Alexander Pope Dunciad

Lowry alludes to Alexander Pope's poem 'Dunciad' in Chapter 3 of his novel Ultramarine: "Thy hand, great Anarch! Evil ghost who must follow me wherever I go! Hear chaos!" (Pg. 92).

The line of the Pope's poem is:

Thy hand, great Anarch! lets the curtain fall,
And universal darkness buries all

The Dunciad is a landmark literary satire by Alexander Pope published in three different versions at different times. The first version (the "three book" Dunciad) was published in 1728. The second version, in which Pope confirmed his authorship of the work, appeared in the Dunciad Variorum in 1735. The New Dunciad, in four books and with a different hero, appeared in 1743. The poem celebrates the goddess Dulness and the progress of her chosen agents as they bring decay, imbecility, and tastelessness to the kingdom of Great Britain. Read more on Wikipedia

Lola Ridge The Song of Iron

Lowry alludes to Lola Ridge's poem 'The Song of Iron' in his novel Ultramarine during Dana's drift around Dairen ; "The song of iron accompanied my footsteps infuriatingly until I realised I had gone the wrong side of the restaurant and was keeping too much to the line of the docks of the town." (Pg. 82).

Lola Ridge's poem was first published in a collection edited by Alfred Kreymborg entitled Others for 1919: An Anthology of the New Verse (1920). Both Ridge and Kreymborg were collaborators with Conrad Aiken hence Lowry's probable source for knowledge of the poem.

Oscar Wilde Salome

Gustave Moreau Salomé 1876

Lowry makes reference to Salome in his novel Ultramarine; "Herod, he looked like, Herod, watching Salome. Among them you will seem like a moon moving in a white cloud, but do not ask for the head of this man. Male Salome. Satsuma wares. Salome wears - what? And they pierced his hands his side his feet, and dey heard dat noise in the Jerusalem street...."  (Pg.116). Lowry's source for the story of Salome is possibly the Oscar Wilde play.

Salome is a tragedy by Oscar Wilde. The original 1891 version of the play was in French. Three years later an English translation was published. The play tells in one act the Biblical story of Salome, stepdaughter of the tetrarch Herod Antipas, who, to her stepfather's dismay but to the delight of her mother Herodias, requests the head of Jokanaan (John the Baptist) on a silver platter as a reward for dancing the dance of the seven veils. Scholars like Christopher Nassaar point out that Wilde employs a number of the images favored by Israel's kingly poets and that the moon is meant to suggest the pagan goddess Cybele, who, like Salomé, was obsessed with preserving her virginity and thus took pleasure in destroying male sexuality. Read more on Wikipedia

Lowry's  reference to the "white moon" may stem from Wilde's episodes within the play - following the prelude three demarcated episodes follow: the meeting between Salome and Iokanaan, the phase of the white moon; the major public central episode, the dance and the beheading, the phase of the red moon; and finally the conclusion, when the black cloud conceals the moon.

For Lowry's reference to a "Male Salome" - see I.S.R. Miles

Lowry also conducts a word-play with Salome and Satsuma wares, a type of pottery which feature elsewhere in Chapter 3. Lowry may use of the phrase "and dey heard dat noise in the Jerusalem street"  may relate to an unidentified spiritual relating to the story of Salome or possibly reference back to the crucifixion of Christ.

I.S.R. Miles

An unidentified teacher referred to by Lowry in the novel Ultramarine; "I.S.R. Miles, the mathematics master, sitting at the head of the hall, presiding over preparation, his eyes lecherous and rolling, the eyes of a ferret. One had always suspected homosexuality. Herod, he looked like, Herod, watching Salome." (Pg.116).

One of several gay references in Ultramarine in which the younger man is threatened by older authority figure. Lowry makes reference to the Dance of the Seven Veils suggesting the teacher's inflamed desire similar to King Herod's incestuous desire for Salome - in this case Lowry says a "Male Salome" (Pg. 116).

John Keats Endymion

George Frederick Watts Endymion 1872

Lowry quotes from Keat's poem Endymion during Dana's drunken drift around Dairen in the novel Ultramarine; "Ah sorrow who dost borrow the lustrous passion from a falcon's eye," (Pg.116).

Endymion is a poem by John Keats first published in 1818. It begins with the line "A thing of beauty is a joy for ever". Endymion is written in rhyming couplets in iambic pentameter (also known as heroic couplets). Keats based the poem on the Greek myth of Endymion, the shepherd beloved by the moon goddess Selene. The poem elaborates on the original story and renames Selene "Cynthia" Read more on Wikipedia

Keat's poem may have appealed to Lowry as in the poem  Endymion ventures into the underworld in search of his love corresponding to Dana's search for love in Dairen. Lowry would also have been aware of the coincidence in the name Cynthia being both the name of Endymion's lover but also the name of the woman lusted after by Demerest in Aiken's novel Blue Voyage.

Francis Thompson An Anthem of Earth

Lowry quotes from Francis Thompson's poem 'An Anthem of Earth' during Dana Hilliot's drunken drift around Dairen in Chapter 3 of the novel Ultramarine; "Ay, Mother ! Mother ! What is this Man, thy darling kissed and cuffed, Thou lustingly engender'st, To sweat, and make his brag, and rot crowned with all honour and all shamefulness?" (Pg. 116)

Rejoice with all their joy. Ay, Mother! Mother!
What is this Man, thy darling kissed and cuffed,
Thou lustingly engender'st,
To sweat, and make his brag, and rot,
Crowned with all honour and all shamefulness?
From nightly towers
He dogs the secret footsteps of the heavens,
Sifts in his hands the stars, weighs them as gold-dust,
And yet is he successive unto nothing
But patrimony of a little mould,
And entail of four planks. Thou hast made his mouth
Avid of all dominion and all mightiness,
All sorrow, all delight, all topless grandeurs,
All beauty, and all starry majesties,
And dim transtellar things;--even that it may,
Filled in the ending with a puff of dust,
Confess--'It is enough.' The world left empty

Lowry may have been drawn to Thompson's poem on man's mortality to reinforce the sense of death and decay which surrounds Dana on his drift around Dairen.

