The Road to The Dark Tower
Page 41
June 24, 2003: First four Dark Tower books reissued in trade paperback by Plume.
July 2003: Volume I of Robin Furth’s Concordance is published.
July 3, 2003: Grant starts taking orders for Wolves of the Calla.
November 4, 2003: Grant and Scribner publish Wolves of the Calla.
June 8, 2004: Grant and Scribner publish Song of Susannah.
September 2004: Volume II of Concordance is published.
September 21, 2004: Grant and Scribner publish The Dark Tower.
January 2005: Wolves of the Calla appears in trade paperback.
April 2005: Song of Susannah appears in trade paperback.
July 2005: The Dark Tower appears in trade paperback.
APPENDIX II:
TIMELINE (FICTION)
Part 1: Mid-World
(DT1). Roland, 11, hears Hax conspiring to aid the Good Man.
(DT1). Roland, 14, sees Marten with his mother, takes his test to become a gunslinger, and sleeps with a woman for the first time.
(DT4)+1 day. Roland is sent east by his father to avoid Marten’s treachery.
(DT4)+1 month. Roland meets Susan Delgado in Mejis.
(DT4)+1 day. Roland, Alain and Cuthbert present themselves to Sheriff Avery.
(DT4)+1 day. Dinner at the home of Thorin, the Mayor of Hambry. Showdown with the Big Coffin Hunters at the Travellers’ Rest.
(DT4)+1 week. Roland sends an apology to Susan via Sheemie.
(DT4)+1 day. Susan rejects Roland’s invitation to meet.
(DT4)+2 weeks. Susan and Cordelia fight. Susan meets up with “Will Dearborn.” Roy Depape learns about Stephen Deschain in Ritzy.
(DT4)+3 days. Roland, Alain and Cuthbert explore the thinny.
(DT4)+4 days. Thorin sends a second horse to Susan; Alain passes a message from Will to Susan.
(DT4)+1 day. Susan passes a note to Cuthbert refusing to meet Will.
(DT4)+1 day. Susan sends Will a packet of seeds and a note to meet her at moonrise.
(DT4)+2 weeks. Susan and Roland declare and consummate their love.
(DT4)+5 weeks. Roland and Susan succumb to the drug of true love.
(DT4)+3 days. The Affiliation brats announce their intention to count horses.
(DT4)+7 days. A week of bad weather. Cordelia tells Eldred Jonas of her suspicions about Susan. Eldred finds Cuthbert’s rook skull at Citgo.
(DT4)+1 day. Eldred Jonas visits the Bar K Ranch with a can of paint. Cuthbert hits Roland.
(DT4)+1 day. Roland and his ka-tet visit Rhea as gunslingers.
(DT4)+3 days. Susan meets with the ka-tet.
(DT4)+2 days. Susan and Sheemie send fireworks to the Bar K. Alain and Cuthbert bury gunpowder.
(DT4)+2 days. Susan discovers someone has cut pages from her father’s ledger, fights with Cordelia and leaves the house permanently.
(DT4)+1 day. Roland tells Susan what to do if he dies. They make love for the last time.
(DT4)+1 day. The Big Coffin Hunters murder Mayor Thorin and Rimer, the Chancellor of Mejis. Roland and his ka-tet are arrested. Susan and Sheemie free them.
(DT4)+1 day. Reaping Fair Day. Explosions at Citgo; Roland and Susan part. Jonas captures Susan. Sheemie and Olive Thorin free her. Roland and his ka-tet destroy the Big Coffin Hunters and their local help. Roland travels inside the Wizard’s Glass. Massacre at Eyebolt Canyon. Susan burns.
(DT4)+1 day. The gunslingers ride to Il Bosque, west of Mejis.
(DT4)+1 month (est.). Roland, Alain and Cuthbert return to Gilead.
(DT4)+3 days. Banquet to celebrate their return. Roland goes into the Wizard’s Glass again.
(DT4)+3 days. Roland shoots his mother to death.
(DT4)+2 years. The fall of Gilead. Cuthbert, Alain and Jamie die. Roland’s father dies.
(LS). Roland encounters the Little Sisters of Eluria.
(DT1). The man in black raises Nort from the dead.
(DT1). Roland buys a mule in Pricetown.
(DT1). Roland arrives in Tull.
(DT1)+7 days. Roland kills everyone in Tull.
(DT1)+1 day. Roland leaves Tull.
(DT1)+20 days. Roland meets Brown and Zoltan.
(DT1)+1 day. Roland leaves Brown.
(DT1)+15 days. The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.
(DT1)+1 day. Roland discovers Jake at the way station.
(DT1)+1 day. Roland and Jake leave the way station. Father Callahan enters Mid-World (DT5).
