Department of Special Collections and University Archives
McFarlin Library. University of Tulsa.  2933 E. 6th St.  Tulsa, OK.  74104-3123 (OKT - OkTU)

John Davenport collection of Malcolm Lowry

Collection 1976-006

Dates:   1926-1966.

Extent:  (1 box).

Level of Description:  Item level.

Name of creator(s):  John Davenport, et al.

Date of creation:  Undetermined.

Scope and Content:   Grouped into correspondence and writings.  The correspondence consists of handwritten and typed letter and postcards between a) John Davenport (Lowry's friend and executor) and publishers, colleagues and friends of Malcolm Lowry; b) between Malcolm Lowry and Carol Brown, his belle of the 1920s; c) between Marjerie Bonner Lowry (Mrs. Malcolm Lowry) and John Davenport; d) one handwritten letter fragment from [John Davenport] to Lowry which includes a 10-line poem about gonorrhea.  The writings consist of handwritten drafts, typed, carbon copy typed, and photocopied typescript drafts of poems, articles, and novels by Lowry.

The writings include Davenport's handwritten biography of Lowry and his typescript preface to Lowry's novel, Ultramarine.

Administrative/Biographical History: 

Access and Copyright:  This material is housed off-site and will require special arrangements for anticipated use. Contact the Department of Special Collections.

Language and Scripts:  English.

Finding aid/Inventory:  Finding aid is available online.

Provenance/Source of Acquisition:   Purchased from several sources, the largest portion from John Davenport, 1976-1977.

Date(s) of description:   Milissa Burkart, Apr 1993.

Access Points:

Subject Headings 

 
Personal names 

Corporate names

Places
 

Inventory

John Davenport.  11 Apr 1953.  "Only a note in time: Esther will be in London some time towards the end of this month.”  Typed and signed letter, 1s.

John Davenport.  16 Dec [1961].  "I must tell you how immensely I enjoyed your BBC talk on Tuesday night.”  Handwritten and signed letter, 1s.

John Davenport.  15 Jan 1963.  "Your card only came this morning.  I just rang up your house but you were out.”  Handwritten and signed postcard.

John Davenport.  16 Nov 1957.  "I shall be in London from Nov 25^th till Dec 1^st and should be happy if I could see you."  Handwritten and signed letter, 1s.

John Davenport.  Christmas, 1957.  "With my best greetings.”  Handwritten and signed postcard featuring a photograph of Blixen and her dog.

John Davenport.  Undated.  "You seem possessed of some power to pre-ordain my life.  Do you remember page 4 of your letter?”  Handwritten and signed letter, 2s.

John Davenport.  "Curiously enough, even if Lent and disappointment hadn’t held you back from the do at Proniev’s, we wouldn’t have met there, because I wasn’t invited."  Handwritten and signed letter, 1s.

John Davenport.  6 Apr 1965.  "During the next 10 days I have to do a 2,000 word review and get it to the N.Y. Times, read and review a week’s novels, write 2,000 words for the NS."  Handwritten and signed postcard.

John Davenport.  [23 Apr 1965], 1s.  "The thing that comes between me and Spanish poetry (this is a belated not exactly answer but rejoinder to the letter in which you say ‘Perhaps you don’t care for Spanish poetry’”  Handwritten and signed letter, 1s.

John Davenport.  1 May 1965.  "I hope your torn leg muscle is by now well mended."  Handwritten and signed postcard.

John Davenport.  9 Jun 1965.  "Brief greetings from the above place, where I am pretending for my small daughter’s sake that I enjoy holidays."  Handwritten and signed postcard.

John Davenport.  12 May 1961.  "I enclose a copy of my first novel, Goose of Hermogenes, which is being published early next month."  Handwritten and signed letter, 1s.

John Davenport.  24 Aug 1961.  "I’ve been wondering whether you enjoyed reading my recent novel, Goose of Hermogenes."  Handwritten and signed letter, 2s.

John Davenport.  22 Apr 1966.  "I believe André Deutsch Ltd. sent you a novel by me recently for your opinion, and that you liked it?”  Handwritten and signed letter, 4s.

John Davenport.  9 May 1966.  "Thank you for your helpful letter about I Saw Water, and for the suggestion about Secker and Warburg."  Handwritten and signed letter, 2s.

"My Ideas About Clothes.” Typescript of an essay with handwritten revisions, 4p.

John Davenport.  1 Jun 1953.  "I hear that you have recently been appointed Talks Producer, and I wander whether you would consider me as one of your contributors?”  Handwritten and signed letter, 1s.