Lowry also puts the quote into the context of his mother's feelings about the trip to the Far East; "I don't want my son coarsened by a lot of hooligans?" However, Lowry cannot resist joking about his mother's perhaps prudish attitude to his conception; "My son whom thou lustingly engenderest?" (Pg. 116)

Dutchman's Breeches

Dicentra cucullaria (Dutchman's breeches) is a perennial herbaceous plant, native to rich woods of eastern North America, with a disjunct population in the Columbia River Basin.

The common name Dutchman's breeches derives from their white flowers that look like white breeches.

Lowry refers to the plant in his novel Ultramarine; "Andy, the Dutchman's breeches, ha ha!" (Pg. 40). This reference is to the Native Americans and early white practitioners use of the plant for treating syphilis. Andy the cook on board the Oedipus Tyrannus is suffering from venereal disease.

John Owen An Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews

Lowry refers to the "manifold security" in his novel Ultramarine;  "it seemed to Hilliot now that Oedipus Tyrannus had a manifold security:" (Pg. 43). The phrase is used alongside other biblical allusions. One possible source is John Owen's An Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews first published in the 17th century; "The Lord Jesus being thus entered into heaven as our forerunner, gives us manifold security for entering in thither also at the appointed season."

Lamp of Sanctuary

A sanctuary lamp, altar lamp, everlasting light, or eternal flame is a light that shines before the altar of sanctuaries in many denominations of (Jewish) and (Christian) places of worship. Read more on Wikipedia

Lowry refers to the lamp in Ultramarine; "The light burning in the forecastle was the lamp of sanctuary." (Pg. 43)

Man, Know Thyself!

The Ancient Greek aphorism Man, Know Thyself was painted on the signboard above the Liverpool Museum of Anatomy which was visited by Lowry circa 1927. Lowry refers to the sign in a letter to Conrad Aiken dated 14th September 1952 (Collected Letters Vol 2 Pg. 597).

The Ancient Greek aphorism "Know thyself" (Greek: γνῶθι σεαυτόν, transliterated: gnōthi seauton; also ... σαυτόν ... sauton with the ε contracted), is one of the Delphic maxims and was inscribed in the pronaos (forecourt) of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi according to the Greek periegetic (travelogue) writer Pausanias (10.24.1).

The maxim, or aphorism, "know thyself" has had a variety of meanings attributed to it in literature. The Suda, a 10th-century encyclopedia of Greek knowledge, says: "the proverb is applied to those whose boasts exceed what they are,"and that "know thyself" is a warning to pay no attention to the opinion of the multitude Wikipedia

The use of the sign at the Anatomy Museum may relate to the use of the aphorism in relation to anatomical fugitive sheets which were illustrations of the human body specially created to display internal organs and structures. The museum contained a variety of exhibits to show the internal organs of the body.

From 1539 onwards the phrase nosce te ipsum and its Latin variants were often used in the anonymous texts written for anatomical fugitive sheets printed in Venice as well as for later anatomical atlases printed throughout Europe. The 1530s fugitive sheets are the first instances in which the phrase was applied to knowledge of the human body attained through dissection.

However, a further clue to the use of the phrase by the Museum are the use of lines in their catalogue from Alexander Pope:

Vice is a monster of so frightful mien,
As to be hated needs but to be seen;

These lines are taken from Pope's poem 'Epistle II: Of the Nature and State of Man, With Respect to Himself as an Individual' (1734) which opens with an argument; "The business of Man not to pry into God, but to study himself. His middle nature; his powers and frailties. The limits of his capacity" and also contains the lines:

Know then thyself, presume not God to scan,
The proper study of mankind is Man.

We must assume that Joseph Woodhead, the founder of the Museum, was familiar with Pope's poem.

The phrase was also used by Conrad Aiken in his novel Blue Voyage; "Know thyself!" he reflects, 'was the best joke ever perpetrated'. And what was he? A hurricane of maggots which answered to the name of Demerest." (Pg. 16). Lowry would have been struck by the coincidence of the sign with Aiken's use of the phrase.

Bonn, Germany

Lowry spent six weeks in Germany learning German in September/October 1928 at a Weber's  English College. ( Bowker Pursued By Furies Pg. 79-80). Lowry met Paul Fitte at the college who he later shared a room with at Cambridge University.

Many of the German references in Lowry's work stem from this visit. Lowry told Clemens ten Holder in a letter dated  23/4/1951; ".....that was the only class I took with Herr Schmidhus, who mostly dealt with advanced students, but then that was almost the only thing I learned at all in Bonn, outside the bar of the Hotel Rheinischer Hof." (Collected Letters Vol 2 Pg. 373). In the same letter to ten Holder, Lowry says that he saw the Murnau film Sonnenaufgang (Sunrise) in Bonn.

Dana asks the German sailor Popplereuter says in Ultramarine; "You were in Bonn? (Pg. 87) and later Popplereuter says "Vor dem Krieg. I go to Bonn Universität as a student. I belong to a good corps, too" (Pg. 88).

Lowry refers to the city in the poem 'In the Oxaca Train' 1937; " From wooled thoughts of Bonn or of Bootle." (Collected Poetry Pg. 104).