(DT1)+3 days. Roland thinks he sees the light of another fire.
(DT1)+1 day. Roland recalls the story of Hax.
(DT1)+2 days. Roland and Jake see the man in black for the first time.
(DT1)+1 day. They continue into the foothills.
(DT1)+1 day. Jake and Roland rest.
(DT1)+1 day. They encounter the oracle. Roland learns of the three.
(DT1)+1 day. Another day of travel for Jake and Roland.
(DT1)+1 day. Roland tells Jake of New Canaan and Gilead.
(DT1)+1 day. They climb the foothills.
(DT1)+1 day. Roland finds a footprint.
(DT1)+7 days. Roland and Jake speak with the man in black.
(DT1)+1 day. They go beneath the mountain.
(DT1)+3 days. They find the railway tracks.
(DT1)+4 days. Jake runs into a handcar in the darkness.
(DT1)+? Roland tells of his coming of age.
(DT1)+1 day. Roland and Jake encounter the Slow Mutants.
(DT1)+1 day. They travel without incident.
(DT1)+1 day. They enter the switching station.
(DT1)+3 days. Roland lets Jake fall from the trestle.
(DT1)+1 day. The long night palaver with the man in black.
(DT1)+10 years? Roland arrives at the Western Sea.
(DT2) Seven hours later; Roland versus the lobstrosities.
(DT2)+1 day. Roland cleans his guns.
(DT2)+1 day. The first door—the Prisoner. Welcome Eddie Dean.
(DT2)+1 week. Roland battles the fever with Keflex.
(DT2)+1 day. Eddie drags Roland north on a travois.
(DT2)+3 days. More travel north along the beach. Eddie talks about Henry.
(DT2)+1 day. The second door—the Lady of Shadows. Odetta Holmes comes through the doorway.
(DT2)+1 day. Detta Walker on the other side.
(DT2)+1 day. The threesome travels north.
(DT2)+1 day. Detta wakes them with screams. They cover three miles.
(DT2)+1 day. The threesome manages only two miles.
(DT2)+1 day. Odetta reappears. Eddie and Odetta look for the third door, make love.
(DT2)+1 day. The third door—the Pusher.
(DT2)+1 day. Eddie returns for Roland.
(DT2)+1 day. Eddie pushes Roland up the beach. Roland meets Jack Mort. Susannah Dean is born.
(DT2)+6 days. Everyone recovers.
(DT3)+2 months or more. Roland and Susannah destroy Shardik/Mir.
(DT3)+1 day. Eddie’s dream. The gunslingers follow Shardik’s back trail.
(DT3)+1 day. Shardik’s lair. The Path of the Beam.
(DT3)+1 day. Eddie dreams again. Roland has a nightmare and gives up his guns.
(DT3)+8 days. Jake telegraphs a message to Eddie about the key.
(DT3)+1 day. Jake crosses back to Mid-World. Susannah and the demon.
(DT3)+4 days. Oy joins the ka-tet.
(DT3)+1 day. The ka-tet visits Aunt Talitha at River Crossing.
(DT3)+3 days. The downed airplane.
(DT3)+3 days. Mutant honeybees and poisoned honey.
(DT3)+1 day. The ka-tet hears fighting from Lud.
(DT3)+1 day. Crossing the Send River, Gasher, Tick-Tock Man, Blaine the Mono.
(DT4) Later that same day. Blaine the Mono and Topeka.
(DT4)+1 day. The ka-tet takes the Interstate.
(DT4)+1 day. Eddie’s dream. They see the crystal palace in the distance.
(DT4)+1 day. Roland tells his story.
; (DT4)+1 day? Inside the Emerald Palace.
(DT4)+? After the journey inside the pink Wizard’s ball. Time has slipped again, but no one knows how much.
(DT5)+7 weeks. The end of Full or Wide Earth (summer) in Calla Bryn Sturgis. Andy brings news of the Wolves. Jake finds muffin balls and notices they are being watched. The ka-tet goes todash to Jake’s New York. Mia forages for food.
(DT5)+1 day. Palaver about the trip todash. Father Callahan and the other representatives of the Calla approach.
(DT5)+1 day. Another trip todash trip to New York.
(DT5)+1 day. Riding to Calla Bryn Sturgis. Singing and dancing at the pavilion.
(DT5)+1 day. Father Callahan tells the first part of his story. Shows Roland Black Thirteen. The Tale of Gray Dick. The Orizas. Gran-Pere Jaffords tells of killing a Wolf.
(DT5)+1 day. Mia hunts again, followed by Jake. Father Callahan tells the end of his story. Susannah tells the others she might be pregnant.
(DT5)+1 day. The end of ritual and preparation. The beginning of the business. Roland says his confession to Callahan.