From John Davenport.  4 Jun 1953.  "Of course, only too delighted to see you any time."  Note written on the bottom of previous letter plus carbon copy typed letter of same, 1s

John Davenport.  6 Jun 1953.  "How nice!  I should love to lunch with you."  Typed and signed note, 1s.

From John Davenport.  11 Jun 1953.  "Wednesday, 17^th is O. K."  Note written on the bottom of previous letter plus carbon copy typed letter of same, 1s.

John Davenport.  11 Jun 1953.  "May we make it luncheon on either the 23^rd or 24^th?”  Handwritten and signed postcard with John Davenport’s notation as to the 24^th, amended to 2 Jul.

John Davenport.  4 Jul 1953.  "I am so very sorry about the mix-up last Thursday.  I hadn’t seen Howard Newby for about two years."  Typed and signed letter, 1s, with John Davenport’s notation as to 3 p.m. on 14 Jul.

John Davenport.  4 Sept 1953.  "Robert tells me you are going to put up the Colette suggestion on Tuesday."  Handwritten and signed letter, 1s.

John Davenport.  Undated.  "Where is your copy for this week?”  Typed and signed note, 1s.

John Davenport.  27 Oct.  "To confirm our telephone conversation this afternoon: 1) A brief list of classical records suitable for presents for Christmas issue of November 18^th."  Typed and signed letter, 1s.

John Davenport.  29 Dec.  "I am looking forward to half a page of Quick Cues copy, plus Double Quicks, on the records you chose from Transatlantic Records."  Typed and signed note, 1s.

John Davenport.  19 Jan 1965.  "Thank you so much for the note about the Baldwin play."  Typed and signed letter, 1s.

To Carol Brown.  (Information within "[ -- ]" was provided by Sherrill E. Grace.  22 Feb 1991.)

["The letters form a sequence from April to June 1926 when Lowry was writing to Brown about twice a week.  I have put the letters in what appears to be their sequence but absolute confirmation of dates is impossible in some instances."]

Undated.  "2001 without a ½ sow if necessary - I’m not trying to appeal to your sense of romance: I’m endeavouring to be desperately, (you will say, comically, or pathetically or something - ‘the child Malcolm isn’t old enough,’ isn’t he though!) sincere.  Handwritten letter, 3s with added note on last page: "I don’t know if this (discovered at the back of my locker) has any intrinsic value to you."

Undated..  "I am about to otter hunt.  I didn’t sleep last night at all."  Handwritten and signed letter, 1s.  [Written during the Easter holidays from the Lowry home in Caldy.]  Includes handwritten fragment of the short story, "Yes and No Man."  Handwritten draft, 4s.

27-28 Apr.  "Dear old Bachelor, Pardon my execrable manners but I simply must write you immediately.  The great trouble about this first school tea is that one hasn’t salved any of one’s friends as yet, one sits where one may find a place."  Handwritten and signed letter, 5s.

[Apr].  "Lines written in frenzy on not receiving letter.  Time and date doubtful."  Handwritten and signed letter, 1s.

29-30 Apr and 1-2 May.  "Dear Carol.  (Two words which are meant more than you’ll ever dream).  Things are better than I thought they would be.  Mac has turned up."  Handwritten and signed letter, 6s.

[6 May].  "Geometry.  The tangents from T to a circle whose radius is .7." are each 2.4." in length how, I ask you this can I do your Geometry and think of Carol at the same time?”  Handwritten and signed letter, 1s with envelope.

9 May.  "Dear Carol old gal.  Forward my incoherent and illegible letters to your during the week."  Handwritten and signed letter, 1s with envelope.

[3-12 May - contains references to the General Strike occurring at that time period]  "Started in Arithmetic.  Yes, far more than that, I am a nincompoop, in fact several types of."  Handwritten and signed letter, 10p.

14 May.  "Continued in installments.  Dearest old thing, Your terrific letter drove me mad with delight."  Handwritten and signed letter, 1s.

[25 May with reference to "May Week”].  "L’il gal, I have been preserving what you would term a "respectful silence.”  As a matter of fact I’ve been suffering like anything.  First of all I’m possessed of qualms of conscience that you must think I deceived you foully about Richard Connell [?]”  Handwritten letter, 2s with envelope.

[End of May sunshine].  "Dear Carol, thanks awfully for your letter.  I received it during the midday browse of grilled cat.  Good fun about the tennis - certainly red hot getting into the final.  I must say I like the airy way you introduce me to Fred for the first time."  Handwritten and signed letter, 1s with additional note: "Faint heart, oh woman, never won fair lady.  Will write to-morrow.”

