Peekshill, New York

Peekskill is a city in Westchester County, New York. It is situated on a bay along the east side of the Hudson River, across from Jones Point.

Referred to by the newspaperman in Lowry's short story 'In Le Havre' as well as other towns in county of Westchester; Chappaqua, Dobbs Ferry, Larchmont, Mamaroneck, Mount Kisco and Ossining. Not visited by Lowry at time of story. Possibly influenced by Jan Gabrial who had helped Lowry write the story.

Ossining, New York

Ossining is a village in Westchester County, New York, United States. As a village, it is located in the Town of Ossining.

Referred to by the newspaperman in Lowry's short story 'In Le Havre' as well as other towns in county of Westchester; Chappaqua, Dobbs Ferry, Larchmont, Mamaroneck, Mount Kisco and Peekshill. Not visited by Lowry at time of story. Possibly influenced by Jan Gabrial who had helped Lowry write the story.

Mount Kisco, New York

Mount Kisco is a community that is both a village and a town in Westchester County, New York, United States.

Referred to by the newspaperman in Lowry's short story 'In Le Havre' as well as other towns in county of Westchester; Chappaqua, Dobbs Ferry, Larchmont, Mamaroneck, Ossining and Peekshill. Not visited by Lowry at time of story. Possibly influenced by Jan Gabrial who had helped Lowry write the story. Lowry spells the village as Mount Kisko.

Mamaroneck, New York

Mamaroneck is a town in Westchester County, New York,  There are two villages contained within the town: Larchmont and the Village of Mamaroneck (part of which is located in the town of Rye). The majority of the town's land area is not within either village, constituting an unincorporated area, although a majority of the population lives within the villages.

Referred to by the newspaperman in Lowry's short story 'In Le Havre' as well as other towns in county of Westchester; Chappaqua, Dobbs Ferry, Larchmont, Mount Kisko, Ossining and Peekshill. Not visited by Lowry at time of story. Possibly influenced by Jan Gabrial who had helped Lowry write the story.

Dobbs Ferry, New York

Dobbs Ferry is a village in Westchester County, New York, United States. The Village of Dobbs Ferry is located in, and is a part of, the town of Greenburgh.

Referred to by the newspaperman in Lowry's short story 'In Le Havre' as well as other towns in county of Westchester; Chappaqua, Larchmont, Mamaroneck, Mount Kisco, Ossining and Peekshill. Not visited by Lowry at time of story. Possibly influenced by Jan Gabrial who had helped Lowry write the story.

Chappaqua, New York

Chappaqua is a hamlet in northern Westchester County, New York. Chappaqua is located in the town of New Castle.

Long associated with "old money” and some of the country's wealthiest families for generations. Referred to by the newspaperman in Lowry's short story 'In Le Havre' as well as other towns in county of Westchester; Dobbs Ferry, Larchmont, Mamaroneck, Mount Kisco, Ossining and Peekshill. Not visited by Lowry at time of story. Possibly influenced by Jan Gabrial who had helped Lowry write the story.

Larchmont, New York

Larchmont is an affluent village in Westchester County, New York. It is located within the Town of Mamaroneck, on the shore of Long Island Sound, 18 miles (29 km) northeast of Midtown Manhattan. Read more on Wikipedia

Long associated with "old money” and some of the country's wealthiest families for generations. Referred to by the newspaperman in Lowry's short story 'In Le Havre' as well as other towns in county of Westchester; Chappaqua, Dobbs Ferry, Mamaroneck, Mount Kisko, Ossining and Peekshill. Not visited by Lowry at time of story. Possibly influenced by Jan Gabrial who had helped Lowry write the story.

Bellevue Hospital, New York

Bellevue Hospital, New York, at 1st Avenue and 27th Street in Manhattan, close to the East River and some three blocks east of the house in which Melville had died (his "Last Address").

Lowry was admitted as a voluntary patient following the intervention of his friend, Eric Estorick in May or June of 1936 for psychiatric observation after an attack of delirium tremens. Lowry was there for approximaely ten days. Later, he stated that his admittance was a "deliberate pilgrimage" in order to write a book about his experiences.

Douglas Day (Malcolm Lowry, 200) gives an account of the shock effect of Lowry's seeing lives destroyed by alcohol and patients dying of syphilis. Lowry was distressed when in 1944 Charles Jackson's The Lost Weekend appeared, set in part in the Bellevue Psychiatric Ward, "where Don Birnam spends an interesting afternoon" (Collected Letters Vol Pg. 503). Lowry felt that his own writing was compromised by the appearance of Jackson's book given his personal theme of the ordeal of an alcoholic.

