From: "Roy C. Lackey" <rclackey@stic.net>
Subject: (urth) PEACE EZ Timeline
Date: Thu, 26 Oct 2000 15:10:23 

Speaking of timelines for PEACE, here is my version. It is what mantis calls
the "EZ" timeline, because it is based on accepting at face value the date
of 1938 for the coldhouse prank, and that Den was two years out of college,
as claimed. Den should be 24 then (not 23), because his birthday was in May
and the prank occurred in summer. I have included a few historical dates,
just for background. Page numbers are for the Berkley paperback.

The timeline is not as concise, in places, as I would like it to be because,
well, you know why; Wolfe doesn't make things easy! Few dates are given,
time periods tend to be expressed in round numbers, and you seldom know what
year you're counting from. It's easier to pick apart someone else's
timeline--to point out that "this fact" makes "that date" wrong--than to
defend your own, but I can make my case for any given date, if anyone is
interested. The two five-year wimp-out spans are the result of ambiguous,
(seemingly) conflicting details. It does not cover all of the convolutions
resulting from Den's imaginary visit(s) to Dr. Van Ness, nor mantis's
"Liberty" magazine clue.

****************************************
1895 Den's mother born. (based on p.17 "My mother would have been
twenty-five, I six. It was the year after Bobby Black was hurt.")

1914 May, Den born. W.W.I begins in Europe.

1918 End of W.W.I.

1919 May, Den, age 5, pushed Bobby Black down the stairs; fake deerskin
treaty painted.

1920 Begin Prohibition. December, Den received scout knife.

1923 Bobby Black dies.
     Den's parents go to Europe, Den goes to live with Aunt Olivia.
     July, Chinese-egg affair. Vi claims to be 26 (p.97), but may be
fudging; I agree with mantis that she is closer to 30.
     August 3, Macafee's 41st birthday party (p.171), when Vi meets Julius
Smart and they all tell stories. Den says that Smart was, at that time, "at
least five years younger than my aunt" (p.149). Smart's adventure with Mr.
Tilly took place the summer after he graduated college, so he was about 24
then. Charlie Turner's mother, Jan, (in one of the few references to larger
world events in the text) who was herself not "much more than twenty"
(p.138), mentioned that one of her brothers had been killed in France,
obviously in the Great War (p.143). Den was nine at the time of this party.
He said he started to tell Smart's story to Bill Batton "thirty-five or
forty years" later (p.135). Forty years later would have been when he was 49
and president of the company, about 1963.

1924 or 1925 Vi marries J. Smart, Den's parents still overseas.

1928 L. Gold leaves Breslau. (p.197)

1929 circa, L. Gold meets Sally. (p.214) [1]

1929 October, Stock Market crash, begin Depression.

1929-1934 circa, Olivia dies. [1]

1933 End Prohibition.

1938(summer) Coldhouse prank , Den age 24. (p.230)

1939-1945 W.W.II.

1950-1953 Korean War.

1954-1959 Time frame for the Lois/Gold affair. Den age 40-45. Sherry Gold is
16. Lois is close to 35.

1963 circa, Den becomes president of the company at about 49. Crazy Pete on
island.

1974-1975 Den's death; PEACE published.

[1] There is a problem here. Two events are linked in that they both
occurred 25 years before the time of the Lois/Gold affair--Vi's death and
Gold meeting Sally--yet other factors seem to separate these two events by
several years.

Roy



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