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Year
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Bob's Age
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Chris' Age
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Doing What Where ?
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1928
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0
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Born, Minneapolis, Minnesota
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- 6th September 1928 - Bob is born -
Robert Maynard Pirsig.
- Bob's father is Maynard Pirsig. His wife, Bob's mother, is Harriet Marie Pirsig (nee Sjobeck), of Swedish descent. (His father, Bob's
grandfather, was Gustav Pirsig, and
was probably the first Pirsig in the southern Minnesota / northern Iowa
area. Gustav's brother is believed to have been Otto who farmed with his
wife Anna in Blue Earth.)
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...
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...
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1932
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3/4
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Cambridge, Massachusetts
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- Bob's father is at Harvard University
Law School, preparing under Prof. Felix Frankfurter and Dean of Law,
Roscoe Pound, for study in England, helping to create a new legal field
called Judicial Administration.
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1933
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4/5
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Starts
school Hendon, London, England
|
- The house in
Hendon backs onto the aerodrome.
- Bob begins school
there, while his father studies at the Middle and Inner Temple Inns of
Court in London, England.
- Bob recalls his
father having a motorcycle with side-car in which father, mother and son
would travel at this time in England.
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1934
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5/6
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Kindergarten
& School, Minneapolis, Minnesota
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- Bob's father returns to teach law
at University of Minnesota Law School.
(Where he teaches until his retirement in 1970, being Dean from 1948 to
1955.)
- Bob enters into
kindergarten but, since he can already read and write quite well,
is moved up almost immediately to second grade. This creates a
crisis in which, being the smallest child in the class, he is constantly
picked upon and, being also forced to write with his right hand despite
being naturally left handed, he begins to develop a stammer that makes
it impossible to continue.
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...
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...
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1936
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7/8
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Blake
School, Minneapolis
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- Bob receives a scholarship to
Blake School (Lila p26), awarded to children of the University of
Minnesota faculty members. He is transferred into a class of students
his own age, is
allowed to use his left hand, the bullying ends and within
a few months so does the stammer.
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1938
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9/10
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Blake
School, Minneapolis
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- Bob scores IQ 170 aged 9 1/2
(Stanford-Binet Form M Test, a 1 in 50,000 result.) (Z25 p87 quotes this
at age 14, but the 1961 letter from the University of Minnesota
Institute of Child Development and Welfare confirms 1938, aged 9 1/2)
(We and Bob discover much later, in
1949 and 1961, that Bob is being studied as an intellectual development
research case, and subject to further testing over a long period of
time.)
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1939
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10/11
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High
School, University of Minnesota
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- Bob transfers to University of
Minnesota High School. There he is again accelerated by two years.
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...
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...
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1944
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15/16
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University,
Minneapolis
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- During the summer of 1944 Bob
starts and completes the Freshman Chemistry courses at the University of
Minnesota still aged only 15. Phædrus is
already emerging. "If Phædrus had entered
science for ambitious or utilitarian purposes it might never have
occurred to him to ask questions about the nature of scientific
hypothesis as an entity
in itself. But he did ask them, and was
unsatisfied with the answers." (Z25 p113)
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1945
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16/17
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University,
Minneapolis
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- Bob is already planning to
specialize in Biochemistry. (Z25 p )
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1946
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17/18
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Army
|
- Phædrus [Bob] is
expelled for failing grades, immaturity and inattention to studies. In a
stunned state, starts a period of lateral drift. (Z25 p118 )
- Bob joins the army and does his
basic training at Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Maryland, and after three
months is sent to Korea (Z25 p122), where following the end of WWII, the
US mission there is simply to take over from the Japanese occupation.
- (Richard Rorty aged 15 goes to
Chicago University to study Philosophy)
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1947
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18/19
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Army,
Korea
|
- Bob experiences the local culture
and writes letters. One particular
Korean wall makes a deep and lasting impression. (Z25
p122) (Some of these letters may survive ?)
- In the 2006
Guardian interview Bob says this "Most of the army guys were
horrible to Koreans, they called them gooks and beat them up whenever
they could. And we were hated in turn. It was kind of like Iraq in a
way. I was assigned to malarial control in charge of all these local
labourers. The caretaker was a kid about 16, and he spoke perfect
English. I said: 'How in hell did you learn English that well?' And he
said: 'I just picked it up.' This guy was another of these prodigies,
you know, but he had no school. So I paid for him to
go to school - $16. This changed my relationship with the Koreans. I
started to teach them English. The Koreans and I became good friends and
they gave me a Korean chess set. I told them one time the most
marvellous thing about the English language is that in 26 letters you
can describe the whole universe. And they just said: 'No'. That was
what started me thinking. In the East, the basis of experience is
not definable. That 16 bucks set me on the road to Zen."
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1948
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19/20
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Army,
returning to Seattle.
|
- After 14 months in Korea as
Private (first class) Bob returns to the US on a troopship where he
reads F.S.C.Northrop's "Meeting of East
and West". (Z25 p123). Bob is honorably
discharged. (This is all before the Korean war has started.)
- Bob's lateral drift has ended.
He's actively in pursuit of something now. (Z25 p124)
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1948
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19/20
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University,
Minneapolis
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- Bob goes back to University of
Minnesota to study Philosophy.
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1949
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20/21
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University,
Minneapolis
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- Bob is studying Philosophy.
- Whilst at the university, he takes
an assessment according to "Miller's Analogy", with a raw
score of 83 which puts him in the top 4% of graduate students entering.
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1950
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21/22
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University,
Minneapolis
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- Bob gains his BA in Philosophy
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1951
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22/23
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University,
Benares, India
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- Bob enrolls
at Benares Hindu University, studying oriental philosophy for 1 1/2
years graduate study, funded by the GI Bill. [Quote] Nothing much
happened ... He'd entered India an empirical scientist, and he left
India an empirical scientist, not much wiser than he had been when he'd
come. However, he'd been exposed to a lot and had acquired a kind of
latent image that appeared in conjunction with many other latent images
later on.....
He became aware that the doctrinal differences among Hinduism and
Buddhism and Taoism are not anywhere near as important as doctrinal
differences among Christianity and Islam and Judaism. Holy wars are not
fought over them .... great value is placed on the Sanskrit doctrine of
Tat tvam asi,
"Thou art that," which asserts that everything you think you
are and everything you think you perceive are undivided. To realize
fully this lack of division is to become enlightened. [Unquote] (Z25
p143)
- This period of study involves no
specific course with any qualification. He also does some work for a
tourist agency whilst he is there. It is intriguing given his cycle from
"drifting" in 1946, to being in "active pursuit of
something" in 1948, that at this point in 1951 he announces that
"nothing much happened" and that he has "given up".