Lowry mentions the "Bonn-Doumerghue business" in his unpublished book La Mordida which perhaps refers to some business with regard to meeting Paul Fitte in Bonn (Malcolm Lowry's "La Mordida" Pg. 340)

New Brighton Palais de Danse

The New Brighton Palais de Danse was the name given sometime in 1926 to the ballroom located within New Brighton Tower:

The Ballroom was one of the largest in the world, with a sprung floor and dance band stage. The orchestra had as many as 60 players. Big bands played at the Tower, including Bert Yates, Bill Gregson and Victor Sylvester. Other well known artists appeared at the Ballroom including Mae West in November 1945. Well over 1,000 couples could dance without undue crowding. It was decorated in white and gold, with the emblems of various Lancashire towns. The Ballroom had a balcony, with seats to watch the dancers below. Behind this was an open space, where couples used to learn the dance without interfering with the more proficient ones. History of Wallasey

The phrase Palais De Danse was a popular name given to many dance halls in England during the early 20th Century conjuring up images of cosmopolitan Europe.

The above photograph is one of the most famous dance halls called Palais De Dansein Berlin before the First World War and maybe the precursor to the others. Read more on Malcolm Lowry @ 19th Hole

Lowry refers to the New Brighton Palais de Danse in his novel Ultramarine when Dana recalls dancing there with his girl friend Janet Travena; "I shut my eyes and imagined that this was indeed Janet and I dancing at the New Brighton Palais De Danse. (Pg 106) and later Dana and Janet see "the two saxophonists of the Palais de Danse, Zez and Mas..." (Pg. 130). These recollections are probably drawn from Lowry's visits to the ballroom with Tess Evans in 1927. Lowry may even have originally met Tess at one of the dances at the ballroom as she lived in nearby Liscard.

S.S. Coconada (2)

S.S. Coconada (2) was built by Barclay Curle & Company Glasgow; Propulsion: steam, triple expansion, 3300 ihp, 14 knots, twin screw. Launched: Friday, 23/09/1910; Tonnage: 3958 grt; Length: 390.5 feet; Breadth: 50.2 feet.

Originally owned by the British India Steam Navigation Company, the Coconada along with her sister Chilka were built for the Coromandel Coast Rangoon service. She became an Indian Expeditionary Force Transport from August of 1914 to July of 1916 in the main trooping the Meeruts Karachi - Marseilles and Karachi - Suez. In May of 1917 she came under the Liner Requistion Scheme and served as an Expeditionary Force Transport from November 1918 until November 1919 where she spent sometime in the Pacific sailing from Vancouver to Hong Kong via Japan. She was sold on the 1st of September 1933 to the Scinda Steam Navigation Company of Bombay and renamed Jaladurga. She was requisitioned once more for war duties in February of 1941 and at War's end was transferred to the Singapore - Bangkok trades, it was whilst on these trades that she sank in Bombay. She was successfully raised and repaired and continued on her normal services before being finally called to the colours once more when she carried Indian trorops to Korea in 1953. She was finally sold for scrap in 1954 and work commenced at Bombay in the following year after an incredible 44 years of service. Merchant Navy Officers

Lowry refers to the ship in his novel Under The Volcano when the Consul reminds his brother Hugh that; "I have perhaps acted as a father: but you were only an infant then, and and seasick, upon the P. and O., the erratic Cocanada." (Pg. 83) and “When you were an infant, ' the Consul's teeth chattered. 'On the P. & O. boat coming back from India.. The old Cocanada." (Pg. 178).

 Frederick Asals suggests that Lowry may have been attracted by the canada’ in ‘Cocanada’.(The Making of Malcolm Lowry's 'Under the Volcano'. Pg. 178). British India Steam Navigation Company were part of the P&O Lines hence Lowry's reference to the company. It is possible that Lowry noted the ship on his voyage to the Far East in 1927. There is no record that the ship sailed on the India to England service as indicated by the Consul's remarks.

S.S. Leeway

The S.S. Leeway was launched on 03/03/1897 originally named SS Sahara built by Alexander Stephen & Sons Glasgow; Ship Type: Cargo Vessel, Tonnage: 4089 grt, Length: 370.1 feet (BP), Breadth: 48 feet. Propulsion: Steam, triple expansion, single screw. The ship was renamed several times; 1920 Marshal French, 1922 Leeway, 1925 Charterhurst and finally Bianca Bianchi in 1927. The ship had several owners: Glasgow Nav. Co. (Maclay & McIntyre), Glasgow, 1915 Houlder, Middleton & Co., London, 1919 Saint David's SN Co., Cardiff, 1922 St. Mary SS Co., Cardiff, 1925 Charter Shipping Co., Cardiff 1927 G.R.Bianchi, Genoa. The ship was scrapped on 17/07/1928.

Lowry refers to the ship in his novel Ultramarine; "One of those bloody St Mary Axe Boats; the Leeway is knocking around here. Only its wings aren't clipped." (Pg. 33), "Then we were standing on the wharf, looking up at the soaring stern of the S.S. Leeway from Swansea which had docked forward of the Martensen." (Pg. 101); "He spat; the spittle landed on the "Y" of Leeway and dribbled down slowly into the harbour." (Pg. 102).

Lowry's reference to the ship is probably due to members of the crew of Pyrrhus, on which Lowry sailed to the Far East, being familiar with South Wales where the Leeway had been based and the fact that the former owners St. Mary SS Co. were being investigated by the authorities for the loss of one of their ships the SS Eastway co-owned with Mr. Watkin James Williams. (See St Mary Axe Boats).

St Mary Axe Boats

Lowry uses the phrase "St Mary Axe Boats" in his novel Ultramarine; "One of those bloody St Mary Axe Boats; the Leeway is knocking around here. Only its wings aren't clipped." (Pg. 33).

Lowry's seems to be using a slang/colloquial phrase perhaps used by sailors to refer to the Baltic Exchange which was located at 30 St Mary Axe in London.

The Baltic Exchange is the world's only independent source of maritime market information for the trading and settlement of physical and derivative contracts. Read more on Wikipedia. 

