| DATE |
AUTHOR'S LIFE |
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS |
| 1918 |
Constance Eakins, Jr., born 5 March 1918 in St.
Rose, Louisiana, to Constance Eakins, an employee in a sardine
cannery, and Agnes Gormley. French Creole is the primary language
at home. There are several siblings, but none except Constance
survives the Depression. |
|
| 1920 |
Sister Albertine dies of exposure. |
|
| 1922 |
Attends Aunt Lucy's Day Schoolhouse, St. Rose. |
|
| 1924 |
Mother dies in boating accident. |
|
| 1925 |
Learns to shoot firearms. |
|
| 1926 |
Escapes from home, found six weeks later, living
in treehouse in the swampland of central Louisiana. |
|
| 1927 |
Wins county hot-dog eating contest, adult division. |
|
| 1928 |
Fails English, History; threatened with home-schooling. |
|
| 1929 |
Writes student essay entitled, "The Paradox
of Chromaticity: An Overlooked Grammatical Category Distinction" |
|
| 1930 |
Wins Mississippi River Junior Swim Championship. |
|
| 1931 |
Runs away to New Orleans; lives in shotgun apartment
in the Ninth Ward. |
|
| 1932 |
Works as window washer and as barback. |
|
| 1933 |
Married in civil service to neighbor's daughter,
Allie Mathers; marriage annulled by authorities due to ages of
the betrothed. |
|
| 1934 |
Starts local charter association of Classics Scholars
United. |
|
| 1935 |
Joins staff of New Orleans Halfpenny-Register as
clerk. |
|
| 1936 |
Promoted to lead beat crime reporter. |
|
| 1937 |
Embarks on rafting trip up the Mississippi River. |
|
| 1938 |
Injured in skydiving accident; in hospital for five
months, during which time he drafts landmark comparitive study
of world religion, Exodus Redux. |
The Saddest Man and Other Stories |
| 1939 |
Cross-country road trip, later immortalized in The
Strange and Truthful Diaries of the Wanderer. |
The Uncles Ten |
| 1940 |
Captains yearlong boat trip from Copenhagen to Virgin
Islands. |
The Chameleon Tales |
| 1941 |
Joins air force, shipped to South-Eastern Asia Theatre,
stationed in the Himalayas. |
Dolman Hardy |
| 1942 |
Military activities, including siege of Madagascar. |
The Turnipseed and the Anger |
| 1943 |
Awarded Silver Medal of Miltary Valor (medaglia
d'argento) from the Italian government, for saving a battalion
of wounded Italian soldier with a shocking one-man sabotage mission
against the German forces. |
FutureWorld |
| 1944 |
Whereabouts unknown. |
Kamikaze Mountain |
| 1945 |
Awarded Pulitzer Prize (award refused). |
Sacrament |
| 1946 |
Moves to Hollywood, begins writing screenplays,
including The Lady From Shanghai and Rio Grande (both uncredited). |
Children of Danger: A Study of the International
Novel, 1750-1950 (nonfiction) |
| 1947 |
Winner, Yale Younger Poets Prize, for Monogenesis:
Sestinas. |
Tobin the Lesser |
| 1948 |
Wounded in duel with unknown Latvian sailor. Rumored
affair with Rita Hayworth. |
Better Days Will Haunt You |
| 1949 |
Gives famous "Pilgrim" speech at the opening
ceremony for the first Constance Eakins Museum, St. Rose, Louisiana. |
When the Curtain Calls for You (nonfiction) |
| 1950 |
Travels length of Nile in bamboo canoe. |
Every Man For Himself and God Against All |
| 1951 |
Declared ruler of Nuba tribe, north of Khartoum,
on bank of Nile. Presides over peaceful transition to democratic
rule. |
Why We War in Korea |
| 1952 |
Bronze Star for war correspondence |
The Darkness and the Devil |
| 1953 |
Rumored affair with Elizabeth Taylor. Arraigned
on charges for bigotry; lawsuit later dismissed. |
Art of Fiction Interview, The Paris Review,
Spring issue |
| 1954 |
Survives airplane crash in the jungle of Dominican
Republic; lives for two years with a family in the northern region
of the island. |
The Rude Violence of the Poor |
| 1955 |
Accepts honorary degree from the Esperanto International
Central Committee for his pioneering use of the language, exemplified
in his Esperanto novella, Kalendulo. |
America: Collected Essays |
| 1956 |
Travels in the Arctic; named Iditarod champion of
1956. |
The Slayed |
| 1957 |
Throws out first pitch at final Brooklyn Dodgers
game. |
The Slaying |
| 1958 |
Arrested for whoremongering. |
The Slaughter |
| 1959 |
Rumored involvement with CIA, a charge he vigorously
denied in his memoir. |
Saposcat |
| 1960 |
Arrested during Washington Square Park protest against
CIA's use of covert force in South America. |
The Man With Holes in His Cheeks (Memoir) |
| 1961 |
Alleged suspect in Bruno Taut murder case; name
later expunged from court records. |
Eurasia: Collected Essays, Vol. II |
| 1962 |
Awarded Pulitzer Prize (award refused). |
Humboldt in the Amazon |
| 1963 |
Arrested for assaulted robbery; charges later dropped. |
The Two Poles: Collected Essays, Vol. III |
| 1964 |
Whereabouts unknown. |
Keftir the Blind and Other Stories |
| 1965 |
Moves back to New Orleans. Suffers from acute syphilitic
aoritis. |
Hollywood Was Mine (nonfiction) |
| 1966 |
Unsuccessful campaign for Mayor of New Orleans |
Songs for Agata (Poems) |
| 1967 |
Hosts 365-day Be-In in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. |
Flowers, Flowers, Eat All the Flowers |
| 1968 |
Visiting professor of Humanity at the University
of Iceland, Reykjavik. |
The Legend of Idavoll (A Critical Study of Norse
Mythology) |
| 1969 |
Offered Presidency of Yale; declined. |
Congress Will Be Mine |
| 1970 |
Unsuccessful campaign for Congress |
The Dream Life of Vernon Falls |
| 1971 |
Disappears while hiking in The Carso region, outside
of Trieste, Italy. Last seen in Medeazza, walking north. |
Gashes (Memoir) |
| 1975 |
Awarded ordre national de la Légion
d'honneur by French government (unclaimed). |
|
| 1977 |
|
The Uncollected Constance Eakins (collection) |
| 1981 |
Rumored sighting in Trieste's Piazza Ponterosso,
in the middle of the night; witness later admitted intoxication,
withdrew statement. |
| 1985 |
Rumored sighting on skivy in Bay of Trieste. Boat
seen disappearing into grotto, underground river. Witness later
committed to mental institution in Split. |
| 1998 |
A minor planet, 3292 Eakins, was discovered by Soviet
astronomer Andrei Andreovich Pelevin, and named after him. |
| 2001 |
Constance Eakins declared dead by Italian authorities. |
