Timeline
2100 BC – Story of Gilgamesh. bpNichol becomes possible.
1200 BC – development of Phoenician alphabet. Nichol’s Aleph Beth Book becomes possible.
33 BC – the Crucifixion of Christ. Nichol’s The Martyrology becomes possible.
1886 – birth of Hugo Ball. bpNichol becomes more likely.
1900 – birth of Chester Gould – Grease Ball Comix become possible.
1944 – birth of Barrie Phillip Nichol, groundwork for bpNichol.
1945 – Barrie Phillip Nichol believed by family to have been momentarily dead and returned to life. bpNichol more possible.
1948 – Barrie Phillip Nichol dwells within the alphabet of streets of Winnipeg’s Wildwood Park, on ‘H’ street.
1950 – Nichol family temporarily dispersed from Winnipeg by the Red River Flood.
1951 – Nichol encounters first Dick Tracy comic book. Has elaborate life-consuming fantasies of being rescued and respected by Dick Tracy.
1954 – Nichol family now living in Port Arthur, Nichol nearly drowns in a flooded ditch. While recovering, he writes his first text, “The Sailor from Mars,” which his mother will fairly soon throw out.
1955 – is taught ballroom dancing by his mother, making possible the Oedipal- attraction dance passages in bpNichol’s Journal.
1957-60 – Nichol family back in Winnipeg. Nichol excels as a track athlete and plays for his school’s championship soccer team, but retains very little memory of these years. He is more focused on creating his first comic strip, “The Journal of Colonel Bob de Cat.”
1960 – arrives in Vancouver and completes high school. Meets young poet David Phillips.
1961 – enrols in a senior matriculation year and meets other young aspiring writers and artists both there and at home of Sybil Huba, the recent widow of sculptor Paul Huba, including Arnold Shives and Judith Copithorne.
1962 – enrols in second-year Education at University of BC, and audits introductory Creative Writing course. Meets student poets Robert Hogg,
David Cull and James Reid. Learns about the 1920s existence of the Dadaist writers, but is unable to locate work by them.
1963 – spends summer in Toronto where he enters psychotherapy under lay Freudian psychotherapist Lea Hindley-Smith. Returns in September to begin work as a elementary school teacher in nearby Port Coquitlam, with a class of slow-learners many of whom Nichol believed to be “disturbed.” “I was terrible, probably more disturbed than them” he will later tell interviewer Loren Lind.
1964 – resigns his teaching position in March, and moves to Toronto to three weeks later to resume therapy with Hindley-Smith. Works in the
University of Toronto’s Sigmund Samuel Library, and begins relationship with colleague Dace Puce.
– re-invents himself as “bpNichol.”
– adopts some of Wilhelm Reich’s psychoanalytical theories as the basis of a new poetics.
1965 – becomes known within the international concrete poetry movement for visual and conceptual poems he has been calling “ideopoems.”
– with David Aylward begins the little magazine Ganglia, which he would later operate as micro press.
1966 – begins working for Lea Hindley-Smith as a lay psychotherapist.
1967 – publication in England of his first book, Konfessions of an Elizabethan Fandancer.
– publication of his first Canadian book, bp.
– becomes secretary of the new League of Canadian Poets.
– Lea Hindley-Smith’s practice becomes known as Therafields.
– Nichol becomes Vice President of Therafields.
– begins writing Monotones and The Martyrology I.
– with David UU (David W. Harris) began grOnk, an irregularly published pamphlet and booklet series offshoot of Ganglia devoted mostly to
visual and 'pataphysical poetry. He continued grOnk until his death, publishing more than a hundred items, including his D.A. dead (series 2: number 3, November 1968) and H into I: DEvolution (grOnk Intermediate Series 24, September 1984). Nichol's 1972 index to Ganglia and
grOnk has been online at the currently suspended bpNichol.ca. See also J.W. Curry's eight volume beepliographic cyclopedia on Flickr.
1968 – Therafields reconceived as a community as well as a psychotherapeutic treatment facility.
– Nichol begins a relationship with ex-nun and Therafields member Eleanor Hiebert.
1969 – meets poet Steve McCaffery
– founds sound poetry group The Four Horsemen with McCaffery, Paul Dutton and Rafael Barreto-Rivera.
– co-founds the internal Therafields newsletter Axis.
1970 – first performances of The Four Horsemen.
1971 – begins the self-interrogating Martyrology 3.
– awarded Canada’s Governor-General’s Award for Poetry.
– joins editorial board of Open Letter
1972 – publication of The Martyrology II and The Martyrology II.
– formation with Steve McCaffery of the Toronto Research Group (TRG).
– release of The Four Horsemen LP Nada Canadada.
1973 – first publication of a TRG report.
– sale by Nichol of a large portion of his manuscripts, notebooks and correspondence to the Contemporary Literature Collection of Simon Fraser University.
1974 – oratorio version of The Martyrology, in collaboration with Howard Gerhard.
– Nichol joins new editorial board of Coach House Press.
1975 – publication of Four Horsemen collection Horse d’Oeuvres.
– financial crisis develops at Therafields.
– Nichol performs at Eighth International Sound Poetry Festival in London and visits Dom Sylvester Houédard in Gloucester.
– completes The Martyrology 4.
– completes Art Facts and attempts unsuccessfully to publish it with Richard Grossinger’s North Atlantic Books.
1976 – begins The Martyrology 5.
– publishes The Martyrology 3&4.
1977 – revises first two books of The Martyrology, republishing them in a single volume.
– Therafields anniversary festival “Love/Life.”
1978 – Nichol awarded Canada Council Senior Artists grant.
– performs at Sound and Syntax Festival in Glasgow. Visits Lake District, Avebury, Stonehenge, Glastonbury, Cornwall and the Cotswolds.
– works with McCaffery on manuscript of In England Now that Spring.
– collaborates in the founding of Underwhich Editions.
1979 – begins The Martyrology Book 6 Books.
1980 – performance of his musical comedy Group.
– stillbirth of his child with Eleanor Hiebert.
– begins sessional teaching at York University.
– marries Eleanor Hiebert.
1981 – publication of his selected writing, As Elected.
– birth of his daughter, Sarah Kathryn.
1982 – publishes first children’s book, Moosequakes and other Disasters.
– suffers severe back pain during a visit to British Columbia.
– financial collapse of Therafields.
– wins Arsenal Pulp Press Three-Day Novel Contest with Still.
– agrees to write scripts for Henson Associates’ Fraggle Rock.
– publishes The Martyrology 5.
1983 – co-authors play Tracks with Marye Barton for production in Cobourg, ON.
– publishes children’s book Once Upon a Lullaby.
– acquires Apple IIe computer and begins study of Apple Basic.
– production of two Nichol Fraggle Rock scripts.
– joins Canada Council’s Committee on Public Readings.
– agrees to write scripts for television series The Raccoons.
1984 – creates his first digital poems and publishes on floppy disk the small collection First Screening.
– complains of severe back pain during trip to Winnipeg; visits chiropractor.
– begins The Martyrology 7&.
1985 – suffers crippling back pain during trip to California to participate in the What’s Cooking Performance Festival at the University of San Diego.
– back pain has become chronic.
– creates the “’Pataphysical Hardware Company” for festival L’affaire ”Pataphysique.
– has x-rays and surgery to address the pains now in his back, leg and foot.
1986 – purchases house at 114 Lauder Avenue, Toronto.
– obliged by the Coach House Press board to reduce his editing.
– suffering more back, leg and foot pain.
– end of the Fraggle Rock series.
– begins writing scripts for Nelvana’s Care Bear television series.
– trip to Paris and Amsterdam with The Four Horsemen; back pain so severe he rents wheelchair.
– publication by Open Letter of a bpNichol festschrift.
1987 – is writing eight episodes for CBC television series Under the Umbrella Tree.
– has two-week residence at University of Turin.
– editorship at Coach House Press ends.
– begins script writing for television series Blizzard Island.