(DT5)+5 days. Roland and the others schmooze the Calla-folken.
(DT5)+2 days. Susannah displays her skills with the Orizas.
(DT5)+2 days. The Sisters of Oriza have a contest.
(DT5)+1 day. Eddie goes to New York and convinces Tower to leave town. Jake crosses the Whye and sees Andy and Ben Slightman the elder at the Dogan.
(DT5)+1 day. Jake tells about Slightman and Andy. Father Callahan goes to New York to get the zip code and date.
(DT5)+4 days. The town hall meeting.
(DT5)+1 day. Father Callahan goes to Maine. Eddie almost jumps to his death.
(DT5)+1 day. Susannah has contractions and a three-hour fugue.
(DT5)+1 day. Eddie and Tian Jaffords mislead Andy with news of heavy artillery.
(DT5)+2 days. Wolf’s Eve. Andy is decommissioned. The people of the Calla bring their children to town. The Big Feast.
(DT5)+1 day. The Day of the East Road Battle. Mia/Susannah escapes through the UNFOUND door. The ka-tet discovers ’Salem’s Lot.
(DT6) The same day. Roland consults Henchick about reopening the door. The Calla experiences a Beamquake.
(DT6)+1 day. Henchick and his Manni open the doorway. Callahan, Jake and Oy follow Susannah; Roland and Eddie go to Maine to deal with Tower and meet Stephen King.
(DT7) The same day. The Dixie Pig. Bridgton. Mordred’s birth and Mia’s death. Eddie and Roland send Cullum to New York, then cross over to 1999 and into Fedic. Reunion.
(DT7)+1 day. Onward to Thunderclap. Walter o’Dim dies. The ka-tet meets Ted, Dinky and Sheemie. Plans for battle. Ka-shume. Ted’s tapes.
(DT7)+1 day. The attack on Algul Siento. Eddie is killed. Say sorry.
(DT7)+2 days. Roland returns to Fedic and rejoins Susannah. They spend the night in Fedic.
(DT7)+1 day. Beneath Fedic. Past Castle Discordia into the badlands.
(DT7)+weeks. Walking across the badlands. Roland, Susannah and Oy reach the outpost of the Crimson King’s castle.
(DT7)+3 days. They walk at night again.
(DT7)+1 day. They reach the village near the Crimson King’s castle.
(DT7)+1 day. The castle. Feemalo, Fimalo and Fumalo.
(DT7)+1 day. The first trees since Calla Bryn Sturgis.
(DT7)+3 days. The deer hunt. Preparing hides.
(DT7)+1 day. Dehairing the hides.
(DT7)+1 day. Tanning the hides.
(DT7)+1 day. Roland and Susannah make garments.
(DT7)+3 weeks. Roland, Susannah and Oy emerge from the forest. Joe Collins.
(DT7)+3 days. Roland, Susannah, Oy and Patrick Danville camp in the barn outside Dandelo’s cabin.
(DT7)+2 days. Stutterin’ Bill drops them off at Federal Outpost 19.
(DT7)+1 day. A herd of buffalo.
(DT7)+1 day. Susannah looks for an NFOUND door.
(DT7)+1 day. Patrick draws the NFOUND door. Susannah passes through. The first rose.
(DT7)+1 day. Mordred’s attack. Oy’s death. Mordred’s death. The Dark Tower.
(DT7)+1 day. Patrick walks back toward the Federal Outpost.
Part 2: Keystone Earth
March 19, 1846: Calvin Tower’s great-great-great-grandfather writes his will.
September 21, 1859: Tak first released in the China Pit mine.
1898: Ted Brautigan is born in Milford, Connecticut.
1916: Ted Brautigan tries to enlist as a telepath but goes to Harvard instead.
1935: Ted Brautigan is mugged in Akron and kills his attacker.
1936: Claudia y Inez Bachman writes Charlie the Choo-Choo. (A year of 19.)
1938: Beryl Evans writes Charlie the Choo-Choo.
1938: Odetta Walker is born.
1943: Benjamin Slightman Jr. publishes The Dogan/ The Hogan.
1943: A brick hits Odetta Walker.
October 1946: Susannah shows Mia her mother.
1947: Stephen King is born. Ed Deepneau dies.
August 1948: Ice cream snow flurries in western Maine.
September 1955: Ted Brautigan applies for a job.
October 31, 1955: Ted Brautigan becomes a Breaker.
1956: Henry Dean is born.
1957: Odetta becomes involved in the Movement.
1957: Father Callahan graduates from seminary in Boston, goes to Lowell, Massachusetts.
July 1959: Snowfall in western Maine.
August 19, 1959: Odetta loses her legs from the knees down—and half her mind.
October 1959: Dan Holmes has the first of many heart attacks.