[2 Jun].  "Here and there. Then and now.  Madam - this to you: Grats on your tennis effort: red hot - I knew very well you’d win though.  Give my love to old Fred when you next see him.  Talking about the cheery little subject of rooms.  Old Coll, like the sweetie in the song, wouldn’t tell me how why or when - you were or your weren’t - or you might be: or perhaps you might be coming down and if so how many and if not why if not why not..."  Handwritten letter, 4s with envelope and added note on verso of last page: "This is the letter.  Make no mistake about it.”

[Reference to the play, "The Ringer,” which opened on 1 May and ran through Apr 1927].  "Avenue de Blazes.  Dear Carol, Thanks awfully for your letter.  Poor Carol!  I didn’t mean to worry you ever, I didn’t know for certain that you liked me enough for that...."  Handwritten letter, 4s.

[7 Jun].  "You’re too sweet for words, Carol: you say, hope you’re fit and happy - especially the last: yes, I’m as happy as anything thanks.   It's a wonderfully hot night and I’m writing this in prep we've got a House Parade to-night: Officers Training Corps -  bad institution."  Handwritten and signed letter, 2s with envelope.

[16, 18 or 19 Jun].  "Dear Carol, There's a good old thunderstorm rattling about outside.  I'm writing an unpleasant story (inspired by Pirandello’s ‘man with a flower in his mouth’), about a man with cancer of the lip, and almost at the end of his tether..."  Handwritten and signed letter, 3s with envelope and ink sketch.

[Reference to the play, "This Woman’s Business." by Benn Levy, which played at the Hay Market 15 Apr through 25 Sept 1926].  "You have that inestimable treasure, a sense of humor but strictly between you, me, and the O. Cedar mop, you are entirely inaccurate on the psychology stunt.  If you knew, woman, how I read and reread your letters."  Handwritten and signed letter, 4s.

[23 Jun].  "Dear Carol, Do you know the story about Mr. String fellow?  Mr. Stringfellow was a little man, who did the same things at the same time, rotted in a little office, had never had any excitement."  Handwritten and signed letter, 5s with envelope.

Undated.  "Deep Elm.  Dear old Carol, I’m sorry I’ve been so long in replying.  It’s not spite or anything; it’s just that I felt so glad I didn’t know what to say.  I suppose you mean you’ve fallen in love with some priceless old bean - eh?"  Handwritten letter, 1s.

Undated.  "The sudden death of Malcolm Lowry on Thursday, 27 Jun3, will come as a great shock to his admirers in this country and as a greater one to his admirers in the United States, where he was more properly appreciated.  He was 47.”  Handwritten fragment of an obituary, 1p.

John Davenport.  24 Jan 1949.  "Did you get our cards from Iceland?"  Handwritten and signed postcard.

John Davenport.  Undated.  "You’ll be glad to hear that a book of Malc’s short stories and novellas is coming out in America in May."  Typed and signed letter, 1s.

John Davenport.  12 May 1961.  "I hope that be now you’ve received your copy of Hear Us O Lord and that you like it, and approve of my having published it."  Typed and signed letter, 1s.

John Davenport.  30 Dec 1961.  "I’ve written you on various occasions at the Savage Club and haven’t had any reply.  I now have your address in Duxford from Conrad and this time I’m writing for a very definite and cogent reason.  I've signed a contract with Jonathan Cape to reissue Ultramarine."  Typed and signed letter, 1s.

John Davenport.  27 Feb 1962.  "I have been anxiously waiting for the letter promised in your cable, but no letter so far - when I sent you the copy of Hear Us O Lord, which I hope to God you received - and one or two other times."  Typed and signed letter, 1s with autograph postscript at bottom.

John Davenport.  22 Mar 1962.  "Lippencott holding press Ultramarine for preface due March 9."  Telegram.

John Davenport.  "I’m doing a volume of Malcolm’s letters for Lippencott and Harvey Breit, whom I believe you’ve met, will co-edit with me."  Typed and signed letter, 1s.

John Davenport.  12 Aug (written from White Cottage, Ripe).  "Here are the poems.  I’m sorry there are so many and even so I’ve only sent you what he considered his very best."  Typed and signed letter, 1s with autograph notes in the margins.

John Davenport.  Monday night (written from White Cottage, Ripe).  "What happened to you tonight?  I wanted so much to go over the poems with you.  Now I don’t know what to do about them."  Handwritten and signed letter, 1s.

