Malcolm Lowry

Author profile

born

July 28, 1909 in Wallasey, Merseyside, England, The United Kingdom

died

June 26, 1957

gender

male

genre

Literature & Fiction, Poetry

About this author

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Malcolm Lowry was an English poet and novelist who was best known for his novel, Under the Volcano.

Lowry published little during his lifetime, in comparison with the extensive collection of unfinished manuscripts he left. Of his two novels, Under the Volcano (1947) is now widely accepted as his masterpiece and one of the great works of the 20th century (number 11 on the Modern Library's 100 Best Novels of the 20th century).[2] It exemplifies Lowry's method as a writer, which involved drawing heavily upon autobiographical material and imbuing it with complex and allusive layers of symbolism. Under the Volcano depicts a series of complex and unwillingly destructive relationships and is set against a rich evocation of Mexico.

Ultramarine (1933)...more Malcolm Lowry was an English poet and novelist who was best known for his novel, Under the Volcano.

Lowry published little during his lifetime, in comparison with the extensive collection of unfinished manuscripts he left. Of his two novels, Under the Volcano (1947) is now widely accepted as his masterpiece and one of the great works of the 20th century (number 11 on the Modern Library's 100 Best Novels of the 20th century).[2] It exemplifies Lowry's method as a writer, which involved drawing heavily upon autobiographical material and imbuing it with complex and allusive layers of symbolism. Under the Volcano depicts a series of complex and unwillingly destructive relationships and is set against a rich evocation of Mexico.

Ultramarine (1933), written while Lowry was still an undergraduate, follows a young man's first sea voyage and his determination to gain the crew's acceptance.

A collection of short stories, Hear Us, O Lord from Heaven Thy Dwelling Place (1961) was published after Lowry's death. The scholar and poet Earle Birney edited Selected Poems of Malcolm Lowry (1962). He also collaborated with Lowry's widow in editing the novella Lunar Caustic (1968) for re-publication. It is a conflation of several earlier pieces concerned with Bellevue Hospital, which Lowry was in the process of rewriting as a complete novel. With Douglas Day, Lowry's first biographer, Lowry's widow also completed and edited the novels Dark as the Grave Wherein my Friend Is Laid (1968) and October Ferry to Gabriola (1970) from Lowry's manuscripts.

The Selected Letters of Malcolm Lowry, edited by his widow and Harvey Breit, was released in 1965, followed in 1995-6 by the two volume Sursam Corda! The Collected Letters of Malcolm Lowry, edited by Sherrill E. Grace. Scholarly editions of Lowry's final work in progress, La Mordida, and his screen adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tender Is the Night have also been published.

Volcano: An Inquiry into the Life and Death of Malcolm Lowry (1976) is an Oscar-nominated National Film Board of Canada documentary produced by Donald Brittain and Robert A. Duncan and directed by Brittain and John Kramer.[1] It opens with the inquest into Lowry's "death by misadventure," and then moves back in time to trace the writer's life. Selections from Lowry's novel are read by Richard Burton amid images shot in Mexico, the United States, Canada and England.(less)

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Average rating: 3.77 · 4,685 ratings · 472 reviews · 26 distinct works

	Under the Volcano 3.78 avg rating — 4,325 ratings — published 1947 — 50 editions	My rating:
	Lunar Caustic 3.49 avg rating — 69 ratings — published 1963 — 7 editions	My rating:
	Dark As The Grave Wherein My Friend Is Laid 3.73 avg rating — 60 ratings — published 1968 — 5 editions	My rating:
	Ultramarine by Malcolm Lowry, Margerie B. Lowry (Introduction), Margerie Lowry (Introduction) 3.38 avg rating — 66 ratings — published 1933 — 11 editions	My rating:
	Hear Us O Lord from Heaven Thy Dwelling Place 3.83 avg rating — 40 ratings — 7 editions	My rating:
	October Ferry To Gabriola 3.54 avg rating — 35 ratings — 5 editions	My rating:
	Selected Poems 3.50 avg rating — 12 ratings — published 1963	My rating:
	The Voyage That Never Ends by Malcolm Lowry, Michael Hofmann (Editor) 3.82 avg rating — 11 ratings — published 2002 — 2 editions	My rating:
	Parmenides of Elea: Fragments-A Text & Translation with Introduction (Phoenix Supplementary 1) 4.00 avg rating — 10 ratings — published 1984	My rating:
	Hear Us O Lord From Heaven Thy Dwelling Place And Lunar Caustic 4.12 avg rating — 8 ratings — published 1984	My rating:

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Quotes by Malcolm Lowry

“How, unless you drink as I do, could you hope to understand the beauty of an old Indian woman playing dominoes with a chicken?”
― Malcolm Lowry, Under the Volcano

9 people liked it

“No se puede vivir sin amar”
― Malcolm Lowry, Under the Volcano

8 people liked it

“Perhaps his tragedy is that he is the only normal writer left on earth -- and it is this that adds to his isolation and so too his so sense of guilt.”
― Malcolm Lowry

tags: writing

5 people liked it

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Malcolm Lowry

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Quotes by Malcolm Lowry

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