Lowry's reference may also have an ironic link in that the Leeway had been part owned by the St Mary's Steam Ship Co. Lowry's reference to the ship is probably due to members of the crew of Pyrrhus, on which Lowry sailed to the Far East, being familiar with South Wales where the Leeway had been based and the fact that the former owners St. Mary SS Co. were being investigated by the authorities for the loss of one of their ships the SS Eastway co-owned with Mr. Watkin James Williams. The case was reported in the Times and a full report can be read here.

Lowry's reference may refer to the idea that the Leeway maybe being set up to be "lost" as an insurance scam though this was not a conclusion of the inquiry into the loss of the Eastway. Lowry may have heard of  "death ships" - any boat so decrepit that it is worth more to its owners over-insured and sunk than it would be worth afloat. Lowry later would become familiar with B.Traven's novel The Death Ship, about such ships, originally published in 1926 but not translated into English until 1934 when Lowry probably read the novel as his German was poor.

13 North Drive, New Brighton, Wirral

13, North Drive (middle house with door showing)

Lowry was born at 13, North Drive, New Brighton on 28th July 1909:

On Thursday 29th July, the births columns in the Liverpool Echo announced: ‘LOWRY – July 28th, at Warren Crest, North-drive, New Brighton, to Mr and Mrs Arthur Lowry, a son’.  (Gordon Bowker, Pursued by Furies Pg.7)

In the past, the address has been problematic for commentators and biographers for 2 reasons - the geographical location of the address and whether Lowry's former home was still standing. Both problems were resolved with the 2009 publication of the book From the Mersey to the World.

If we look at the history of Lowry’s birthplace, this confusion amongst different commentators becomes understandable. In 1909, North Drive was in New Brighton, which was part of the County Borough of Wallasey. The electoral ward of New Brighton and later Warren (New Brighton was split into several different voting wards as the town grew) was in the Parish of Liscard. In 1909, Wallasey was in the County of Cheshire; but in 1974 it was amalgamated, along with other districts – including Birkenhead – into the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral. Because of the nearness of Liverpool, and Lowry’s association with the city, some commentators have also incorrectly given Liverpool as Lowry’s birthplace.

Lowry’s brother, Russell, stated in the Malcolm Lowry Review in 1987 in response to a piece by Mark Thomas, entitled ‘Pilgrimage to Caldy’, in the same journal: "Warren Crest wasn’t worth looking for. It isn’t there any more. Wallasey suffered heavy bomb damage during WW2. I understand the site has been redeveloped". (Malcolm Lowry Review Numbers 21 & 22 Fall 1987 & Spring 1988 Pg. 102)

The electoral register for 1909 and 1911 had Arthur Lowry living at No. 13, with no mention of Warren Crest. 

The 1911 Gore’s Directory above confirms that Arthur Lowry was living at No. 13 and additionally that the property was called Warren Crest – which to date is the only documentary evidence of this, other than the birth record in the Liverpool Echo and Russell Lowry’s statements. 

Evidence collected from maps, electoral rolls, photographs and documentary evidence established that 13 North Drive was not damaged in the war and survived. (From the Mersey to the World Pg ).

Since the publication of From the Mersey to the World, further evidence has emerged in the form of the deeds for the house which establishes beyond a doubt that Lowy's birthplace still exists:

The deeds also show that  developer for 13 North Drive was David Benno Rapport, who also developed houses in Caldy where the Lowry family moved to in 1911 taking up residence at Inglewood.

Wardour Street, London

Wardour Street is a street in Soho, London. It is a one-way street south to north from Leicester Square, up through Chinatown, across Shaftesbury Avenue to Oxford Street. Read more on Wikipedia

Lowry refers to the street in his novel Under The Volcano; "He had not played one, and Hugh could play almost any kind of guitar, for four or five years, and his numerous instruments declined with his books in basements or attics in London or Paris, in Wardour Street night-clubs or behind the bar of the Marquis of Granby or the old Astoria in Greek Street, long since become a convent and his bill still unpaid there, in pawnshops in Tithebarn Street or the Tottenham Court Road...." (Pg. 158 )

The most famous night clubs in Wardour Street in the 1920s and 1930s were Chez Victor and the Cosmopolitan - there is no documentary evidence that Lowry visited either club.

Chez Victor was a very fashionable 1920s restaurant/night-club in Grafton Street (above Grafton Galleries). It was popularised by the then Prince of Wales and is best remembered as the place where Lesley Hutchinson (Hutch) serenaded Edwina Mountbatten and other rich socialites. It was owned by Victor Perosino. The club was raided in 1929 or 1930 and Perosino was deported – there are several versions of this tale which I can go into if you want. In the 1930s Chez Victor at 45 Wardour Street opened – I presume there is a connection.This appears to have been more of a restaurant – but was equally fashionable – I think it was still there at least to the late sixties. Chez Victor appears in most reminiscences of inter-war West End society. It was one of the key venues for the “Mayfair” set. Elvira Barney

Tottenham Court Road, London

Tottenham Court Road is a major road in central London, running from St Giles Circus (the junction of Oxford Street and Charing Cross Road) north to Euston Road, near the border of the City of Westminster and the London Borough of Camden, a distance of about three-quarters of a mile. It has for many years been a one-way street: all three lanes are northbound only, the equivalent southbound traffic using the parallel Gower Street. It is generally regarded as marking the boundary between Bloomsbury and Fitzrovia, linking Somers Town with Soho at either end. Read more on Wikipedia

Lowry makes reference to the road in the 1940 Under The Volcano; Peering at nothing with a telescope, save the Tottenham Court Road, counting the waves.." (Pg. 75).

