The sous-fonds reflects Malcolm Lowry’s life and work. Contents include: correspondence (incoming and outgoing), manuscripts (poetry and prose), notes and notebooks, juvenilia and other material published by Lowry, and a variety of textual and audio-visual materials about Lowry produced by friends, family, and Lowry scholars. Within the Letters series, incoming and outgoing, Lowry’s literary agents and editors, including Albert Erskine and Harold Matson, feature prominently.

Poetry and prose manuscripts comprise the bulk of the Malcolm Lowry Papers. Manuscripts frequently include several drafts of a given work as well as notes and notebooks associated with that manuscript. Under the Volcano, October Ferry to Gabriola, and Hear Us O Lord From Heaven Thy Dwelling Place are among the works included in these series.

The Personal Life series includes financial records, art prints which hung on the walls of the Dollarton shacks, notes on source characters by Lowry, and records about Lowry’s life and family collected by UBC.

Audio-visual records include the 1984 film adaptation of Lowry’s Under the Volcano as well as interviews with scholars and friends of the Lowrys and documentaries about Lowry produced by the CBC and National Film Board of Canada (NFB).

The Malcolm Lowry Manuscripts Collection includes textual records, photographs, and a variety of audio-visual materials organized into sous-fonds by creator. The Collection is predominantly textual records; the majority of materials are correspondence and manuscripts, many of which have been microfilmed.

The core of the Malcolm Lowry Manuscripts Collection is the Malcolm Lowry Papers, and the content of the Collection is consequently thematic. Materials pertaining to Malcolm Lowry’s life and works were collected by RBSC from a variety of sources, including Lowry’s friends and family.

As of the 2023 rearrangement of the Collection, the records are arranged in sous-fonds as follows:

SF01 Malcolm Lowry Papers
SF02 Margerie Lowry Papers
SF03 Earle Birney Papers
SF04 Harvey Burt Papers
SF05 Victor Doyen Papers
SF06 Anthony Kilgallin Papers
SF07 Carol Betty Atwater Papers
SF08 William McConnell Papers
SF09 David Markson Papers
SF10 Einar Neilson Papers
SF11 William Templeton Papers
SF12 Lowry Family Papers
SF13 Photographs
SF14 Microfilm
SF15 Douglas Day Papers
SF16 Rudy Wurlitzer Papers
SF17 Francillon and Nadeau Papers

The sous-fonds reflects Margerie Lowry’s relationship with husband Malcolm Lowry, their friends and family, and her own literary endeavours. The sous-fonds is predominantly textual records. Contents include: correspondence with friends, family, Lowry scholars, and publications, typescripts and manuscripts of Margerie’s novels, photographs, and some literary criticism about Margerie’s works.

Series consists of miscellaneous objects, including a program for the 1977 Academy Awards, a liquor permit for 1946-1947, several tags for Christmas gifts signed by Lowry, jewelry given to Margerie Lowry by Malcolm Lowry, and a cigarette case and lighter set owned by Malcolm Lowry.

Jewelry given to Margerie Lowry by Malcolm Lowry; silver cigarette case and lighter set owned by Malcolm Lowry.

Notes, in essence love letters on small scraps of paper, written daily to Margerie. Many contain first drafts of Malcolm Lowry's poems along with his thoughts and observations. The notes are undated, but have been identified as from the period 1939-1953 when the Lowrys lived principally in Dollarton.

Lowry event posters, glass bottle, inventory of books about Lowry in the UBC Library, event photographs, photographs of Lowry and his friends and family, and a street map of Cuernavaca, Mexico.

Typescript of The Voyage That Never Ends with annotations and insertions in Lowry's handwritting.

Photograph of Malcolm Lowry given to first wife Jan Gabrial, with inscription.

The sous-fonds contains records relating to Malcolm Lowry accumulated by Clarisse Francillon, Lowry’s French-language translator, and Maurice Nadeau, who published several of Lowry’s works in French translation (Nadeau published Francillon’s translations of Lowry’s works). Contents include correspondence from Malcolm Lowry to Francillon, from Margerie Lowry to Francillon and Nadeau, from Harvey Burt and Victor Doyen to Francillon and Nadeau, photographs of Malcolm Lowry and a house in Cuernavaca, Mexico, typescripts and copies of published versions of The Last Address (Lunar Caustic), a typescript of The Bravest Boat, news clippings about Lowry and his works (mostly in French), a copy of Francillon’s translation of Lunar Caustic, and a French-language translation of Malcolm Lowry’s Collected Letters as prepared by Margerie Lowry and Harvey Burt and translated by Suzanne Kim.