The name "Bellevue" coincidentally anticipating the Hotel Bella Vista in Quauhnahuac, or Cuernavaca, where Yvonne sees the dishevelled figure of the Consul - yet another example of Lowry seeing his life written in symbols.

The final scenes in Lowry's short story 'In Le Havre' are set in a nightmarish world of fog ending with the newspaperman going to a bar for another drink. This may reveal the extent Lowry realised how he was descending into alcoholism portending the future of his internment in Bellevue Hospital.

Welfare Island

Now known as Roosevelt Island, formerly known as above from 1921 to 1973 and before that Blackwell's Island, is a narrow island in the East River of New York City. Referred to by the newspaperman in Lowry's short story 'In Le Havre'.

Westchester County

Westchester County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. Westchester covers an area of 450 square miles. It was named after the city of Chester in England, and the county seat is White Plains.

The county's location puts New York City and Long Island Sound to its south, Putnam County on the north, Connecticut on the east, Rockland County on the west. Westchester became the first suburban area of its scale in the world to develop. Its significance as a suburb derived mostly from the upper-middle class development of entire communities in the late 19th century, and the rapid population growth that occurred as a result. Long associated with "old money” and some of the country's wealthiest families for generations. 

Referred to by the newspaperman in Lowry's short story 'In Le Havre' as well as other towns in county; Chappaqua, Dobbs Ferry, Larchmont, Mamaroneck, Mount Kisco, Ossining and Peekshill  Not visited by Lowry at time of story. Possibly influenced by Jan Gabrial who had helped Lowry write the story.

Click on map to enlarge.

Rhumerie from Martinique

Terrace of " Rhumerie from Martinique ", Paris, boulevard saint - Germain (VI-th ardt), in May, 1955. RV-111846

" Rhumerie ", Paris, boulevard Saint Germain (VI-th ardt), in April, 1958. RV-144006

Located on the Boulevard Saint-Germain referred to by the narrator in Lowry’s short story 'In Le Havre'. Known now as the La Rhumer. Frequented by Lowry and Jan Gabrial during their 1934 stay in Paris.

Images courtesy of Paris En Images

Phoenix

A mythical sacred firebird found in the mythologies of the Persians, Greeks, Egyptians, Chinese and Phoenicians.

Referred to by newspaperman in ML’s short story 'In Le Havre'. Lowry evokes an image of the bird after the disastrous fire at Dollarton in 1945. In replying to a letter from Aiken; “Yes, the phoenix clapped its wings all al right, in fact gave such a bloody great resounding clap that the poor bird nearly broke its neck and had to be immolated all over again” (Collected Letters Vol 1 484).

Wallace Stevens 1879-1955

An American Modernist poet. Born in Reading, Pennsylvania, educated at Harvard and then New York Law School, and spent most of his life working as a lawyer for the Hartford insurance company in Connecticut.

Read more on Wikipedia

Lowry mentions the Gulf of Tehuantepec (Lowry spells as Tehantapec) in 'In Le Havre'. This is one of the first mentions of Mexico in Lowry’s work and alludes to his reading of Wallace Stevens’s 1924 poem “Sea Surface Full of Clouds” set off Tehuantepec.

Sisyphus

Bernard Picart Sisyphus Pushing His Stone up a Mountain, 1731

In Greek mythology was a king punished by being compelled to roll a huge boulder up a hill, only to watch it roll back down, and to repeat this throughout eternity. Sisyphus was son of King Aeolus. Sisyphus promoted navigation and commerce, but was avaricious and deceitful, violating the laws of hospitality by killing travellers and guests. 

Referred to by newspaperman in Lowry's short story 'In Le Havre'. Hence Lowry's joke of “Did you know a rolling stone gathers no moss, Mr Sisyphus?”

Hotel-Café-Bar

An unidentified bar in the dock area of Le Havre, France where the 2 characters talk in Lowry’s short story ‘In Le Havre’

6th February 1934 Crisis in Paris

Refers to an anti-parliamentarist street demonstration in Paris organised by the far right leagues that culminated in riot on the Place de Concorde, near the French Assembly. Seen as attempted fascist overthrow by Socialists.

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Mentioned by Lowry in the short stories ‘In Le Havre’ and ‘June 30th 1934’. Lowry was living in Paris during crisis. Early awareness of fascism by Lowry. Articulated in more depth in Under The Volcano.

