Lax CIRCUS Chronology
Compiled by Paul J. Spaeth
[rev. 2/06]
Lax's father loved the circus and took him whenever one came to town; usually
waiting at the train station when it first pulled in. The whole family liked the
circus, but especially the father.
1939 (Summer): During a novel writing contest while staying with Columbia
friends Thomas Merton and Ed Rice at the Marcus cottage in the hills above
Olean, NY, Lax writes a "circus" novel entitled The Spangled Palace. The
novel deals with a traveling nightclub.
[The Man in the Sycamore Tree / Edward Rice. NY: Doubleday, 1970. (29);
The Seven
Storey Mountain
/ Thomas Merton. NY: Harcourt, Brace, 1948. (240)]
1943: Lax meets the Cristiani family in NYC while his friend Leonard
Robinson is on assignment for The New Yorker, writing a piece for the
"Talk of the Town" section.
[“Waiting for Lucio" in The New Yorker.
19:16
(June 5, 1943) 15-16]
1947 (September 20): An entry in Lax’s Hollywood Journal can be seen
later as a precursor to the poem “Sunset City” that will appear in Circus of
the Sun.
[Journal E = Tagebuch E:
Hollywood Journal
/ Robert Lax. Zurich: Pendo, 1996. (48-50)]
Some members of the Cristiani family visit Lax in Hollywood.
1948 (Christmas): Lax visits the Cristiani family in their wintering
grounds in Sarasota, Florida with his cousin Bob Mack.
1949: Lax travels with Cristiani family circus through Western Canada.
This experience forms the basis of the work later published as Circus of the
Sun.
1949 (June/July): While visiting Robert Gibney & Nancy Flagg in
the Virgin Islands Lax writes down impressions of his circus experiences in a
notebook entitled: afternoon at the circus.
1950 (Spring) While staying in Olean, NY, Lax writes a version of
Circus of the Sun in library of St. Bonaventure College. He follows the
advice of Fr. Philotheus Boehner who advises him to write in the same place, and
at the same time every day.
1951 (Spring): Among others (including Alexander Eliot) Lax shows his
circus manuscript to Robert Butman who helps with the final editing before Lax
leaves for France.
[Lax had met, and become friends with Butman while they were both working for
the school magazine of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the
mid-1940’s].
1951 (June): “Circus of the Sun. Excerpt from a Novel in Progress”
appears in New-Story 4 (June 1951) 34-36. This text contains a larger
version of “Sunset City” than was to appear later.
1951 (July): Spends a month traveling with the Alfred Court Zoo Circus
across the Italian peninsula from Rome, where he had been staying the previous
month, to Pescara on the other side. This experience forms the basis of the work
later published as Voyage to Pescara.
1953: An article on the Cristianis with text and photos by Lax appears in
Jubilee.
["The Incomparable Cristianis" in Jubilee 1:1 (May 1953) 52-55]
1953: Publication of “Circus” in The New Yorker 29:15 (May 30,
1953) 45. Originally written in 1949.
1954: Publication of “Solomon’s High Dive” in The New Yorker 30:28
(August 28, 1954) 75.
1956: Publication of The Juggler. New York: The Hand Press. Design
and woodcut by Emil Antonucci. This is part of the material that will be
published later as Voyage to Pescara.
1956: Publication of “The Day of the Circus” in Jubilee 4:2 (June
1956) 30-31.
1958: A selection from Circus of the Sun is published in New
World Writing 13. This appears in the form of poetry and was included
through the efforts of Reed Whittemore, who was the editor of the poetry section
for that particular issue.
1959: Publication of Circus of the Sun. New York: Journeyman
Books.
Drawings and designs by Emil Antonucci. Hardback edition of 500 copies. A
paperback version is printed in 1960.
1981: Publication of Circus Zirkus Cirque Circo. Zurich: Pendo
Verlag.
A polyglot version of Circus of the Sun, with design by Bernhard
Moosbrugger, along with 26 of his photographs. German translation by Alfred
Kuoni, French translation by Catherine Mauger, and a Spanish translations of
selections by Ernesto Cardenal.
1987: Circus of the Sun published as an item in 33 Poems /
edited by Thomas Kellein. Stuttgart, London: Edition Hansjorg Mayer ; New York:
New Directions (8-47). This volume also reprinted the poems “Circus” (7), and
“The Juggler” (48-50).
1992: Publication of Mogador’s Book = fur Mogador / edited
by Paul J. Spaeth. Zurich: Pendo Verlag. The text consists mainly of transcripts
from the afternoon at the circus notebook (1949), along with other circus
material written at other times. The book bears the title that Lax originally
wanted to use for Circus of the Sun.
1996: Circus of the Sun published as an item in Love Had a
Compass / edited by James Uebbing. New York: Grove Press (49-96), including
a “Postscript” from Mogador’s Book (66-70)
2000: Publication of Circus Days and Nights / edited by Paul J.
Spaeth. Woodstock, NY: Overlook Press. Contains a reprint of Circus of the
Sun, Mogador’s Book, along with the first publication of Voyage to
Pescara
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