1988 – ends his teaching at York University.
– resigns his remaining roles at Coach House Press.
– chronic back leg and foot pain worsens.
– new x-rays and an MRI reveal a large tumour in his sacrum.
– sends new manucript of Art Facts to Chax Press.
– dies during surgery.
– publication of Tracing the Paths: Reading ≠ Writing The Martyrology, edited by Roy Miki, as issue of journal West Coast Line.
– publication of Selected Organs: Parts of an Autobiography by Black Moss Press.
1990 – publication of Gifts: The Martyrology Books 7&, by Coach House Press.
– publication of Art Facts: A Book of Contexts by Chax Press.
1992 – publication of Irene Niechoda’s A Sourcery for Books 1 and 2 of bpNichol’s The Martyrology by ECW Press.
1993 – publication of Ad Sanctos: The Martyrology, Book 9, words by bpNichol and music by Howard Gerhard, by Coach House Press.
– publication of Truth: A Book of Fictions, edited by Irene Niechoda, by Mercury Press.
1994 – publication of An H in the Heart: bpNichol a Reader, edited by George Bowering and Michael Ondaatje, by McClelland & Stewart.
– City of Toronto renames the alley on which the Coach House Press is located as bpNichol Lane.
1997 – publication of Beyond the Orchard: Essays on The Martyrology, edited by Roy Miki and Fred Wah, as issue of journal West Coast Line.
1998 – publication of “bpNichol + 10” issue of Open Letter.
2007 – publication by Coach House Books of The Alphabet Game: a bpNichol Reader, edited by Darren Wershler and Lori Emerson.
2008 – publication of “bpNichol + 20” issue of Open Letter.
2009 – publication of “bpNichol + 21” issue of Open Letter.
– publication of “The Martyrology: Survivors’ Retrospective” issue of Open Letter, guest-edited by David Rosenberg.
2011 – publication by Bookthug of The Captain Poetry Poems Complete.
2013 – publication by Coach House Books of A Book of Variations: love – zygal – art facts, edited by Stephen Voyce.
2100 BC – Story of Gilgamesh. bpNichol becomes possible.
1200 BC – development of Phoenician alphabet. Nichol’s Aleph Beth Book becomes possible.
33 BC – the Crucifixion of Christ. Nichol’s The Martyrology becomes possible.
1886 – birth of Hugo Ball. bpNichol becomes more likely.
1900 – birth of Chester Gould – Grease Ball Comix become possible.
1944 – birth of Barrie Phillip Nichol, groundwork for bpNichol.
1945 – Barrie Phillip Nichol believed by family to have been momentarily dead and returned to life. bpNichol more possible.
1948 – Barrie Phillip Nichol dwells within the alphabet of streets of Winnipeg’s Wildwood Park, on ‘H’ street.
1950 – Nichol family temporarily dispersed from Winnipeg by the Red River Flood.
1951 – Nichol encounters first Dick Tracy comic book. Has elaborate life-consuming fantasies of being rescued and respected by Dick Tracy.
1954 – Nichol family now living in Port Arthur, Nichol nearly drowns in a flooded ditch. While recovering, he writes his first text, “The Sailor from Mars,” which his mother will fairly soon throw out.
1955 – is taught ballroom dancing by his mother, making possible the Oedipal- attraction dance passages in bpNichol’s Journal.
1957-60 – Nichol family back in Winnipeg. Nichol excels as a track athlete and plays for his school’s championship soccer team, but retains very little memory of these years. He is more focused on creating his first comic strip, “The Journal of Colonel Bob de Cat.”
1960 – arrives in Vancouver and completes high school. Meets young poet David Phillips.
1961 – enrols in a senior matriculation year and meets other young aspiring writers and artists both there and at home of Sybil Huba, the recent widow of sculptor Paul Huba, including Arnold Shives and Judith Copithorne.
1962 – enrols in second-year Education at University of BC, and audits introductory Creative Writing course. Meets student poets Robert Hogg,
David Cull and James Reid. Learns about the 1920s existence of the Dadaist writers, but is unable to locate work by them.
1963 – spends summer in Toronto where he enters psychotherapy under lay Freudian psychotherapist Lea Hindley-Smith. Returns in September to begin work as a elementary school teacher in nearby Port Coquitlam, with a class of slow-learners many of whom Nichol believed to be “disturbed.” “I was terrible, probably more disturbed than them” he will later tell interviewer Loren Lind.
1964 – resigns his teaching position in March, and moves to Toronto to three weeks later to resume therapy with Hindley-Smith. Works in the
University of Toronto’s Sigmund Samuel Library, and begins relationship with colleague Dace Puce.
– re-invents himself as “bpNichol.”
– adopts some of Wilhelm Reich’s psychoanalytical theories as the basis of a new poetics.
1965 – becomes known within the international concrete poetry movement for visual and conceptual poems he has been calling “ideopoems.”
– with David Aylward begins the little magazine Ganglia, which he would later operate as micro press.
1966 – begins working for Lea Hindley-Smith as a lay psychotherapist.
1967 – publication in England of his first book, Konfessions of an Elizabethan Fandancer.
– publication of his first Canadian book, bp.
– becomes secretary of the new League of Canadian Poets.
– Lea Hindley-Smith’s practice becomes known as Therafields.
– Nichol becomes Vice President of Therafields.
– begins writing Monotones and The Martyrology I.
– with David UU (David W. Harris) began grOnk, an irregularly published pamphlet and booklet series offshoot of Ganglia devoted mostly to
visual and 'pataphysical poetry. He continued grOnk until his death, publishing more than a hundred items, including his D.A. dead (series 2: number 3, November 1968) and H into I: DEvolution (grOnk Intermediate Series 24, September 1984). Nichol's 1972 index to Ganglia and
grOnk has been online at the currently suspended bpNichol.ca. See also J.W. Curry's eight volume beepliographic cyclopedia on Flickr.
1968 – Therafields reconceived as a community as well as a psychotherapeutic treatment facility.
– Nichol begins a relationship with ex-nun and Therafields member Eleanor Hiebert.
1969 – meets poet Steve McCaffery
– founds sound poetry group The Four Horsemen with McCaffery, Paul Dutton and Rafael Barreto-Rivera.
– co-founds the internal Therafields newsletter Axis.
1970 – first performances of The Four Horsemen.
1971 – begins the self-interrogating Martyrology 3.
– awarded Canada’s Governor-General’s Award for Poetry.
– joins editorial board of Open Letter
1972 – publication of The Martyrology II and The Martyrology II.
– formation with Steve McCaffery of the Toronto Research Group (TRG).
– release of The Four Horsemen LP Nada Canadada.
1973 – first publication of a TRG report.
– sale by Nichol of a large portion of his manuscripts, notebooks and correspondence to the Contemporary Literature Collection of Simon Fraser University.
1974 – oratorio version of The Martyrology, in collaboration with Howard Gerhard.
– Nichol joins new editorial board of Coach House Press.
1975 – publication of Four Horsemen collection Horse d’Oeuvres.
– financial crisis develops at Therafields.
– Nichol performs at Eighth International Sound Poetry Festival in London and visits Dom Sylvester Houédard in Gloucester.
– completes The Martyrology 4.
– completes Art Facts and attempts unsuccessfully to publish it with Richard Grossinger’s North Atlantic Books.
1976 – begins The Martyrology 5.
– publishes The Martyrology 3&4.
1977 – revises first two books of The Martyrology, republishing them in a single volume.
– Therafields anniversary festival “Love/Life.”
1978 – Nichol awarded Canada Council Senior Artists grant.
– performs at Sound and Syntax Festival in Glasgow. Visits Lake District, Avebury, Stonehenge, Glastonbury, Cornwall and the Cotswolds.
– works with McCaffery on manuscript of In England Now that Spring.
– collaborates in the founding of Underwhich Editions.
1979 – begins The Martyrology Book 6 Books.
1980 – performance of his musical comedy Group.
– stillbirth of his child with Eleanor Hiebert.