Lowry makes reference to the road in Chapter 2 of his novel Under The Volcano; "very good on the bridge of a British Q-ship — peering at the Tottenham Court Road through a telescope, only figuratively speaking of course, day in and day out, counting the waves...." (Pg. 64) and again in Chapter 6;  "What about the way you treated poor old Bolowski,the music publisher, remember his shabby little shop in Old Compton Street, off the Tottenham Court Road?" (Pg. 157) and "He had not played one, and Hugh could play almost any kind of guitar, for four or fiveyears, and his numerous instruments declined with his books in basements or attics in Londonor Paris, in Wardour Street night-clubs or behind the bar of the Marquis of Granby or the oldAstoria in Greek Street, long since become a convent and his bill still unpaid there, in pawnshops in Tithebarn Street or the Tottenham Court Road....." (Pg. 158)

Lowry also refers to the road in a letter to Jan Gabrial; "“My darlingest Janl…I write this about half an hour after leaving you, eating a steak pie with your half crown in a thieves’ kitchen. It is only to say that I love you and that I shall never love anybody else. Outside, the fiends of Tottenham Court Road are howling in the blackness, imprisoned in the crewless winds.There is comfort in just speaking your name…” (Jan Gabrial Inside The Volcano Pg. 36)

New Compton Street, London.

New Compton Street was named after Henry Compton who raised funds for a local parish church, eventually dedicated as St Anne's Church in 1686. Once linked to Old Compton Street via Little Compton Street which has been lost at Charing Cross Road at its junction with Old Compton Street.

Lowry refers to the street in Chapter 6 of his novel Under The Volcano; "Hugh had started writing songs at school and before he was seventeen, at about the same time he lost his innocence, also after several attempts, two numbers of his were accepted by the Jewish firm of Lazarus Bolowski and Sons in New Compton Street, London. (Pg. 157) and "Whatever prompted the ungenerous act did not prevent his somehow finding his way that night to New Compton Street and Bolowski's shabby little shop. Closed now and dark: but Hugh could almost be certain those were his songs in the window." (Pg. 172)

As Chris Ackerley points out; "An address mildly inconsistent" (Malcolm Lowry Project) as Lowry later refers to the shop being at New Compton Street.  Lowry may have known New Compton Street due to Worton David Ltd, the publishers of one of his songs, being based at No. 6. (See photograph of building on Collage)

Victoria Docks, London

The Royal Victoria Dock is the largest of three docks in the Royal Docks of east London, now part of the redeveloped Docklands. Read more on Wikipedia

Lowry arrived back at the Victoria Dock, London on 26th September 1927 after his voyage to the Far East aboard the Blue Funnel ship Pyrrhus.

Lowry refers to his return to England in 1927 in Chapter 6 of his novel Under The Volcano; "Hugh hadn't waited to discover whether the journalist who came aboard at Silvertown liked to play his songs in his spare time. He'd almost thrown him bodily off the ship." (Pg.172). Hugh's memory is probably based on Lowry's own experiences of returning to London after his Far East Voyage in 1927 when he arrived at Victoria Docks in Silvertown.

Silvertown, London

Royal Docks 1935

Silvertown is an industrialised district on the north bank of the Thames in the London Borough of Newham. It was named after Samuel Winkworth Silver's former rubber factory which opened in 1852. In the early 20th Century the area lay between the Thames and the Royal Docks, then the largest and one of the busiest dock groups in the world.

Lowry refers to the district in Chapter 6 of his novel Under The Volcano; "Hugh hadn't waited to discover whether the journalist who came aboard at Silvertown liked to play his songs in his spare time. He'd almost thrown him bodily off the ship." (Pg.172). Hugh's memory is probably based on Lowry's own experiences of returning to London after his Far East Voyage in 1927 when he arrived at Victoria Docks in Silvertown to be interviewed by a journalist from the Daily Mail .

Gravesend, Kent

Gravesend is a town in northwest Kent, England, on the south bank of the Thames, opposite Tilbury in Essex.

Lowry refers to the town in Chapter 6 of his novel Under The Volcano; "They lay at Gravesend waiting for the tide. Around them in the misty dawn sheep were already bleating softly. The Thames, in the half-light, seemed not unlike the Yangtze-Kiang." (Pg. 172). Hugh's memory is probably based on Lowry's own experiences of returning to London after his Far East Voyage in 1927.

Fitzroy Tavern, Charlotte Street, London

The Fitzroy Tavern is a public house situated at 16 Charlotte Street in the Fitzrovia district of central London, England, to which it gives its name. It is currently owned by the Samuel Smith Brewery. It became famous during a period spanning the 1920s to the mid 1950s as a meeting place for many of London's artists, intellectuals and bohemians such as Dylan Thomas, Augustus John, and George Orwell. It is named either directly or indirectly after the Fitzroy family, Dukes of Grafton, who owned much of the land on which Fitzrovia was built. Read more on Wikipedia.

The tavern was manged by in the early years of the 20th century, Judah Morris Kleinfeld, a [Savile Row]? tailor and naturalised British citizen originally from Polish Russia, decided that he wanted to become a pub licensee, and started the work of persuading the brewery that owned the Hundred Marks, Hoare & Co., that he was the man for the job. the  History of Fitzroy Tavern

Lowry refers to the Fitzroy in Chapter 6 of his novel Under The Volcano; "No, the idea was to camp outside a pub down a back alley, and that not any pub, but the Fitzroy Tavern in Charlotte Street, chock full of starving artists drinking themselves to death simply because their souls pined away, each night between eight and ten, for lack of just such a thing as a hot dog. That  was the place to go!" (Pg. 156) and "And--not even the hot-dog man was the answer; even though by Christmas time,obviously, he had been doing a roaring trade outside the Fitzroy." (Pg. 156)

Lowry frequented the Fitzroy Tavern during his time in London between 1931 and 1933. (See Gordon Bowker Pursued By Furies Pgs. 140-41). Lowry refers to a brawl at the tavern in a letter to Conrad Aiken dated Summer/Autumn 1932; "I would have written you before this only I got beaten up in an Ulyssean brawl near Kleinfelds' in Charlotte street the first night of my arrival..." (Collected Letters Vol 1 Pg. 81). The fight occurred while Lowry was staying with John Davenport in London when they started a fight with a group of Welsh miners. (Bowker Pg. 118). Paul Ferris records that Lowry met Dylan Thomas at the Fitzroy in July 1933 on Thomas's second ever visit to London (Dylan Thomas Pg. 166).

Oxford Street, London

Oxford Street is a major road in the City of Westminster in the West End of London. The street was formerly part of the London-Oxford road which began at Newgate, City of London, and was known as the Oxford Road.

Lowry refers to the street in Chapter 6 of his novel Under The Volcano; "Nor yet the poor little hot-dog man. That bitter December night he had met him trudging down Oxford Street with his new wagon—the first hotdog wagon in London,and he had been pushing it around for a whole month without selling a single hot dog." (Pg. 156).

Old Compton Street, London

Old Compton Street runs east-west through Soho in the West End of London off Charing Cross Road to the west of Tottenham Court Road. Once the centre of the music-publishing industry. Read more on Wikipedia

Lowry refers to the street in in Chapter 6 of his novel Under The Volcano; "What about the way you treated poor old Bolowski, the music publisher, remember his shabby little shop in Old Compton Street, off the Tottenham Court Road? (Pg. 155)

As Chris Ackerley points out; "An address mildly inconsistent" (Malcolm Lowry Project) as Lowry later refers to the shop being at New Compton Street.  Lowry may have known New Compton Street due to Worton David Ltd, the publishers of one of his songs, being based at No. 6. (See photograph of building on Collage)

Jack London The Jacket

The Star Rover is a novel by American writer Jack London published in 1915 (published in the United Kingdom as The Jacket). It is a story of reincarnation. Read more on Wikipedia

Lowry refers to The Jacketin his novel Under The Volcano when Hugh muses in Chapter 6; "..and perhaps it was true too he had been reading too much Jack London even then, The Sea Wolf, and now in 1938 he had advanced to the virile Valley of the Moon (his favourite was The Jacket)...." (Pg. 161)

Chris Ackerley states; "The novel, perhaps London's best, is about a condemned man, Darrell Standing, an ex-professor of agronomics, who is in San Quentin for murder. He is forced to undergo long spells of solitary confinement inside the "jacket", a straitjacket into which he is tightly laced for up to ten days in a row. His way of surviving is to go "star-roving"; that is, force his mind to eliminate all thoughts of the body and take off into its astral world, transcending the limitations of time and space and getting in touch with its previous existences. The novel celebrates "man's unconquerable will", which even Standing's final death cannot denigrate; the chief irony for Lowry, however, is the relevance of the title to the Consul's fate." (Malcolm Lowry Project)

Jack London Valley of the Moon

Frontispiece to the 1913 first edition.

The Valley of the Moon (1913) is a novel by American writer Jack London (as well as the mythic and romantic name for the wine-growing Sonoma Valley of California). The valley where it is set, is located north of the San Francisco Bay Area in Sonoma County, California, where Jack London was a resident; he built his ranch in Glen Ellen. Read more on Wikipedia

Lowry refers to Valley of the Moon in his novel Under The Volcano; "The bag, decanted on the faded rustic seat, disgorged into its lid....a second-hand copy of Jack London' Valley of the Moon, bought yesterday for fifteen centavos at the German bookshop opposite Sandborns in Mexico City." (Pg. 99) and later when Hugh muses in Chapter 6; "..and perhaps it was true too he had been reading too much Jack London even then, The Sea Wolf, and now in 1938 he had advanced to the virile Valley of the Moon (his favourite was The Jacket)...." (Pg. 161)

Chris Ackerley suggests; " Lowry's ‘virile’ implies a judgment on Hugh’s "maturity", the essence of the book being the transition from the fiercely individualist struggle depicted in The Sea-Wolf towards a socialist theory of return to the land as a next step in human evolution." (The Malcolm Lowry Project).

Jack London The Sea Wolf

The Sea-Wolf is a 1904 psychological adventure novel by American novelist Jack London about a literary critic, survivor of an ocean collision, who comes under the dominance of Wolf Larsen, the powerful and amoral sea captain who rescues him. Its first printing of forty thousand copies were immediately sold out before publication on the strength of London's previous The Call of the Wild. Ambrose Bierce wrote, "The great thing—and it is among the greatest of things—is that tremendous creation, Wolf Larsen... the hewing out and setting up of such a figure is enough for a man to do in one lifetime... The love element, with its absurd suppressions, and impossible proprieties, is awful." Read more on Wikipedia

Lowry refers to The Sea Wolf in his novel Under The Volcano when Hugh muses in Chapter 6; "..and perhaps it was true too he had been reading too much Jack London even then, The Sea Wolf, and now in 1938 he had advanced to the virile Valley of the Moon (his favourite was The Jacket)...." (Pg. 161)

Jack London

John Griffith "Jack" London (born John Griffith Chaney, January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916) was an American author, journalist, and social activist. He was a pioneer in the then-burgeoning world of commercial magazine fiction and was one of the first fiction writers to obtain worldwide celebrity and a large fortune from his fiction alone. He is best remembered as the author of The Call of the Wild and White Fang, both set in the Klondike Gold Rush. Read more on Wikipedia

Lowry refers to three Jack London novels in his novel Under The Volcano when Hugh is musing about Jack London in Chapter 6. Chris Ackerley states; "Hugh seems at times almost consciously to imitate his life. London's life and socialism was fraught with contradiction, and he is at his best when depicting the ferocious individual struggle rather than the collective human dream." (The Malcolm Lowry Project).