Sous-fonds contains typed copies of approximately 100 letters from Malcolm Lowry to various friends, editors, publishers, and translators of his works. Harold Matson, Albert Erskine, and David Markson are frequently recurring addressees. The only incoming letter to Lowry (also a typed copy) is from Arthur Lowry, Malcolm Lowry’s father.

The sous-fonds also includes a typescript of a prose text of uncertain authorship which in part details Lowry’s 1949 stay at a Vancouver hospital with a broken back and ribs. Excerpts of letters are also included in the prose account.

Sous-fonds consists of correspondence between members of the Lowry family (brothers Russell, Stuart, Wilfrid, and Malcolm Lowry and their parents, Arthur Lowry and Evelyn Boden Lowry) and between Russell Lowry and the leads of various Malcolm Lowry-related books and films. Contents also include several narrative reminiscences by Russell Lowry on members of the Lowry family and on the Lowry family home, Inglewood. Several editions of the Malcolm Lowry Newsletter and its retitled continuation the Malcolm Lowry Review are included, along with a special Malcolm Lowry edition of Canadian Literature.

The sous-fonds is predominantly composed of a partial manuscript of Under the Volcano, including annotated chapters and notes. Correspondence is from Lowry and people in the publishing industry whose employers either helped to publish or rejected Under the Volcano.

The sous-fonds consists of letters from the Lowrys, a partial manuscript of Under the Volcano, and several phonograph records owned by Lowry.

The sous-fonds is predominantly comprised of correspondence with the Lowrys and Lowry scholars, particularly from Margerie Lowry, James Stern, and Douglas Day. The series also contains a collection of rejection letters from various publishers who turned away Lowry’s Through the Panama and newspaper clippings, including articles about Lowry’s death.

The sous-fonds consists primarily of letters and poems written by Lowry for Atwater, who at the time of writing was addressed as Carol Phillips. The letters and poems were posted between April and September 1939 when Lowry was living in Los Angeles. Several photos of Atwater, Lowry, and Jimmy Osborne (Atwater’s brother) are also included.

The sous-fonds consists of correspondence between the Lowrys and the Burts, the majority of which is from the 1950s and early 1970s, and audio-visual records of CBC programs, interviews, and celebration concert about Lowry and his works. This material is mostly from the early 1990s and 2000. Also included in the sous-fonds is Burt’s copy of Under the Volcano and notes regarding Under the Volcano in Lowry’s handwriting.

The sous-fonds consists primarily of correspondence between Earle Birney and a variety of publishers, magazines, and journals concerning Birney’s attempts to have Lowry’s work published posthumously. The sous-fonds also contains Lowry’s notes on and review of Birney’s 1949 novel, Turvey.

Sous-fonds consists of over 1,000 photographs pertaining to Lowry. Many depict one or both of the Lowrys at Dollarton, their various residences in the USA, Europe, and Mexico, their friends, family, and literary agents and publishers.

The sous-fonds consists primarily of correspondence and articles about Lowry’s works. McConnell kept up correspondence with Margerie Lowry and the Crowleys in particular which spanned several decades. Also included in the sous-fonds is a short story by McConnell based on a visit with the Lowry’s at the Dollarton shack, which was published almost thirty years after Lowry’s death.

Miscellaneous.

Acapulco: an adventure in living.

Malcolm and Margerie Lowry's corrections to the translation in 32-8. The Lowrys sent these corrections to Thoby-Marcelin in October 1950.

Pictures hung on Lowry's cabin walls.

Comments by Malcolm Lowry on a source character, "Fernando", or Juan Fernando Marquez and the city of Oaxaca.

Gathered by UBC (includes Lowry's will, birth certificate, death certificate, and a number of newspaper announcements of Arthur Lowry's [Malcolm's father] death and a letter about the house where he wrote the first draft of Under the Volcano.

Four published short stories by Jan Gabrial, Lowry's first wife, all photocpies: "Maguey", "Voyage to the Shores of Cuautla", "Munich of the Heart", "Not With a Bang".

Galley proofs of the English translation of a story by Philippe Thoby-Marcelin.

Pictures hung on Lowry's cabin walls.

Margerie Lowry's film script of Under the Volcano written in the early sixties (received from Margerie Lowry, 10 August 1979).

Typed notes sent by Lowry to Albert Erskine re work in progress entitled "The Voyage That Never Ends." Includes sections on "The Ordeal of Sigbjorn Wilderness," "Lunar Caustic," "Under the Volcano," "Dark as the Grave Wherein my Friend is Laid," "Eridanus," and "La Mordida." (Rceived from Sherrill Grace).

Chapter X notes.

Chapter X notes.

Chapter X notes.

Chapter XI notes.

Photocopy of a broadcast by the Columbia Broadcasting System written by Fletcher Markle and Gerald Noxon, 29 April 1947.