted novel .

Other works are Sphinx (1923) and The Violet Apple. The latter work was only published posthumously in 1976 together with the unfinished novel The Witch , after interest in Lindsay had awakened in the post-war years. New editions of A Voyage to Arcturus as early as 1946 and 1963 were followed by the first publication in the USA in 1963 and the paperback edition in 1968.

Interpretations

Gary K. Wolfe wrote an important biography of the life and work of David Lindsay . The work entitled David Lindsay was published in 1982 and offers an interpretation of “Muspel”, the mystical counterworld in A Voyage to Arcturus , in relation to the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche and Arthur Schopenhauer . The significance of the Seventh Symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven for The Haunted Woman (window into the spring light) is also examined , whereby the ascending tone sequences of the first movement of the symphony symbolize the mysterious staircase of the old manor Runhill Court.

Works

literature

Monographs
Essays and Articles
  • Linus Hauser : Between Gnosis, Depth Psychology and Surrealism. Cultural-historical thoughts on David Lindsay's “The Journey to Arcturus” . In: Wolfgang Jeschke (Ed.): The Science Fiction Year 1987 . 2nd edition. Heyne, Munich 1987, ISBN 3-453-31365-8 , ( Heyne-Bücher 06, Heyne-Science-fiction und Fantasy 4371), pp. 561-574.
  • CS Lewis : On Stories. (1947). In: CS Lewis: Of Other Worlds. Essays and Stories. Bles, London 1966, (Reprint: Harcourt Brace, London 1975, ISBN 0-15-602767-4 ), pp. 3-21.
  • Dietrich Wachler : News from nowhere. On poetry and vision in the work of David Lindsay . Epilogue. In: David Lindsay: The journey to the Arcturus . Heyne Munich 1986, ISBN 3-453-31286-4 , ( Library of Science Fiction Literature 53), pp. 261-299.
Lexicons

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ The Violet Apple.org.uk: David Lindsay's birthdate & place
  2. ↑ Cf. Gary K. Wolfe: David Lindsay , 1982, p. 6.
personal data
SURNAME Lindsay, David
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British writer
DATE OF BIRTH March 3, 1876
PLACE OF BIRTH Blackheath, London Borough of Lewisham
DATE OF DEATH July 16, 1945
Place of death Hove