Hugh refers to three of London's books; "..and perhaps it was true too he had been reading too much Jack London even then, The Sea Wolf, and now in 1938 he had advanced to the virile Valley of the Moon(his favourite was The Jacket)...." (Pg. 161)

Lowry probably read Jack London while still at school and we must assume that London helped create in the mind of the young Lowry a vision of the sea and adventure which is reflected in Hugh's musings. Chris Ackerley suggests; " Lowry's ‘virile’ implies a judgment on Hugh’s "maturity", the essence of the book being the transition from the fiercely individualist struggle depicted in The Sea-Wolf towards a socialist theory of return to the land as a next step in human evolution." (The Malcolm Lowry Project).

Odhams Press

Odhams Press was a British publishing firm. Originally a newspaper group, founded in 1890, it took the name Odham's Press Ltd in 1920 when it merged with John Bull magazine. The firm was based in Long Acre, London. occupying he whole area on the north side from Neal Street to Arne Street from about 1890 to 1970.

Lowry refers to the firm in a letter dated April/May 1926 to Carol Brown when he is outlining how to get work published; "I am always capable of putting on a tout cap slipping to Fleet Street or Odham's Press, Longacre and finding out." (Collected Letters Vol 1 Pg. 19)

The Passing Show Magazine

A weekly magazine published by Odhams Press bewteen 20-Mar-1915 – 19-Mar-1926 before becoming between 26-Mar-1926 – 14-May-1926, as The New Passing Show then reverting between 21-May-1926 – 25-Feb-1939, as The Passing Show. Edited between 1920 – 1924 by Augustus Muir and between 1925 – 1939 by W.A. Williamson.


Lowry refers to the Passing Show Magazine in a letter to Carol Brown dated April/May 1926 when he discusses the merits of being published by various magazines; "But 'Gaiety' 'The Humorist' 'The Passing Show' 'John O'London's Weekly', 'John Bull', and 'The London Opinion' are only too glad to receive and print jokes illustrated artistically." (Collected Letters Vol 1 Pg. 19)

Gaiety Magazine

A monthly magazine subtitled 'A Magazine of Humour' published by the The Gaiety Magazine Publishing Company between Dec 1921 – Nov-1927 before merging with with The Sunny Mag. Edited between  1921 – 1926 by T.A. Price and between 1926 – 1927 by Arthur M. Turner.


Lowry refers to the Gaiety in a letter to Carol Brown dated April/May 1926 when he discusses the merits of being published by various magazines; "But 'Gaiety' 'The Humorist' 'The Passing Show' 'John O'London's Weekly', 'John Bull', and 'The London Opinion' are only too glad to receive and print jokes illustrated artistically." (Collected Letters Vol 1 Pg. 19)

The Humorist Magazine

A weekly magazine published George Newnes that run between 29-Jul-1922 – 20-Jul-1940 before merging with London Opinion.

Lowry refers to the Humorist in a letter to Carol Brown dated April/May 1926 when he discusses the merits of being published by various magazines; "But 'Gaiety' 'The Humorist' 'The Passing Show' 'John O'London's Weekly', 'John Bull', and 'The London Opinion' are only too glad to receive and print jokes illustrated artistically." (Collected Letters Vol 1 Pg. 19)

The 20 Story Magazine

A monthly all-fiction magazine (companion to Pan and Romance) with an emphasis on adventure and mystery stories, and later on romantic fiction. Authors included E. C. Vivian, Edgar Wallace, Guy Dent, H. Bedford-Jones, Achmed Abdullah, A. M. Burrage, Edmund Snell, Hylton Cleaver, Leo Walmsley. published between Jul-1922 – Oct-1940 by Odhams Press. The editor between 1923 – 1927 was W.A. Williamson.

Lowry refers to the 20 Story Magazine in a letter to Carol Brown dated April/May 1926 when he discusses the merits of being published by various magazines; "The 20 story is a second-rate magazine with first-second-third-fourth-fifth, and sometimes tenth rate stories. That the beauty of having twenty stories" (Collected Letters Vol 1 Pg. 19)

The London Magazine

In 1900 Harmsworth's Monthly Pictorial Magazine was renamed the London Magazine by Cecil Harmsworth, proprietor of the Daily Mail at the time. The publication continued until 1930 when it was renamed The New London Magazine. The Australian scholar Sue Thomas[disambiguation needed] referred to it as "an important informer... of popular literary tastes in the late Victorian and Edwardian periods". Despite its acclaim, the magazine closed in 1933. Read more on Wikipedia

Lowry refers to the Strand in a letter to Carol Brown dated April/May 1926 when he discusses the merits of being published by various magazines; "The Strand, I suppose, Pearsons, and The Grand, and perhaps the London, are all more less first class magazines with second-rate stories..." (Collected Letters Vol 1 Pg. 19)

The Grand Magazine

The Grand Magazine was the first British pulp magazine. It was published monthly between February 1905 and April 1940.  Published by George Newnes, it initially emulated Newnes's highly successful Strand Magazine, featuring a mix of fiction and non-fiction. In 1908, it was renamed The Grand Magazine of Fiction. Read more on Wikipedia

Lowry refers to the Strand in a letter to Carol Brown dated April/May 1926 when he discusses the merits of being published by various magazines; "The Strand, I suppose, Pearsons, and The Grand, and perhaps the London, are all more less first class magazines with second-rate stories..." (Collected Letters Vol 1 Pg. 19)

Pearson's Magazine

Pearson's Magazine was an influential publication which first appeared in Britain in 1896. It specialised in speculative literature, political discussion, often of a socialist bent, and the arts. Its contributors included Upton Sinclair, George Bernard Shaw, Maxim Gorky, George Griffith, and H. G. Wells, many of whose short stories and novelettes first saw publication in Pearson's. Read more on Wikipedia