We can only speculate as to why the Benares experience had this effect
until such time as Bob decides to expand on this chapter of his life.
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1951
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22/23
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Minneapolis
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- Bob returns to "his
Midwest". In the remainder of the decade does odd jobs, living in
Minnesota, Nevada and Mexico, working as a freelance technical writer
and journalist, writing short stories, reading for pleasure and
attempting to start writing a book. His pursuit of what has been called the
ghost of reason had been given up.
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1952
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23/24
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University.
Minneapolis.
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- Early 52 he enrolls
at the University to study Journalism and get a practical qualification,
also funded by the GI Bill.
- Bob does some work for the
Minnesota Daily publication of the university.
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1953
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24/25
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University,
Tech-writing, & Editing. Minneapolis.
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- Bob attends creative writing
seminars by Allen Tate at University of Minnesota. (Subjects included
Henry James' Turn of the Screw, "winter afternoons early 50's"
Tate started there in 1951.) (Z25 xii)
- May 53 to Sep 53 - Whilst still
studying, Bob also works as technical editor on instruction manuals for
machine tools at the Do-All Corporation Continental Machines Division.
- Sep 53 to Dec 53 - Bob is
co-editing The Ivory Tower edition of the Minnesota Daily, the literary
magazine of the University of Minnesota, with Nancy Ann James. (Nancy is
an undergraduate student at the school of journalism, already married
but still funded by her parents. Her father is a building contractor
from Janesville, Wisconsin.)
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1954
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25/26
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Odd-jobbing.
Reno,
Nevada
|
- Bob leaves the journalism school
in the winter of 1953/54 with Nancy. They go to Reno, Nevada, where she
divorces her husband.
- February to September - Bob and
Nancy are working as dealers in the Nevada Club, Reno, in order to
raise sufficient money to go to Mexico, where living would be cheaper,
and Bob would hopefully have more opportunity to write.
- 10th May 54 - Bob & Nancy
obtain marriage license.
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1955
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26/27
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Odd-jobbing,
& Freelance Tech-Writing.
Mexico & Minneapolis
|
- September 54 to May 55 - Living in
Minatitlan on the Bay of Campeche in Mexico, he works on his writing,
but also learns a lesson from an expensive, abortive attempt to have an
ocean-going sailboat built, as a pilot project for a possible export
venture. (Lila p198)
- May 55 to Sept 55 - Bob does
summer relief work for the United Press Service in Minneapolis.
- Sept 55 to May 56 - Bob is
employed writing educational booklets for 7th & 8th grade science
students.
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1956
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27/28
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0
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Odd-jobbing,
& Freelance Tech-Writing.
Minneapolis.
|
- May 56 to Sept 56 - Bob is
employed on production of a marketing education film for the Minneapolis
Grain Exchange.
- Sept 56 (to Apr 58) - Bob starts
as contributing editor, writing articles about R&D for the General
Mills Research Labs.
- 28th November 56 -
Chris is born.
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1957
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28/29
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0/1
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University
& Tech-writing. Bethel, Minnesota.
|
- Bob and Nancy, with the infant
Chris, move to live in aged farm house in disrepair on 120 acres of
marginal farmland at Bethel, Minnesota. They own a riding horse and two
cars and Bob is starting to put on middle-aged weight.
- Whilst still writing and editing
technical articles for General Mills, Bob returns to the University of
Minnesota to complete his Journalism studies, considering the need for
the formal masters qualification and the desire to get out of commercial
writing and into (something less commercial and more vocational, like)
teaching and/or post-graduate research.
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1958
|
29/30
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1/2
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University
& Tech-writing. Bethel, Minnesota.
|
- Theodore (Ted) born April 24th. (Ted was 16 when Chris was
17 at the book launch in 1974.)
- Apr 58 - Bob leaves the job at
General Mills and for the rest of his time at Bethel, works freelance on
two books on the history of science in hospitals for fifth grade and
junior high students, and on trade-journal advertising articles by Faber
Advertising, for the Automatic Control Company of St. Paul.
- Bob gains his MA in Journalism.
His paper on the status of technical writers and technical writing was
"Star" graded. (He subsequently cites professors M. V.
Charnley and J. E. Gerald as referees. There is no evidence
any copies survive
?) (According to the Minnesota journalism college's own
historical record "The student of the '50s who achieved widest
recognition for his writing was Robert M. Pirsig, M.A. 1958.")
- Bob applies for teaching posts.
"He likes animals and children, especially his own." he says.
- It's extremely important to notice
that he really had given up on the "ghost of reason"
in the 8 years since Benares, even though he remained in pursuit of
writing "a great book". (Z25 p144)
- Bob is impressed
with Kerouac's "On The
Road" on first reading and generally admires the pre-hippy
"beats". Bob later recalls meeting Allen Ginsberg at an
(unspecified) conference - he said: 'What do you know about Zen?' I
said: 'Well, about as much as you do.' And he said: 'Who is your
teacher?' And I said Katagiri Roshi. 'Oh, Katagiri,' he said, 'he's a
great guy.'
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1959
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30/31
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2/3
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Teaching.
Bozeman.
|
- 18th August 59 -
Bob and the family set off for Montana for the first time. (Same day as Hebgen Lake Earthquake.)
- Fall 59 - Bob takes up
post teaching English (rhetoric and advanced technical writing) to
freshmen at Montana
State College, Bozeman .
- Bob experiments with
non-prescriptive, non-graded, teaching methods.
- Sarah's "seed
crystal" moment brings "Quality" into focus as the
subject being taught. (Z25 p180)
- His radical ideas bring conflict
with college plans to achieve university status. (Later, Montana
state governor has Bob [Phædrus] on a list of
50 radicals when killed in a plane crash. Z25 p105, See 1962 entry.) The college
records confirm Pirsig's joke that it wasn't too difficult to be branded
a radical in McCarthy's time, even
Eleanor Roosevelt was banned.
- (Bob's political activity in
college education policy affairs are in fact documented in college
archives, examined and described by Sven Lindqvist in his Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter articles in
August 1994.)
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1960
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31/32
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3/4
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Teaching,
Bozeman
|
- Spring 60 - Bob attends a
Northern Cheyenne "peyote" session on Busby reservation (Lame Deer,
Montana) with Verne Dusenberry, his first pursuit of Indian
Anthropology. (Lila p38)(Lila
p465) LaVerne Madigan of the Association of
American Indians also visits with them. (Lila p465).