April 26, 1960: Ted Brautigan escapes from Devar-Toi to Connecticut.
1962: Odetta’s father dies, leaving her millions in trust until she turns twenty-five.
Summer 1963: Odetta vanishes for three weeks. Returns with a bruise on her cheek.
November 22, 1963: JFK is assassinated.
1964: Father Callahan requests a transfer from Lowell, Massachusetts, to Spofford, Ohio.
February 1964: Eddie Dean is born.
February 21, 1964: Odetta goes to Oxford, Mississippi.
June 19, 1964: Three voter-registration workers go missing in Mississippi.
July 19, 1964: Susannah stays at the Blue Moon Hotel in Oxford. Sings “Maid of Constant Sorrow.”
July 20, 1964: Odetta goes to jail in Oxford.
August 5, 1964: Missing voter-registration workers’ bodies are found in Mississippi.
1965: Bobby Garfield gets a letter from Ted Brautigan full of rose petals.
1966: Jake Chambers is born. A drunk driver kills Eddie’s sister.
1969: Callahan transfers from Dayton to ’Salem’s Lot, Maine.
1970: Paul Prentiss is laid off from Attica and becomes warden of Blue Heaven.
January 1971: A tornado in western Maine.
Summer 1972: Joe Collins enters Mid-World.
1974: Callahan fights vampires in ’Salem’s Lot.
March 1975: A Type Three vampire bites Lupe Delgado.
April 1975: Callahan kills his first vampire.
October 1975: Callahan flees ’Salem’s Lot for New York. Works at the Home shelter.
December 1975: Callahan sees his first vampire in New York.
May 1976: Lupe falls ill with AIDS and dies. Callahan falls off the wagon.
Summer 1976: Callahan wanders, does day jobs, drinks, and kills vampires.
July 15, 1976: Calvin Tower signs a letter agreeing not to sell the lot at the corner of Forty-sixth and Second, in return for which he receives $100,000 from Enrico Balazar.
August 1976: Callahan’s vampire toll hits six. Low men are following him. Decides to leave New York. Crosses into a different America.
May 9, 1977: Jake dies at the hands of Jack Mort, run over by a car.
May 9, 1977: Jake doesn’t die at the hands of Jack Mort.
May 31, 1977: Jake goes truant. He meets Calvin Tower, buys a book of jokes and Charlie the Choo-Choo. He enters the empty
lot, finds a key and sees the rose. Jake, Eddie and Oy return to this date when they go todash near the Calla.
May 31, 1977: Jake, Eddie and Oy go todash to New York.
June 1, 1977: Jake takes his father’s gun, meets young Eddie Dean in Co-Op City (Brooklyn), and opens the door to Mid-World.
June 2, 1977: The ka-tet goes todash to New York, where time is moving fast.
June 23, 1977: Eddie goes to New York to make a deal with Calvin Tower.
June 24, 1977: Callahan goes to New York to get the zip code.
June 26, 1977: Callahan steals a book of maps from the New York Public Library.
June 27, 1977: Callahan goes to Stoneham, Maine.
July 9, 1977: Eddie and Roland go to Stoneham, Maine. The ambush.
July 12, 1977: Stephen King decides Roland needs some friends.
July 15, 1977: Calvin Tower’s agreement with Balazar expires.
July 19, 1977: Stephen King sees Star Wars. Decides to publish the five parts of The Gunslinger in F&SF.
August 9, 1978: Kirby McCauley sells the first part of The Gunslinger to F&SF.
September 9, 1978: F&SF magazine with “The Gunslinger” comes out.
1979: Stephen King buys Cara Laughs on Turtleback Lane.
October 29, 1979: “The Way Station” accepted by F&SF. King lives in Orrington, the inspiration for Pet Sematary.
June 19, 1980: Don Grant suggests doing The Gunslinger as a limited edition.
Spring 1981: Callahan arrives in California after five years of wandering Americas.
May 19, 1981: Callahan is attacked by the Hitler Brothers. Cross carved in his forehead. Rescued by Tower and Aaron Deepneau.
May 25, 1981: Callahan released from the hospital.
May 31, 1981: The Hitler Brothers found shot to death.
February 1982: Callahan hits bottom in a jail cell in Topeka. Gives himself a year to quit drinking.
Fall 1982: Callahan no longer wants to drink. Sees traces of the low men, so moves to Detroit and works at the Lighthouse Shelter.
July 27, 1983: King decides to add The Dark Tower to the front of Pet Sematary.
December 1983: Sombra Corporation invites Father Callahan to accept grant.
December 19, 1983: Father Callahan dies and goes to the way station in the desert.
February 21, 1984: Publication of Pet Sematary generates an onslaught of demand for The Gunslinger. Owen King’s seventh birthday.