Charon

Gustave Doré Charon 

Charon is the ferryman in Hades who carries souls of the newly deceased across the rivers Styx and Acheron that divided the world of the living from the world of the dead. 


A re-occuring figure in Lowry's work; “Your lights are bright Mr Charon” ‘In Le Havre’; “The ferry, quite as Charon’s boat, knows death” (‘Freighter 1940’ in Collected Poems 143); a Robert Charon was a passenger on the S.S. Brest the ship Lowry sailed on from America to France in 1947 (Letter to John Davenport Collected Letters     Vol. 2 111); Lowry wrote the short story ‘Through The Panama’ based on the 1947 voyage and included the character Charon; “a glum Charon’s boat, plying up and down between mountains” (October Ferry to Gabriola Pg. 49); “So might Charon’s boat appeared, Ethan thought, when hell was nearly brand-new” (October Ferry to Gabriola 287). Charon is also archetype for Scrubby the character in Sutton Vane’s play Outward Bound, which was highly influential on Lowry.

Cerebus

William Blake Cerebus

A multi-headed hound in Greek and Roman mythology usually three-headed which guards the gates of Hades, to prevent those who have crossed the river Styx from ever escaping.


Referred to by the newspaperman in Lowry's short story “In Le Havre”. Hence Lowry's joke of “My best to Cerebus, throw him a bone for me”; “a dog guarding it Under The Volcano Pg. 77; Markson notes the Consuls remark in Under The Volcano that he does not believe the headline, “Town counts dog’s noses” as a dog only has one nose except when the dog is Cerberus, who has three heads. (David Markson Malcolm Lowry's Volcano Pg.93 and Chris Ackerley's Volcano website 180.1).

Gulf of Tehuantepec

Is a large body of water on the Pacific coast of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec of southeastern Mexico. Lowry mentions the Gulf of Tehuantepec (Lowry spells as Tehantapec) in his short story 'In Le Havre'. This is one of the first mentions of Mexico in Lowry’s work.

Lowry in the poem “Letter From Oaxaca to North Africa 1936” says “the giraffe has a long neck, and too much longitude, by all Tehuantepec” which alludes to Wallace Stevens’s poem “Sea Surface Full Of Clouds” in which each section begins “In that November off Tehuantepec. Steven’s poem is set in November 1923 off the coast of Tehuantepec and based on a trip he made with his wife through the Panama Canal. Lowry made a similar journey in the 1950’s with his second wife Margerie. (See “Through The Panama” entry for 22nd November). Lowry also mentions the gulf in the poem “Peter Gaunt And The Canals” – “Or Caribees to Tehuantepec” which echoes O’Neill’s The Moon of the Caribbees.

Le Havre

Le Havre is a city in the Seine-Maritime department of the Haute-Normandie region in France. It is situated in north-western France, on the right bank of the mouth of the river Seine on the English Channel. 

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The setting for Lowry's short story 'In Le Havre'. It was where Jan Gabrial embarked on the S.S. Ile De France to return to America in April 1934. She was seen off by Lowry; "I wandered around Havre, & it was nice - although so sad without you; we would have had real fun there, there was so many nice little cafes down by the waterfront, something like French West Indies, a real salt of the sea feeling it gave you, but I have never hated the sea so much. I ran after the Ile de France till it was out of sight..." (Collected Letters Vol. 1 Pg. 142).

We can assume that Jan Gabrial and Lowry travelled by the boat train to Le Havre form Paris.

Lowry wrote in a letter to Jan dated April 1934; "I wandered around Havre, & it was nice - although so sad without you; we would have had real fun there, there were so many nice little cafes down by the waterfront, something like the French West Indies, a real salt of the sea feeling it gave you: but I never hated the sea so much. I ran after the Ile de France till it was out of sight, I had half a hope I might be able to stop it or make it come back.."


Lowry may have returned from La Gare as seen below.

You can watch below a travelogue produced by Compagnie Générale Transatlantique from 1938 of towns and historic sites along the French Normandy coast. Extensive footage of the port town of Le Havre (which would be heavily bombed during WWII) with ocean liners arriving to the port, vistas of the city, and 1930s old European street scenes. Resort towns such as Etretat, with village street scenes, people relaxing on the beach, and vistas of naturally carved cliffs:

Port of Shadows (French: Le Quai des brumes) is a 1938 French film directed by Marcel Carné is set in Le Havre with plenty of atmospheric shots of the port. It stars Jean Gabin, Michel Simon and Michèle Morgan. The screenplay was written by Jacques Prévert based on a novel by Pierre Mac Orlan. You can see a trailer here: