Richard Eberhart

Richard Ghormley Eberhart (1904 – 2005) was an American poet who published more than a dozen books of poetry and approximately twenty works in total. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for Selected Poems, 1930-1965 and the 1977 National Book Award for Poetry for Collected Poems, 1930-1976.

Eberhart was born in 1904 in Austin, a small town in southeast Minnesota. Eberhart began college at the University of Minnesota, but following his mother's death from cancer in 1921—the event that prompted him to begin writing poetry—he transferred to Dartmouth College. After graduation he worked as a ship's hand, among other jobs, then studied at St. John's College, Cambridge, where I.A. Richards encouraged him to continue writing poetry, and where he took a further degree. Read more on Wikipedia

His first book of poetry A Bravery of Earth was published in London in 1930. It reflected his experiences in Cambridge and his experience as a ship's hand voyaging to the Far East similar to Lowry's 1927 voyage. It is possible that Lowry and Eberhart knew each other while they were both a Cambridge as they both published material in the Experiment magazine as well as Conrad Aiken knowing Eberhart. Eberhart published the following poems in the Experiment :

'For a Lamb', Experiment No. 4 (November 1929), poem, p. 19
'Fragments', Experiment No. 3 (May 1929), poem, p. 6
'Necessity', Experiment No. 5 (February 1930), poem, pp. 4 - 5
'Poem', Experiment No. 7 (Spring 1931), poem, p. 16
'Quern', Experiment No. 6 (October 1930), poem, p. 39
'Request for Offering', Experiment No. 2 (February 1929), poem, p. 23
'This Is', Experiment No. 3 (May 1929), poem, p. 44
'To Maia', Experiment No. 3 (May 1929), poem, p. 48

Lowry alludes to Eberhart's poem A Bravery of Earth published in 1930. In a letter Lowry wrote to John Davenport dated 27th October 1930; "The third - (Richard Ghormley Ebehart!), unamazed in meditation looked up from Persia - more likely sailing down the coast by Iloilo, Zamboanga, Sabang, anywhere, Eberhart Icarus at this time". (Collected Letters Vol 1 Pg. 73-74).

The references to Iloilo, Zamboanga, Sabang reoccur in Lowry's short story 'Goya The Obscure' and novel Ultramarine.There is no documentary evidence to suggest that Lowry visited Iloilo, Zamboanga or Sabang as part of his 1927 voyage to the Far East. It would appear that Lowry's mention of  these places is perhaps part of a youthful obsession with the "exotic East" also captured in Eberhart's poem A Bravery of Earth.

Westcott House, Cambridge

Westcott House is a Church of England theological college based in Jesus Lane located in the centre of the university city of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.  Its main activity is training people for ordained ministry in Anglican churches. Westcott House is a founder member of the Cambridge Theological Federation.

Lowry refers to the college in his novel Ultramarine; "Cambridge, Eng. where I remained ten years as a fellow of Westcott House." Pg. 93. This is part of Dana's fantasy of his life story which he is telling Popplereuter on their drunken drift around Tsjang-tsjang (Dairen). Lowry did not attend the college which he mentions probably as an ironic joke given his own drunken time at college in Cambridge.

Central Cinema, Hobson Street, Cambridge

The Central Cinema opened in Hobson Street in 1921.  The first talkie Broadway Melody in Cambridge was screened at cinema in 1929. It was rebuilt in 1930 to give the current building probably after a fire. The cinema closed in 1972 and became a bingo hall.

Lowry refers to the cinema in Ultramarine when Dana recalls the cinema when the crowd in the Dairen cinema start protesting; "I thought, my God, one might as well be back in the Central Cinema, Hobson Street, Cambridge! The whole bloody business a retrogression, anyway. A small boy chased by the Furies. Good God, good God."

We must assume that Lowry frequented the cinema while at Cambridge University. Perhaps the crowd of sailors that "clapped and stamped, roared and spat and belched." (Pg.99) reminded him of undergraduates in Cambridge. ( The Cinema of Malcolm Lowry A Scholarly Edition of Lowry's "Tender Is the Night" Malcolm Lowry, Miguel Mota, Paul Tiessen Pg. 8)

Experiment Magazine 1928–31

Lowry participated in 2 magazines whilst at Cambridge - Venture and Experiment. He had 2 short stories published by Experiment - 'Port Swettenham', pp. 22 - 26 No 5 and 'Punctum Indifferens Skibet Gaar Videre', pp. 62-75 No 7.

The magazine was edited by William Empson, Jacob Bronowski, Hugh Sykes and Humphrey Jennings, published in Cambridge from November 1928 - Spring 1931. The publisher for: Nos. 1-2 was Cambridge University Press; Nos. 4-7 were published by G. F. Noxon, Trinity College, Cambridge/G. F. Noxton, 68a St. Andrew's Street, Cambridge. There were only seven editions which came out on a Quarterly-Irregular basis priced one Shilling and sixpence. Read more about edition on Modernist Magazine Project.

I did come across a very good article in Jacket 20 by Kate Price on Experiment:

We are concerned with all the intellectual interests of undergraduates. We do not confine ourselves to the work of English students, nor are we at pains to be littered with the Illustrious Dead and Dying. Our claim has been one of uncompromising independence: therefore not a line in these pages has been written by any but degreeless students or young graduates. It has been our object to gather all and none but the not yet too ripe fruits of art, science and philosophy in the university. We did not wish so much that our articles should be sober and guarded as that they should be stimulating and lively and take a strong line. We were prepared in fact to give ourselves away. But we knew that Cambridge is painfully well-balanced just now (a sign, perhaps, of anxiety neurosis) and so we were prepared also to find, as the reader will find, rather too guarded and sensible a daring. Perhaps we will ripen into extravagance. [Experiment Number 1, November 1928]


The concern of Experiment with ‘all the interests of undergraduates’ was not simply a matter of having literary-minded mathematicians on the editorial team, nor one of including poetry produced by students reading Natural Sciences or Economics. Even taking Experiment as a literary magazine with an inspired eye on contemporary science, the ‘scientific’ content appears somewhat thin on the ground. The occasional article on biochemistry or biology, some hopeful remarks about the development of aesthetic science and Empson’s relativity poems are about the size of it. A distinctly literary and cinematic avant-garde emerges, giving the impression of an exclusively aesthetic kind of experimentation. Read full article here