Malcolm Lowry worked on

for a decade, from late 1936 or early 1937, when he conceived the idea for the book during a long trip to Mexico with his first wife, Jan Gabrial, through his painstaking correction of galley proofs in November 1946. He composed and revised almost obsessively, in Cuernavaca (until July 1938), Los Angeles (July 1938-July 1939), Vancouver (August 1939-May 1941), and a shack near Dollarton, British Columbia, into which he and his second wife, Margerie Bonner, moved in May 1941. In July 1940 Lowry had sent the manuscript to his agent, Harold Matson, but Matson's efforts over the next fifteen months resulted only in a pile of rejection letters. Disheartened, Lowry withdrew the manuscript and set about revising it in Dollarton until 7 June 1944, when a…

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Citation: McCarthy, Patrick A.. "Under the Volcano". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 03 July 2009 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=8549, accessed 25 November 2024.]

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