From Blowing Rock to Windy Cliff 
A Tentative Chronology
A Work in Progress by Dale Kirby
Some of this might even be correct.
(Note: All info is from public published material. )
(No private info was used in the testing or manufacture of this
product.)
(Photograph of Tom Robbins by Carl Studa)
Born in Blowing
Rock (or was it Blowing Point?) , North Carolina on July 22, 1936(?)
Grandson of Two Baptist preachers
He was oldest of four children.
1941 Wrote stories at 5 years of age and taught himself to read.
His mother taught Sunday School and was a Nurse and wrote children's stories
for religious magazines.
His father was a power company executive
1943 Younger sister died.
Twin sisters born.
Moved to Burnsville, North Carolina
1947 Worked at Barnes and Beers Traveling Circus
194? Moved to Warsaw, Virginia
Class clown, closet reader
Went to Hargrove Military Academy
At Fifteen lettered in basketball
1952 Married
1954 Son, Rip, born.
1954 Went to Washington
and Lee (In Lexington, VA) for two years where he studied Journalism
1956 Got thrown out of his fraternity for throwing bisquits at his housemother
1956 Left school and hitchhiked for a year
1956 Went to New York to be a poet and got his draft notice.
1957 Spent 3 Years in the Air Force in the Far East as a meterologist in Korea
Attended courses in Japanese culture and aesthetics in Tokyo
1960 Worked as a copy editor at the Richmond Times-Dispatch
Was editor of Proscript, the Richmond Professional Institute's student newspaper.
Wrote a column called Walks on the Wild Side & The Robbins Nest
1961 Graduated Richmond Professional Institute
Forced to resign Richmond Times-Dispatch newspaper job for putting
picture of Sammy Davis, Jr. in.
Performed Baboon Family art happenings with B.H. Hendricks & Mary
Lou Davis.
Married Susan
1962 Moved to Seattle
???? Divorced Susan (or vice versa)
Wrote headlines for Dear Abby Column.
Met Dear Abby.
Staged Happenings
Low-Calorie Sacrifice to the Goddess Minnie Mouse (in Kirkland)
Stronger than Dirt (Pioneer Square)
Graduate School of Far Eastern Studies at University of Washington
Took a field trip with Joseph Campbell to South America
Feature editor and art critic at Seattle Times
Part time at Seattle Post-Intelligencer
July 19, 1963 First LSD experience
1964 Moved to New York City, the Village.
Marched in a Legalize Marijuana rally with Allen Ginsberg
Attended a lecture by Timothy Leary
Met Timothy Leary
1965 Moved to San Francisco.
Moved back to Seatle.
Worked as a Disk Jockey.
1967 July 23rd went to a Doors concert and discovered his true writing style
("found his voice") while writing a review of the performance.
1968 Living over a machine shop in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle when
Luther Nichols, West Coast Editor of Doubleday contacted him about writing an
art book. He told him about a novel idea he had Another Roadside Attraction.
1968 Tried to write ARA for a year but couldn't get much done. Moved to
South Bend, WA and lived in a storefront and then a house for two years while
he wrote ARA.
1968 Married Terrie Lunden
1969 Got a $2500 dollar advance and went to Japan for a visit.
April 1, 1970 Bought Victorian house in LaConner, WA.
1971 Fleetwood
Star Robbins born
try1971 Another Roadside Attraction published in hardback
1971 Divorced from Terrie
1972 ARA published in paperback
1976 (April) Even Cowgirls Get the Blues published
1977 (August) Elvis Presley died with a copy of Another Roadside Attraction
on the floor beside him.
1977 Wrote a tribute to artist, Guy Anderson
1980 (Aug) Still Life with Woodpecker published
Became friends with Timothy Leary at a book signing party at Papa Bach's bookstore
in Santa Monica.
???? Married and divorced Donna Davis
1984 (Dec) Jitterbug Perfume published
1985 Traveled to Tanzania
1987 Appeared as the Toymaker in movie, Made in Heaven
1987 May have married Alexa without checking with his readers first!
1990 (May) Skinny Legs and All published
199? Went to Timbuctoo
1994 (Mar) Married Alexa D'Avalon
1994 (Oct) Half Asleep In Frog Pajamas published
1994 Appeared in movie, Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle
1995 He has had one book on the NYTimes bestseller list. (Half-Asleep in Frog
Pajamas)
1996 He has had one book made into a movie. (Even Cowgirls Get the Blues)
1997 Lives in
a house overlooking Skagit Bay, but uses his old house in LaConner as a "writing
house."
Won the Golden Umbrella Award at the Bumbershoot Festival in Seatle.
2000 (May 2) Fierce
Invalids Home from Hot Climates published and hits the best-seller lists.
2000 (May 18) Tom Robbins meets Dale Kirby! :-)
Sources:
Aquarius
Revisited : Seven Who Created the Sixties Counterculture That Changed America
(Citadel Underground Series) by Peter O. Whitmer, Bruce Van Wyngarden
At
the Field's End : Interviews With 22 Pacific Northwest Writers
Alive
and Writing : Interviews With American Authors of the 1980s ed. by Larry
McCaffery
Tom
Robbins : A Critical Companion (Critical Companions to Popular Contemporary
Writers)
Anthem
: An American Road Story
Various magazine articles and interviews.
See the bibliography.
(Created 3-28-97)