Lowry refers to the Strand in a letter to Carol Brown dated April/May 1926 when he discusses the merits of being published by various magazines; "The Strand, I suppose, Pearsons, and The Grand, and perhaps the London, are all more less first class magazines with second-rate stories..." (Collected Letters Vol 1 Pg. 19)

The Strand Magazine

The Strand Magazine was a monthly magazine composed of fictional stories and factual articles founded by George Newnes. It was first published in the United Kingdom from January 1891 to March 1950 running to 711 issues,[1] though the first issue was on sale well before Christmas 1890. Its immediate popularity is evidenced by an initial sale of nearly 300,000. Sales increased in the early months, before settling down to a circulation of almost 500,000 copies a month which lasted well into the 1930s. It was edited by Herbert Greenhough Smith from 1891 to 1930. Read more on Wikipedia

Lowry refers to the Strand in a letter to Carol Brown dated April/May 1926 when he discusses the merits of being published by various magazines; "The Strand, I suppose, Pearsons, and The Grand, and perhaps the London, are all more less first class magazines with second-rate stories..." (Collected Letters Vol 1 Pg. 19)

I Never Knew (I Could Love Anybody Like I'm Loving You)

Lowry refers to the above song in a letter to Carol Brown dated April/May 1926; " Honestly, Carol, I never knew I had it in me to love somebody like I love you. I'm afraid those are more or less the words of a comic song, but in that case I take off my hat to the comic song - It expresses exactly my state of mind. I can't believe that anybody loved like me." (Collected Letters Vol 1 Pg. 18).

The song Lowry is referring to is I Never Knew (I Could Love Anybody Like I'm Loving You) written by Tom Pitts, Raymond B. Egan and Roy K. Marsh published in 1920:


I never knew I could love anybody, 
Honey, like I'm loving you; 
I couldn't realize what a pair of eyes 
And a baby smile could do; 
(Oh tell me why) I can't sleep, 
(O tell me why) I can't eat, 
(and why) I never knew 
a single soul could be so sweet, 
I never knew I could love anybody, 
Honey, like I'm loving you.

William Henry Schofield English Literature: From the Norman Conquest to Chaucer (1906)

Lowry refers to a "comic song", which is mentioned in the William Henry Schofield's book, in a letter to Carol Brown dated April/May 1926 as he describes to her his love saying that the song; "....expresses exactly my state of mind. I can't believe that anybody loved like me. 'For her love I cark and droop' Another comic song. (Collected Letters Vol 1 Pg. 18)

The quote's context is detailed below:

"Refrains from, folk -songs seem to have been adopted by trained writers to accompany their art-lyrics, which were probably composed with popular airs in mind To a charming poem of  the troubadour style, for example, is attached the following refrain :

Blow, northern wind, 
Send thou me my sweeting, 
Blow, northern wind, blow, blow, blow 


The author of this poem offers a very graceful, somewhat allegorical, description of his lady. He appeals to Love for counsel in trouble; and is advised to plead with his sweetheart and implore her to relieve his pain. Thus he concludes :

For her love I cark and care, 
For her love I droop and dare (decline). 
For her love my bliss is bare, 
And all I wax wan. 

For her love in sleep I slake, 
For her love all night I wake, 
For her love mourning I make, 
More than any man."

Schofield's book is most likely Lowry's source for the song though there was an earliersources e.g. New Monthly Magazine, Volume 11 edited by Thomas Campbell, Samuel Carter Hall, Edward Bulwer Lytton Baron Lytton, Thomas Hood, Theodore Edward Hook, William Harrison Ainsworth (1819) Pg. 338 and Thomas Campbell Essay on English Poetry (1819) as well as various other 19th Century texts. It is possible that Schofield's book was a text book at The Leys School.

Rudyard Kipling Stalky & Co

This was the cover of Kiplings Stalky and Co. It depicts Stalky, Beetle and M'Turk. One of them is smoking a pipe which was not allowed at school

Stalky & Co. is a book published in 1899 (following serialisation in the Windsor Magazine) by Rudyard Kipling, about adolescent boys at a British boarding school. It is a collection of linked short stories in format, with some information about the charismatic Stalky character in later life. The character Beetle, one of the main trio, is partly based on Kipling himself. Stalky is based on Lionel Dunsterville, M'Turk is based on George Charles Beresford, Mr King is based on William Carr Crofts. The school, which is referred to as the College or the Coll. is based on the United Services College in Devon which Kipling attended. Read more on Wikipedia

Lowry refers to Kipling's stories in a letter to Carol Brown dated April/May 1926 when he tells Carol that he has formed a group with Ley's school friends Tom Macmorran and Nichol; 'We formed between us, a sort of stalky & Co..." (Collected Letters Vol 1 Pg. 17).

PG Wodehouse Rodney Fails to Qualify 1924

PG Wodehouse with his wife and daughter at Le Touquet in 1924

Lowry refers to a P.G. Wodehouse in a letter to Carol Brown dated 27th April 1926; "..well it was predestined. I did  -- I mean, rather, that it was, really. (Quotation. P.G. Wodehouse) I knew you, in other words before I met you." (Collected Letters Vol 1 Pg. 14). Lowry is possibly quoting from Wodehouse's short story 'Rodney Fails to Qualify' which may have appealed to him given the golfing connotation; "And he suddenly took me in his arms, gazed deeply into my eyes, and cried, "I love you. I worship you! I adore you! You are the tree on which the fruit of my life hangs; my mate; my woman; predestined to me since the first star shone up in yonder sky!' (P.G. Wodehouse Fore! The Best of Wodehouse on Golf).