- (Bob believed Madigan died some
months after this in 1960, in a plane crash, an odd coincidence given
the actual 1962 plane crash also first mentioned above. In fact she died
in a riding accident involving her son, writer Fergus Bordewich.) (See also Verne Dusenberry's book "The Montana Cree".)
- (Peyote or Mescal Buttons are the
fresh or dried flowering tuberlces of the
spineless dome shaped Peyote Cactus or Mescal (Lophophora genus,
typically Williamsii species, related to Agave but quite different in
appearance). This is a natural source of several alkaloids including
Mescaline, which is itself named after Mescalero Apaches, just one among
many Mexican and American Indian tribes that made use of it. Timothy
Leary is in Mexico at exactly this time, being introduced to Psilocybin
(Magic) Mushrooms (Psilocybe Mexicana, one of
several Psilocybe species of the Agaric genus
of fungus), and he first experiences LSD later in 1962. Mescaline and
Psilocybin are distinct natural alkaloids that share similar
"indole-amine" structures, as does the synthetic drug LSD,
common to neurotransmitters like Serotonin and Norepinephrine, active in
normal brain functioning. Strangely, whilst Mescaline and Psilocybin are
distinct, they are so similar in physical form and effect, that both
Mescal Buttons and Magic Mushrooms are often synonymous with Sacred
Mushrooms. Detailed refs to be added.)
- The search for
"Quality", is already leading Bob back to Greek philosophy.
(Z25 p334)
- Bob decides to find a PhD course
related to Quality, to further his teaching career. His investigations
find that Chicago University offers an "Analysis of Ideas and Study
of Methods" program, and that the Chairman is a professor of
ancient Greek. He seems to have found what he is looking for. (Z25 p335)
- Bob applies, is interviewed by a
Professor (possibly Silverstein
?), the program chairman being out of town at the time,
and he is accepted to start on the course in the Autumn of 1961.
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1961
|
32/33
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4/5
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Teaching,
Bozeman
|
- Early 1961 - Phædrus [Bob] is already
thinking hard and exhibiting strange behavior.
"We used to ride in the car to look for you ..." - Chris -
"... you wouldn't even talk to us." (Z25 p175)
- Spring 1961 - Bob is called for interview by the program Chairman (Richard
McKeon), after acceptance on course, in order to discuss
and agree his "substantive field". (Z25 p337)
- June 1961 - Bob
receives the results of series of adult intelligence tests. Although Bob
is already aware of his 1938 IQ test score, this is the first time he is
aware that he has been the subject of a "longitudinal"
research study on intellectual development by the Minnesota Institute of
Child Development and Welfare, (See 1938 and 1949 entries). The latest
results reveal that in terms of general intelligence he continues to
score in the top 1% of all adults.
- Summer 1961 - He
spends another summer in the mountains of Montana, contemplating his
"substantive field" decision. Decides on philosophy, but then
through conversations with other philosophy teachers, he is warned about
McKeon and through research discovers that he is a notorious
Aristotelian. (McKeon is in fact an authority since the publication
of his compilation "The Basic Works of Aristotle" in 1941. The
Aristotelian notoriety at Chicago University is also documented by Northrop in the book
Pirsig read back in 1948. Rorty also makes reference. )
Bob writes a megalomaniac letter to McKeon about his own
anti-Aristotelian thesis. (Z25 p337/344)
- End Summer 1961 -
Bob receives a rejection letter just as he is departing Bozeman. He
responds that he already has acceptance and travels to Chicago anyway. (Z25 p346)
|
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1961
|
32/33
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4/5
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Teaching
& Studying, Chicago
|
- September 1961- On arrival, he takes up paid post teaching rhetoric at the
University of Illinois (Navy Pier). His teaching timetable conflicts
with the Chairman's Ideas and Methods course for which he is registered,
so he enrolls on a Rhetoric course instead,
thereby avoiding the Chairman. (Z25 p347/348)
- September 1961 -
"Of all the thousands of students who had studied the ancient
Greeks, it is doubtful there was ever one more dedicated." (Z25
p348) In the first session an "innocent" student is told that
his personal opinions are not the subject of the course and he doesn't
return. (Z25 p361/362)
- September 1961 - Phædrus was there solely to write a "Great
Book" of his own. (Z25 p364)
- September 1961 -
The Professor of Rhetoric likens Bob to a wolf and suggests the name Lycias, from the character in the Phædrus dialogue. Bob misunderstands this and
assumes the nick-name Phædrus itself, though it
has subsequently been pointed out many times that Phædrus has no connection with being wolf-like, meaning
"one who shines brilliantly". Although Bob associates
the origin of the Phædrus nick-name for
his alter-ego with this period, and even uses the name when talking
about his earlier periods (eg see 1944), in
fact the character name is a narrative device introduced when editing the
already completed ZMM draft. "He did not appear until the book was
written." says Bob.
- September /
October 1961 - It seems the professor must have been made aware of Bob's
prior knowledge and alternative views and he gives the impression that
he considers Phædrus initially to be
eccentric, then undesirable, slightly mad, and finally completely
insane. (Z25 p75 and p361/393)
- October 1961 -
"Months" after the departure of the innocent student Phædrus ventures a personal opinion
(Z25 p369) [Suggest in fact 7 or 8 weeks later in mid to late
October.]
- 13th October 61 -
Bob's paper "Quality in Freshman Writing" is delivered to the
Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association in Bozeman, by Professor John
Parker of the Bozeman faculty while Bob is in Chicago. (GBZ p356)
- October /
November 1961- The Professor is absent (mysteriously ill) for several
weeks. (Z25 p382/384)
- Early November
1961- The first snow of winter. (Z25 p383) Both teaching and studying
hard for 20
hour days "in an effort to outflank the whole body of
western academic thought" Phædrus is
becoming exhausted. (Z25 p384)
- 2nd Week November
1961- After 4 weeks the Chairman (McKeon) turns up to take over the
course. (Z25 p385) At the very first session the Chairman is undermined
by Phædrus' contributions. Rhetoric 2 :
Dialectic 0 (Z25 p385/390)
- 3rd Week November
1961- At the second session with the Chairman, Phædrus
is deferential, but the Chairman is dismissive and Phædrus
switches off. (Z25 p392)
- 3rd Week November
1961- At his next teaching session at Navy Pier (University of
Illinois), which has been going very well to date, Phædrus
is non-communicative. (Z25 p393)
- November 1961-
Thanksgiving comes (Z25 p393)
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1961
|
32/33
|
4/5
|
Clinically
Insane, Chicago
|
- End November 1961
- "He begins to walk the streets, his mind spinning …. on the third
day he turns a corner at an intersection of unknown streets and his
vision blanks out .....
when it returns he has the vague impression of having been lying
on the sidewalk .... on another occasion, driving with Chris in the car,
he gets lost .....
after that he does not leave the apartment. .... stares at the wall ....
cross-legged on the floor ..... no way back. .... three days and
three nights, Phædrus stares at the wall ....
his wife asks if he is sick, and .... he becomes angry, .... he tells
his wife to leave with the children, to consider themselves separated.