– begins sessional teaching at York University.
– marries Eleanor Hiebert.
1981 – publication of his selected writing, As Elected.
– birth of his daughter, Sarah Kathryn.
1982 – publishes first children’s book, Moosequakes and other Disasters.
– suffers severe back pain during a visit to British Columbia.
– financial collapse of Therafields.
– wins Arsenal Pulp Press Three-Day Novel Contest with Still.
– agrees to write scripts for Henson Associates’ Fraggle Rock.
– publishes The Martyrology 5.
1983 – co-authors play Tracks with Marye Barton for production in Cobourg, ON.
– publishes children’s book Once Upon a Lullaby.
– acquires Apple IIe computer and begins study of Apple Basic.
– production of two Nichol Fraggle Rock scripts.
– joins Canada Council’s Committee on Public Readings.
– agrees to write scripts for television series The Raccoons.
1984 – creates his first digital poems and publishes on floppy disk the small collection First Screening.
– complains of severe back pain during trip to Winnipeg; visits chiropractor.
– begins The Martyrology 7&.
1985 – suffers crippling back pain during trip to California to participate in the What’s Cooking Performance Festival at the University of San Diego.
– back pain has become chronic.
– creates the “’Pataphysical Hardware Company” for festival L’affaire ”Pataphysique.
– has x-rays and surgery to address the pains now in his back, leg and foot.
1986 – purchases house at 114 Lauder Avenue, Toronto.
– obliged by the Coach House Press board to reduce his editing.
– suffering more back, leg and foot pain.
– end of the Fraggle Rock series.
– begins writing scripts for Nelvana’s Care Bear television series.
– trip to Paris and Amsterdam with The Four Horsemen; back pain so severe he rents wheelchair.
– publication by Open Letter of a bpNichol festschrift.
1987 – is writing eight episodes for CBC television series Under the Umbrella Tree.
– has two-week residence at University of Turin.
– editorship at Coach House Press ends.
– begins script writing for television series Blizzard Island.
1988 – ends his teaching at York University.
– resigns his remaining roles at Coach House Press.
– chronic back leg and foot pain worsens.
– new x-rays and an MRI reveal a large tumour in his sacrum.
– sends new manucript of Art Facts to Chax Press.
– dies during surgery.
– publication of Tracing the Paths: Reading ≠ Writing The Martyrology, edited by Roy Miki, as issue of journal West Coast Line.
– publication of Selected Organs: Parts of an Autobiography by Black Moss Press.
1990 – publication of Gifts: The Martyrology Books 7&, by Coach House Press.
– publication of Art Facts: A Book of Contexts by Chax Press.
1992 – publication of Irene Niechoda’s A Sourcery for Books 1 and 2 of bpNichol’s The Martyrology by ECW Press.
1993 – publication of Ad Sanctos: The Martyrology, Book 9, words by bpNichol and music by Howard Gerhard, by Coach House Press.
– publication of Truth: A Book of Fictions, edited by Irene Niechoda, by Mercury Press.
1994 – publication of An H in the Heart: bpNichol a Reader, edited by George Bowering and Michael Ondaatje, by McClelland & Stewart.
– City of Toronto renames the alley on which the Coach House Press is located as bpNichol Lane.
1997 – publication of Beyond the Orchard: Essays on The Martyrology, edited by Roy Miki and Fred Wah, as issue of journal West Coast Line.
1998 – publication of “bpNichol + 10” issue of Open Letter.
2007 – publication by Coach House Books of The Alphabet Game: a bpNichol Reader, edited by Darren Wershler and Lori Emerson.
2008 – publication of “bpNichol + 20” issue of Open Letter.
2009 – publication of “bpNichol + 21” issue of Open Letter.
– publication of “The Martyrology: Survivors’ Retrospective” issue of Open Letter, guest-edited by David Rosenberg.
2011 – publication by Bookthug of The Captain Poetry Poems Complete.
2013 – publication by Coach House Books of A Book of Variations: love – zygal – art facts, edited by Stephen Voyce.