Beaumont, Texas

The Port of Beaumont is a deep-water port located in Beaumont, Texas near the mouth of the Neches River.
Its history as a deepwater port dates to 1908, however, when a canal nine feet deep was dug in the Neches River from Beaumont to the Port Arthur ship channel. In 1916, the channel was deepened to 25 feet and a turning basin scooped out in the bend of the river. Local businessmen, meanwhile, had developed dock facilities on the waterfront. The port channel was deepened to 30 feet in 1922, increasing Beaumont's importance as a shipping centre.

Lowry refers to the port in his novel Ultramarine when one of the crew of Oedipus Tyrannus recalls visiting the port; " ' Beaumont, yes. We tied up to the trees in the park there, why, it's only a spindle-head, that place, that's all it is, just a spindle-head. It was a bit of an event too, a ship coming there. And all the girls from the park came and dabbled their feet in the water. We had 'em up on the ship afterwards for a dance. We put an officer ashore there with rheumatism.' " (Pg. 176).

There is no record of Lowry visiting the port on his 1929 trip to the USA. We must assume that Lowry recorded a conversation of a crew member of Pyrrhus.

Lowry's reference to a "spindle-head' probably has to do with Beaumont's oil business. A spindle top is a headstock or tailstock for a spindle or boring bar. Oil was discovered at nearby Spindletop on January 10, 1901. Spindletop became the first major oil field and one of the largest in American history. With the discovery of oil at Spindletop, Beaumont's population grew from 9,000 in January 1901 to 30,000 in March 1901.

The park mentioned by Lowry is probably Riverfront Park.

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.

Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg

Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg, also known as Webster Lake, is a lake in the town of Webster, Massachusetts, United States. It is located near the Connecticut border and has a surface area of 1,442 acres.

The lake's name comes from Nipmuc, an Algonquian language, and is said to mean, "Fishing Place at the Boundaries -- Neutral Meeting Grounds". This is different from the humorous translation, "You fish on your side, I fish on my side, and nobody fish in the middle", thought to have been invented by the late Laurence J. Daly, editor of The Webster Times.Read more on Wikipedia

He refers to the lake in his first novel Ultramarine; "Say Chagogawogmanchogomogchawggohuatungamog. If you can say that you're not drunk." (Pg. 112). Lowry was probably drawn to the name as he often picked out strange/humorous place names that had resonance for him from his reading or travels. Lowry possibly knew this from his 1929 trip to the USA or he may have seen it in an atlas as a child or later. As ever with Lowry he mis-spelt the name.

Amy Lowell's House, Brookline,

Poet Amy Lowell (1874-1925) was born in Brookline, near Boston, on a 10-acre estate “Sevenels” at 70 Heath Street to a wealthy and prominent New England family. She lived in the elegant mansion all her life, redecorating many of the rooms according to her own taste after the death of her parents.

Lowry refers to Amy Lowell's house in his novel Ultramarine in which the protagonist Dana Hilliot recalls; " strolling with my father through the Harvard Yard, passing the Widener Library, so absurdly like our Bibliotheket, and Amy Lowell's house."

Lowry must have become familiar with Amy Lowell's house during his trip to the USA in 1929 to visit Conrad Aiken.

Widener Library, Harvard

Widener Library, which opened on June 24, 1915, commemorates Harry Elkins Widener (born January 3, 1885 in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania), a 1907 Harvard graduate, who was a book collector and victim of the Titanic disaster. His mother, Eleanor Elkins, made a $3.5 million donation to Harvard University to build a library named after him. The library was designed by Horace Trumbauer & Associates, the architect of many private houses for the intertwined Elkins and Widener families of Philadelphia including the renowned Lynnewood Hall. The Associate responsible for designing Widener Library was the chief designer of the firm, architect Julian F. Abele, the first major African American architect.

Lowry refers to the library in his novel Ultramarine in which the protagonist Dana Hilliot compares the Universitetsbiblioteket in Oslo to the Widener Library in Harvard; " strolling with my father through the Harvard Yard, passing the Widener Library, so absurdly like our Bibliotheket, and Amy Lowell's house." (Pg. 51).

Lowry must have become familiar with the Widener Library during his trip to the USA in 1929 to visit Conrad Aiken.

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.