.... Nancy calls for help..... Phædrus
begins to come apart." (Z25 p393/396)
- Catatonic
schizophrenia or hard Zen enlightenment ? Bob is ambivalent with
hindsight.
- December 1961 - Phædrus is taken into the University of Chicago
mental hospital, where he spends Christmas 1961. (Z25 p75)
|
|
1962
|
33/34
|
5/6
|
Clinically
Insane, Chicago & Downey, Illinois
|
- January
1962
- The psychiatrist assigned to Bob interviews McKeon to try to get Bob
reinstated at the University of Chicago, but McKeon refuses. The
psychiatrist tells Bob he's not previously met anyone like McKeon and
that he will be doing something further about it. He goes to the
president of the University of Chicago and McKeon is overruled so that
Bob is actually
reinstated. When Bob meets with the Professor of Rhetoric
he advises Bob to "Just write something."
- 25th January 62
- Montana governor Donald Nutter is one of six killed when their plane
crashes in a snowstorm near Wolf Creek. The governor has Pirsig [Phædrus] on a list of 50 radicals. (Z25 p105) Bob is
not aware at the time, and learns this much later, probably from Verne
Dusenberry.
- 1962 Dusenberry
gets his Anthropology PhD in Stockholm
- January 1962 -
Bob also returns to teaching at the University of Illinois, Navy Pier
and is assigned a (relatively undemanding) Freshman course in business
letter writing.
- February 1962 - "If
nothing else could do it, that broke my spirit, so I quit. I had no job,
no future in philosophy, my wife was mad at me, we had two small kids, I
was at this midlife point. I was 34. I would never get a job teaching
again. The world looked pretty bleak." A huge depression sets
in so severe that Bob voluntarily commits himself to a state run mental
hospital at Downey, Illinois.
- Physically
separated from his family in the Illinois institution, he is seen only
from the other side of a glass door. Images that leave Chris, aged
"about 6", with nightmares. (Z25 recurring.)
- Spring 62 - After
" some months" Bob discharges himself and returns with the
family to Minneapolis, to a house across the street from his parents on
Clarence Avenue, Minneapolis, where it is hoped he will recover and
resume a normal life. In fact, things actually get worse.
Nancy cannot understand why Bob doesn’t want to be "normal"
like everyone else. The contrast between Bob's head full of the
"Quality" thoughts that are eventually to become ZMM and Lila,
and the fact that no one else can see him as anything but a broken down
English teacher is now really driving Bob crazy.
|
|
1963
|
34/35
|
6/7
|
Clinically Insane, Minneapolis
|
- Bob recalls
"Things got worse and worse and worse with my wife and I was
getting dangerous, really hostile; I was swinging at people. I was
capable of homicide. I hadn't shot anyone; Yet. I had pointed the
gun ... One policeman came to the front door and one to the back, and
they knew I had a gun."
- It is Bob's
father who signs a court order to commit him to incarceration at the
Veterans hospital in Minneapolis, where the therapy will immediately
include include EST (Electro-Convulsive Shock
Therapy)
- Later,
Nov 22, 1963 (The day of JFK's assassination) will be one of
twenty-eight occasions on which he receives EST, which eventually ends Phædrus (*)
(to reappear 5 years later on July 24th 1968) "He was
dead. Destroyed by order of the court, enforced by the transmission of
high-voltage alternating current through the lobes of his brain. Approximately
800 mills of amperage at durations of 0.5 to 1.5 seconds had been
applied on twenty-eight consecutive occasions, in a process known
technologically as Annihilation ECS. A whole personality had been
liquidated without a trace in a technologically faultless act that has
defined our relationship ever since. I [Pirsig] have never met him [Phædrus]. Never will." (Z25 p91) [(*) See Numbered Footnote 1 below]
- Bob mentions in
the Guardian interview, that Nancy, perhaps unsurprisingly, asked for a
divorce during this period, whilst clearly she is
wrestling with supporting Bob and loyalty to the family of two young
boys. Bob of course already suggested they should consider themselves
separated during his breakdown before hospitalisation in 1961. (They do
not finally separate until 1976, and divorce in 1978.)
- The start of
Bob's recovery. After the shock treatments Bob sees that further direct pursuit of the
Metaphysics of Quality will commit him institutionally for life, so he
finally caves in and adopts his role as the narrator of Zen and the Art
of Motorcycle Maintenance. (Bob has spent over two years in and out
of mental hospitals. (1974 NYT Interview).
"What I am is a heretic who's recanted, and thereby in everyone's
eyes saved his soul. Everyone's eyes but one, who knows deep down inside
that all he has saved is his skin." )
|
|
1964
|
35/36
|
7/8
|
Writing
Minneapolis
|
- Bob concerns
himself with the archaeology of Phædrus life.
Thinking again about writing a book, still apparently with anthropology
and plains Indians as his subject.
- Bob takes up
freelance science and technical writing again, doing occasional work on
magazine and trade journal articles on agricultural and
electromechanical machines, but mainly doing abstracts of papers for
"Modern Medicine". One of the subjects he writes about
is "mortuary cosmetics".
|
|
1965
|
36/37
|
8/9
|
Writing
Minneapolis
|
- Bob
takes a better paid full-time job with FMC Corporation, Northern
Ordnance Division, as a Project Technical Author preparing training and
instruction manuals for guided-missile launch systems at the Great Lakes
Naval Training School. During this employment Bob also supervises and
trains at least one other technical writer.
- Dusenberry
visits Bob in Minneapolis. Dusenberry already feeling
"strange". (Lila p56)
- Bob
acquires small motorcycle (6.5hp / 45mph) and takes abortive
trip north towards Canada with Chris aged about 8, getting as far as
just north of Lake Mille-Lacs. (Z25 p28/30)
|
|
1966
|
37/38
|
9/10
|
Writing
Minneapolis
|
- Bob
and the family are now living at the 458 Otis Avenue address.
- March
66 - Bob leaves the FMC job to work for Fabritek,
a firm making computer memory devices. He is writing manuals for a small
educational computer and peripheral equipment.
- Bob
drives by car to visit Dusenberry in Calgary, Alberta where he is the
museum curator and director of the Indian Studies Institute of the
Glenbow Foundation. Bob already now knows Dusenberry is terminally ill
with "brain cancer". (Lila p56)
- Bob
acquires 1964 Honda CB77 305cc Superhawk
motorcycle. ("Bought 2 years before" at the time of the ZMM
trip in 1968.) (GZ p226)
- December
16th 1966 - Verne Dusenberry, Associate Professor,
English Department Montana State College, dies as a result of a brain tumor, Calgary, Alberta. (Lila p32)
|
|
1967
|
38/39
|
10/11
|
Writing
Minneapolis
|
- Bob
is writing essays - including a light-hearted essay for John Sutherland
with whom he shared oriental philosophic interests, eg
in Herrigel's Zen in the Art of Archery, but
opposing views on Motorcycle Maintenance. (Z25 Readers Guide p431/432).
- Bob
leaves Fabritek to take up contract writing
for Century Publications (owned by Stuart Cohen) which, as well as
providing freedom from corporate politics, actually offers better
pay too.
- Bob
is planning and thinking about writing his book, and draft outlines of
early thoughts. He already has the working title Zen and the Art of
Motorcycle Maintenance (ZMM) from his essay written for John. (Unless
John knows different, Bob says no copies of this specific essay exist.
It was never actually complete
and was effectively one of the early draft manuscripts
that eventually developed into the book itself.)
|
|
1968
|
39/40
|
11/12
|
Writing
Minneapolis
|
- 6th
June 68 - Bob writes to 122 publishers (including John C Wiley of
William Morrow & Co.) advising his intent to write the book and
indicating the title Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance,
including a couple of sample pages and asking for expressions of
interest. (Z25 Readers Guide p421/427)
- 10th
June 68 - James Landis of William Morrow's responds with positive
interest. Initially 22 publishers expressed interest in fact. Landis was
to correspond with Bob throughout the creation of ZMM, and became its
biggest advocate for publication in 1973, a year before that finally
happened.
|
|
1968
|
39/40
|
11/12
|
ZMM
trip in July 68 across Mid-West
|
- Mon 8th July 68 - Bob sets off on his Honda with Chris, and
with John and Sylvia Sutherland on their BMW, on the motorcycle trip
from Minnesota (Minneapolis) via the Dakotas, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho,
Oregon to California (San Francisco). The journey that forms the
narrative of ZMM. (See ZMM Route Map for details.
See better map by Gary Wegner.)
- Wife Nancy is
not mentioned in the real-time narrative in ZMM. Bob says she was on
another vacation at the time (in Europe with friends), and Ted was
staying with a relative.
- Approaching
Breckenridge and heading through to Oakes, ND on the first day, Bob
"sees a ghost" and experiences a metaphorical
thunderstorm, as he faces the reality that he is retracing routes he
travelled many times between Minneapolis and Bozeman in the difficult
period of his life from 1959 to 1963.
- Sat 13th / Tue
16th - They visit Robert and Gennie DeWeese in Cottonwood Canyon,
Bozeman.
- Wed 17th / Thur 18th - Bob & Chris go backpacking in the
mountains near Bozeman.
- Fri 19th / Wed
24th - Bob & Chris continue the motorcycle trip to San Francisco.
- (And later on
to Los Angeles / Hollywood before the return leg to Minneapolis, but not
recounted in ZMM.)
|
|
1968
|
39/40
|
11/12
|
Writing
Minneapolis
|
- Working
on ZMM. He is to work on it for over four years. He had started to keep
notes on "Zen" before the trip, and he is already compiling
these as index cards (a process described in the later book Lila.)
|
|
1969
|
40/41
|
12/13
|
Writing
Minneapolis
|
- Continuing
to work on ZMM.
|
|
1970
|
41/42
|
13/14
|
Writing
Minneapolis
|
- He
writes one complete draft and throws it away after two years of work.
He gives up the whole project for three months and then starts again.
"When I had the first chapter written for the second time, I knew I
was on the right path."
|
|
1971
|
42/43
|
14/15
|
Writing
Minneapolis
|
- Except for the last five chapters,
the book is written mostly from 2am to 6am in the Minneapolis office
of of Century Publications before he begins
his regular work. He is going to bed about 6pm, which is hard on his
family at
this time.
- Beverly
White, a friend of Bob's who had studied Zen Buddhism in Japan in the
50's, knowing the subject of the book he is working on, suggests he join
a Zen group. Bob agrees and joins this informal group at least partly
"to keep his backside covered". On hearing his title, another
member of the group suggests, quite accurately, that he is "walking
on very thin ice". (Nancy and the family also join, but more
than a year later, after a Japanese Zen master comes from California to
head the group.)
|
|
1972
|
43/44
|
15/16
|
Writing
Minneapolis
|
- He
writes the final five chapters in a two month period in
the early spring of 1972. To avoid interruptions he
acquires a camper and drives to a commercial campground that is closed
for the winter, just north of Two Harbors, Minnesota, on the north shore
of Lake Superior. He lives and works in the camper,
working while there is natural sunlight because lights in the camper are
not adequate. (He remains under contract to Century publications
through this period, until the book's success brings him the Guggenheim
Fellowship grant in 1974.)
- During
the process some 600,000 words have been drafted in creating ZMM, though
the draft offered for publication seems to have been perhaps 230,000
edited down to around 200,000.
|
|
1973
|
44/45
|
16/17
|
Writing
Minneapolis
|
- January
73 - Landis confirms his support to get ZMM published in its final form,
and the internal and external marketing effort this will take. "The
book was sold to Morrow in January 1973".
- April
73 - Landis makes his formal recommendation to the William Morrow
editorial board, ending with the statement "This book is brilliant
beyond belief, it is probably a work of genius, and will, I'll wager,
attain classic stature." (Z25 Readers Guide p427)
- Bob
becomes a Board Member and Vice-President at the incorporation of a new
Minnesota Zen Meditation Centre.
- July
/ August 73 - Landis involves George Steiner as a reviewer. Steiner
compares ZMM to Dostoyevsky, Broch, Proust and Bergson. Steiner
recommends to the New Yorker that a review should support its
publication. Landis considers Steiner's "stellar reputation"
as very influential. (Landis 2nd Aug 1973, Z25 Readers Guide p429)
- After
121 rejections, you only need one acceptance says Bob. (Z25 Readers
Guide p432)
|
|
1974
|
45/46
|
17/18
|
ZMM
Published
|
- April
74 - ZMM is eventually published, to both critical and popular acclaim.
"Profoundly important, Disturbing, Deeply moving, Full of
insights, A wonderful book".
- Bob's
mysterious recluse persona is created when the book is published without
his photo, and despite a heavy marketing campaign behind what they
believed was going to be a best seller, the publisher withdraws Bob from
a promotional tour with other new authors.
- 12th
April 74 - Local news report of publication of ZMM, and
awarding of Guggenheim Fellowship.
- 14th
April 74 - Routine local newspaper review of ZMM
- 15th
April 74 - George Steiner's review in the New Yorker "Uneasy
Rider". [QUOTE] Told by the blurb that we have
here "one of the most unique and exciting books in the history of
American letters," one bridles both at the grammar of the claim and
at its routine excess. The grammar stays irreparable. But I have a hunch
that the assertion itself is valid. . . . the analogies
with Moby Dick are patent. Robert Pirsig invites the prodigious
comparison. [UNQUOTE]
- 23rd
April 74 - Rave review and interview
in local newspaper.
- In
an interview, Nancy describes how they, and their son Ted, are practicing Zen Buddhists.
Every morning, rising early, they start the day together in their dining
room. They move out the furniture and sit on cushions on the floor where
they meditate in silence. Then they have tea and talk. After that they
go for a long walk along the river near their home. While they have been
Orientalists and have been interested in Zen Buddhism for a long time,
they have been practicing this Japanese religious philosophy for (only)
three years (See 1971 entry).
- Bob
receives award of Guggenheim Fellow ("Robert Pirsig, Writer,
Portsmouth, NH", according to Guggenheim Foundation records.) (In
fact Pirsig didn't move to NH before 1985 ?)
- May
74 - George Gent interview in the New York Times.
- 12
July 74 - NPR Radio Interview
with Connie Goldman at Bob's home.
- Now
doing interviews about his best-seller, Bob becomes a
"celebrity". Seeking seclusion, he makes trips in his RV /
camper van back to the mountains near Bozeman, where the ideas for his
new writing project can "develop their own momentum".
- 5th
August 1974 - Interview in Bozeman by Tom Zito in the Washington Post.
We learn that the working title for his next book he is already working
on is "Them Pesky Redskins"
|
|
1975
|
46/47
|
18/19
|
Writing.
Montana & Minneapolis
|
- Spring
75 - Bob makes a trip to the Cheyenne reservation (Lame Deer, Montana)
where they had known Dusenberry as a "good" man. (Lila p56 and
p466)
- Bob
is researching anthropology but is already forming the view that it
would be difficult for him to write about anthropology with any peer
credibility, and anyway unlike Dusenberry "he didn't have the
knack" to elicit information naturally from conversation with the
Indians. (Lila p56 and p63) (This is consistent
with Lila p55, except for "6 years later" which would need to
be "8 years later" ?) By the time he leaves Montana, he
has already collected notebooks and trays full of 4" by 6"
slips. (Lila p63)
- 1975
Bob receives US Friends of Literature Award and University of Minnesota,
Outstanding Achievement Award.
- 5th
April 75 - Bob speaks at building fund benefit
for the Minnesota Zen Meditation Center,
Minneapolis of which he is currently Vice-President.
- 8th
June 75 - Bob writes a review for New York Times
Book review. ( July 18th - His review draws one particularly critical reaction).
Bob is unaware until much later of this vehement catholic defensive
response of Andrew Greeley, but despite feeling justified and honest in
his review, Bob is never tempted to write another. It reminds him of an
occasion when, looking at a deer he has shot at close range, now lying
dead in front of him, he felt "Now whatever did I do that for ?
I didn't need to do that."
- June
/ July 75 - Bob and Nancy start learning to sail
over 3-day weekends. ("We got the bug all of a sudden" says
Nancy). They acquire $60,000 cutter-rigged Westsail-32 sailboat.
- Summer
75 (sometime before he sets sail) Bob is interviewed by Christie Hefner
at home in Minneapolis for a piece published in "Oui" magazine in November 1975. [1.6 Meg PDF copy online,
no text version yet.] Interestingly in this interview he confirms
again the subject of the new book he is already working on involves the
cultural differences between whites and native "Indians", and
more significantly refers to the "Metaphysics of Quality" (Is
this the first reference ? In ZMM he discusses both Quality and
metaphysics, and even refers to being "caught up in his own world
of Quality metaphysics" but he never gives it a name until Lila is
published.)
- Mon
11th August 75 - Bob sets sail (with a volunteer student
from the Zen centre and his girlfriend as crew) from Bayfield, Wisconsin
(Lake Superior). Nancy is planning to join (soon) for the three week
trip through the Great Lakes. They are "planning" a round the
world trip. Bob is intending to take the boat on through the Erie Canal
/ Mohawk River route of the NY State Waterways, into the Hudson to New
York City and on down to Florida to leave the boat to return home in time for
Christmas, before he and Nancy rejoin the boat in Florida for
the round the world trip. There is no evidence that Nancy joined the
boat until after Florida, in fact not until after Ted and Bob had taken
the boat across to the US Virgin Islands - see 1976 entry. (Note the
date from the "last Monday" line in the linked
interview with Nancy is exactly consistent with the date in Lila p145).
- Bob
is working on his second book, and it seems he still has plans to be
"about Indians in general,
their differences from whites and their different values, which are not
minor but very significant" says Nancy. This has been his theme
since meeting Dusenberry. (Lila various)
- 8th
October 75 - 9 weeks later, Bob calls Nancy from the Hudson River, though not clear where
precisely).
(Nancy's loyalty in the 1975
interviews, and the fact that there is no Nancy in Lila, the
autobiographical record of this boat trip, sadly belies the fact that
the distancing and breakdown which will lead to their divorce and
destructive break-up of the family in 1978, has already begun. Bob
mentions in the Guardian interview that he believed Nancy had first
requested a divorce back in 1963 during the violent breakdown and
hospitalization, though he himself referred to "separation"
before that.)
|
|
1975
|
46/47
|
18/19
|
The
Lila Sailboat Trip
|
- October 75 - When the Lila
narrative starts they are on the Hudson, already south of Albany
and Castleton, moored for the night near Kingston on a small side creek
(the end of an old canal that leads off behind New Jersey via the
Delaware into the Atlantic). He and the others he meets first became
aware of each other back at Rochester, which is Lila's hometown. Though
Bob is in no real hurry other than his tentative plan to reach Florida
before the winter, he and several other vacationing boat parties have been
delayed several weeks by problems with the locks on the Oswego section,
then through Rome and Amsterdam, and down through the steep locks into
the Hudson at Troy.
- At Kingston he meets Lila, and Bob
confirms he's currently on his way to New York City, expecting to
continue and reach Florida in a month. (In fact though the
journey and all the locations are real, "Lila M. Blewitt" and
her acquaintances are a fiction created to exemplify Bob's theses on
Quality and Morals, more specifically sexual infidelity. "Does Lila
Have Quality
?" is the koan to which the only answer can be
"Mu" - no thing, forget it, no answer possible. Given that
Bob's alter-ego is named Phædrus, "one
who shines brilliantly" (and not “wolf”) it is interesting also to
note that the other main fictional characters in Lila are lawyer
"Rigel" and his younger companion "Capella". Bob
doesn't meet the real Wendy until a year later - see below.)
- The trip continues past
Poughkeepsie, West Point (Worlds End), Nyack, to Manhattan and a couple
of days in downtown NYC. In the narrative he meets Robert Redford there,
to discuss the potential project of turning ZMM into a movie. (In
reality, whilst Bob did meet Redford twice to discuss the ZMM film
project, these events during the Lila trip are a fictional pastiche. Bob liked Redford, and Redford made three
separate offers for the film rights - see letters in GBZ - but they
couldn't agree on the right price and terms. Bob has since suggested
Wendy could sell the rights after his death.)
- Then on to Sandy Hook, Horseshoe
Cove, Highlands of Navesink, Atlantic Highlands, and who knows where
after that. (In fact, this is where the book ends, but Bob's sailing
adventures have only just begun, continuing immediately to Florida via
the intra-coastal waterway.)
|
|
1976
|
47/48
|
19/20
|
Writing
and Cruising, Caribbean, Bermuda & East Coast US to Florida
|
- Ted
joins Bob on the boat in Florida and, together with the crewman, they
sail to Saint Thomas, Virgin Islands.
- Nancy
joins them there and Ted goes back, before they sail on to Bermuda, back
to New York then New Haven (Connecticut). There Bob spends time
researching and working on his book in the Yale University Library.
(Labor Day - first Monday in September 76 - Bob and Nancy are interviewed by Ed Zuckerman
on their boat in Boston Harbor. Already Bob refers to the fact that his
current writing project is using the 1975 Hudson boat trip as its
narrative basis. Already Bob refers to his ZMM "cult"
followers as "Pirsig Pilgrims" visiting such locations as the
MSU building in Bozeman.) At the "end of the summer" of 76,
they set sail down the intra-coastal waterway, and reach Annapolis,
Maryland before Nancy and Bob finally separate.
- Bob
continues single-handed towards Miami, Florida. On another boat en-route, he meets Wendy Kimball, a freelance
journalist who wants to interview him.
- From
Autumn 76 until Spring 78 Bob and Wendy live on the boat moored at
Dinner Key anchorage off Coconut Grove, just south of Miami, Florida,
where Bob continues to work on his book, and Wendy continues to work as
a reporter for a newspaper in Hollywood, Florida.
|
|
1977
|
48/49
|
20/21
|
Writing on
the boat in Florida
|
- Bob
is living with Wendy on the boat in Florida.
- May
77 - Writes "Cruising Blues and Their Cure"
for Esquire magazine, clearly speaking from his direct experience, about
the stress of boredom and claustrophobia, living in close proximity with
loved ones in the confines of a boat.
- May
77 - The Ed Zuckerman interview from September 76 is published in "Mother Jones".
|
|
1978
|
49/50
|
21/22
|
Writing
and Cruising. Florida, Bahamas, New Hampshire & Maine.
|
- Spring
78 - Bob and Wendy sail to Great Abaco in The Bahamas.
- Early
Summer 78 - Bob and Wendy escape the summer heat by sailing back to
Block Island, Rhode Island, then on to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, not
far from Wendy's origins.
- Late
Summer - Bob and Wendy sail on to Maine, and anchor in Soames Sound,
Mount Desert Island.
- August
78 - Bob and Nancy's divorce is complete.
- Winter
78 - Bob and Wendy moor the boat at nearby Southwest Harbor, and spend the
winter in the house of another sailor who is away for the winter.
- 28th
December 78 - Bob and Wendy marry in Tremont, Maine. Sailing friends
John and Helena Gannon attend the wedding, and a few days later both
Chris and Ted pay a visit.
|
|
1979
|
50/51
|
22/23
|
Writing
and Cruising. North Atlantic & England
|
- 1979
- Bob receives American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters Award.
- Summer
79 - Bob and Wendy set sail for England, by way of Nova Scotia, past
Newfoundland and across the North Atlantic.
- 13th
and 14th August 1979 - The fast but rough crossing climaxes in a storm
300 miles off the coast of England, responsible for the catastrophic deaths of 15 yachtsmen
involved in the annual Fastnet Race, from Cowes, Isle of Wight, around
the Fastnet Rock off the south coast of Ireland, returning for a second
crossing of the Western Approaches to finish in Plymouth. Bob and Wendy shelter in the Isles of Scilly for a
few days.
- They
sail on to anchor in the Helford River, near Helston, Cornwall, England,
and a few days after that they move round to Falmouth Harbour. Barring a
single trip to London by train, and the two return trips to the US below
this is where they are to moor and live for the rest of that winter,
spending most of their time in Cornwall.
- September
– Bob’s mother dies. They leave the boat in Falmouth and fly back to
Minneapolis for a few weeks. (Ed – 2024)
|
|
1979
|
50/51
|
22/23
|
Writing
on the boat in England
|
- Saturday
17th November 79 - Chris is murdered
by stabbing near Haight / Octavia in San Francisco, after leaving the
Zen centre where he lived and studied,
just two weeks before his 23rd birthday. (Z25 Afterword p415) (Photo
of Chris taken during his time in SF courtesy Carol "Caroling" Geary)
- Bob
returns for Chris' funeral and takes his belongings to "his
grandfather's house" in Minnesota. (That's paternal grandfather
Maynard, Also implies neither Bob nor Nancy has the 458 Otis Avenue, St.Paul
address any longer.)
- When
Katagiri Roshi gave the funeral address tears were
just running down his face. He suffered almost more than Bob did. The
funeral took place at the SF Zen Center and a
couple of days later Chris’ ashes were scattered at the Green Gulch Zen Center on the same hill where Alan Watts ashes were
also scattered, both marked with a stone. Wendy kept a journal which she
shared along with other archive materials about Chris, on the “Cuke” website
dedicated to Shunryu Suzuki.
After the funeral, Chris’ mother Nancy was unable to attend the
scattering of his ashes, but in 1994 she visited the location with Carol “Caroling” Geary, a close lifelong artist
friend from her days back in Minneapolis.)
|
|
1980
|
51/52
|
|
Writing
and Cruising. Holland / Belgium
|
- Spring
80 - With their UK visa now expired, Bob and Wendy sail up the English
Channel and over to Holland, where they moor on the canal between Terneuzen (On the Westerschelde
in Holland) and Ghent (in Belgium).
- Bob
continues to work on his second book.
- Nell
is conceived, giving Bob doubts about fatherhood in his 50's
|
|
1981
|
52/53
|
Nell's
Age
|
Writing.
Holland / Belgium
|
- Nell
is born, "filling a hole left by Chris in the pattern of
things". (Z25 Afterword)
- Spring
81 - Bob, Wendy and Nell leave their moorings in Holland / Belgium, and
sail around the North Sea to Tananger, near
Stavanger, Norway. (Ed – 2024)
- Wendy
is keeping a journal of their travels, and Bob has suggested she might
be the "authoritative" biographer one day.
|
|
1982
|
53/54
|
0/1
|
Writing
and Cruising. Norway
|
- Bob
continues researching and writing his book.
|
|
1983
|
54/55
|
1/2
|
Writing
and Cruising. Sweden
|
- Bob,
Wendy and Nell sail round to Frilesas, Sweden.
(Sweden is the origin of Bob's mother's ancestors.)
- The
book Bob is drafting mutates from being specifically about Indian
anthropology into his second work on the Metaphysics of Quality,
"Lila - An Enquiry Into
Morals", woven around the story of the Hudson sailboat trip in
1975.
|
|
1984
|
55/56
|
2/3
|
Writing.
Sweden
|
- Living
on the boat in Sweden, the afterword referring to Chris' death is added
to all new editions of ZMM.
- Bob
is still working on writing Lila.
|
|
1985
|
56/57
|
3/4
|
Writing.
Portsmouth, New Hampshire
|
- Spring
85 - Bob and Wendy repatriate to the US with Nell, soon to be starting
nursery school aged 4, after they notice Nell missing out on
English-speaking peers.
|
|
...
|
...
|
|
|
|
|
1991
|
62/63
|
9/10
|
Writing.
Portsmouth, New Hampshire
|
- November
1991 - "Lila - An Inquiry Into Morals" published. (First
published as a Bantam Hardback. Although as publishers of ZMM, William
Morrow had first refusal on publishing Lila, they did not offer the
asking price.)
|
|
1992
|
63/64
|
10/11
|
Writing.
Portsmouth, New Hampshire
|
|
|
1993
|
64/65
|
11/12
|
Writing.
Portsmouth, New Hampshire
|
|
|
1994
|
65/66
|
12/13
|
Writing.
Portsmouth, New Hampshire
|
- August
1994 - Sven Lindqvist publishes his series of
articles in the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter describing his retracing the ZMM journey,
and reviewing Pirsig's ideas in the process. Contains additional
biographical material from Linqvist's researches at the college in
Bozeman. Offline English translations are available. The original essay
is included in a collection soon to be published by
Lindqvist (2006)
|
|
1995
|
66/67
|
13/14
|
Writing.
Portsmouth, New Hampshire
|
- 1st
June 1995 - Presents Subjects, Objects, Data and Values (SODV)
at the "Einstein meets Magritte" conference (17:00 - 18:00,
Plenary session 11, Thursday, June 1, 1995, Robert M Pirsig, from "England")
(Ref, Link) (Although the paper seems to be well received, Bob is not
tempted to write and publish or present any further papers. Note Francis
Heylighen of VUB, University of Brussels, was
one of the organisers of this conference, and he cites Pirsig in his
ongoing work in epistemology.)
|
|
...
|
...
|
|
|
|
|
1997
|
68/69
|
15/16
|
Living
very privately.
|
- 5th
February 1997 - Bob's father, Maynard Pirsig, then of New Brighton, dies
at the age of 95.
- 17th
February 1997 - Memorial service held in the auditorium of the William
Mitchell College of Law, St.Paul.
- Recounting
meeting the retired Maynard Pirsig in the university law school library,
one student recalled how they were mystified at how, whilst not being a
member of staff, he seemed to have a key to the library. When
challenged, he explained "First you have to graduate top of your
class, then you must join the law school faculty, then you must be
elected dean of the school, and finally when you retire, becoming
professor emeritus, then they give you one of these keys."
|
|
1998
|
69/70
|
16/17
|
Living
very privately.
|
- Searches
attribute Bob contributing the "1998 Cumulative Supplement"
to his father's legal reference work "Pirsig on Minnesota Pleading".
(Presumably this is an editorial supplement concerning the fact that
Maynard Pirsig is recently deceased and therefore unable to continue
future editions and supplements. In any event Bob has no involvement
with this, and the attribution is simply a confusion over their names.)
|
|
1999
|
70/71
|
17/18
|
Living
very privately.
|
- ZMM
25th Anniversary Edition is published.
|
|
...
|
...
|
|
|
|
|
2003
|
74/75
|
|
Living
very privately.
|
- Lila's
Child published by the MoQ Lila Squad, with commentary /
annotation by Bob.
|
|
2004
|
75/76
|
|
Living
very privately.
|
- 30th
Anniversary of ZMM publication.
- Spring
2004 - Nell graduates from college.
- Summer
2004 - "After 19 years dormant in their backyard", renovation
of their boat is finally complete and, with Wendy and Nell, Bob takes
her out "onto the rolling swells of the North Atlantic once
again".
|
|
2005
|
76/77
|
|
Conference
|
- 7th
July 2005. The first ever conference on Robert M Pirsig's Metaphysics of
Quality is organized by Dr Anthony McWatt at
Liverpool University, England, to coincide with his awarding of the
first ever academic PhD specifically concerned with the subject. [Conference papers here.]
[Report and photographs here.]
- The
conference is filmed as part of a possible documentary project. (See
2008 entry)
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2006
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77/78
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|
Living
very privately.
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|
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2007
|
78/79
|
|
|
|
|
2008
|
79/80
|
|
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- January
2008 - First part of Ant McWatt ’s Pirsig film
documentary project “Arrive Without Travelling”
released on DVD. Includes footage of the 2005 conference as well as
interviews with Pirsig and others "on location".
- July
2008 is the 40th anniversary of the original 1968 motorcycle trip
around which ZMM is written.
- 6th
September 2008 - Bob's 80th Birthday
- 9th
September 2008 - Publication of Mark Richardson’s book
“Zen and Now”. The story of Mark's own
motorcycles trip(s) across the ZMM route, interwoven with as yet
unpublished biographical detail. Published in Hardback by Random House / Knopf.
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|
….
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·
For
any other major milestones and resources on Pirsig and his work go to Psybertron Pirsig
Pages.
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2017
|
88
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Dies
|
·
24th April 2017 – Robert
Pirsig dies at his home in Maine after a period of failing health.
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