John Davenport.  Monday.  "I sent off your books and the poems earlier today and here is the set of snapshots of Malc I promised you."  Handwritten and signed letter, 1s.

Address card for Malcolm Lowry c/o Signora Margherita Bambara. Sicily.

John Davenport.  15 Jan 1958.  "How nice to hear from you!  I have tried two or three times to find you, hoping you would come here, but could only get rumours that you had bought a Georgian manor in Cambridgeshire and had retired there to live in style."  Typed and signed letter, 1s.

John Davenport.  20 Jan 1958.  "Thank you so much for letting me know about the reviewing.  Now I can put it out of my head."  Typed and signed letter, 1s.

John Davenport.  17 Aug 1958.  "I meant to write to you before but was struck down with malaria."  Handwritten and signed letter, 1s.

John Davenport.  23 Jan 1962.  "It seems so long since I last saw you.  Edna O’Brien and Ivy CB are coming to luncheon on Thursday."   Handwritten and signed letter, 1s.

John Davenport.  2 May 1962.  "I was so happy and relieved to hear that you like ‘The Spoilt City,’ and was delighted to hear from you last evening."  Handwritten and signed letter, 2s.

John Davenport.  9 May 1962.  "Darling John, it was sweet of you to ring me on Sunday and help to nurse me through that difficult day.  And it was a lovely review."  Typed and signed letter, 1s.

John Davenport.  1 Jul [1962-3].  "Your review was a great thing for me to have - I at last feel a little encouraged by the notices of this Chinese Garden, even though I suppose it will be forgotten in a month or two."  Handwritten and signed letter, 1s.

John Davenport.  7 Dec 1964.  "I don’t know if you remember reading and reviewing my last novel, The Chinese Garden, which came out in 1962."  Typed and signed letter, 1s.

John Davenport.  12 Dec 1964.  "Your letter has cheered me considerably.  I rarely feel that life is worth living.  You might note that I’m always acting out suicides in my novels."  Handwritten and signed letter, 2s.

John Davenport.  16 Jan [1965].  "I have now seen the Marat-Sade.  I must say I was rather impressed, particularly by the production...."  Typed and signed letter, 1s.

John Davenport.  20 Jan 1965.  "I was very interested in what you said about de Sade and his plays.  Even more by the fact that you had been staying at Waterston."  Typed and signed letter, 1s.

John Davenport.  24 Jan 1965.  "A good review by Michael Ratcliffe in the Sunday Times today.  He seems to have understood what I was trying to say in the novel."  Handwritten and signed letter, 1s.

John Davenport.  4 Feb 1965.  "I have stolen away from school to creep into my own room, swallow a welcome whiskey, and write to you."  Handwritten and signed letter, 2s.

John Davenport.  23 Feb 1965.  "When I wrote Look, Stranger I had never read a TF [Theodore Francis] Powys at all."  Handwritten and signed letter, 1s with hand drawn map on verso.

John Davenport.  17 Mar [1965].  "Yes, Cape at last did their duty, and advertised the book both in the Observer and in the Times...."  Typed and signed letter, 1s.

John Davenport.  2 Apr 1965.  "Will you come here Monday?”  Handwritten and signed postcard.

John Davenport.  6 Apr [1965].  "I’m so sorry you weren’t able to come, though I should have been a poor companion, for I was horribly tired, and melancholic on Monday night."  Typed and signed letter, 1s.

John Davenport.  12 Apr 1965.  "I have never got away after all, as my partner has been ill.   I've been typing out old diaries---selections from them that is, so that I can destroy the rest and I keep coming on all the working notes I made for Look, Stranger."  Typed letter continues as handwritten and signed letter, 2s.

John Davenport.  21 Apr [1965].  "I got back from Somerset today.  All right, I will barge in on Hetta Empson some time, though God knows when.  But as for writing, I feel I’ll never write another book."  Typed and signed letter, 1s.

John Davenport.  2 Dec 1965.  "How are you?  It seems a long time since I saw you or heard anything of you.  Have you now embarked on the seas of marriage again?”  Typed and signed letter, 1s.

John Davenport.  7 Jul 1960.  "I was sorry that I never got a chance to say more than hello to you at the Chatto & Windus fray.  You once asked Edita to submit something for Vogue."  Typed and signed letter, 1s.

John Davenport.  8 Aug 1960.  "No doubt you have not yet reached a decision about Edita’s short story that I sent you."  Typed and signed letter, 1s.

John Davenport.  5 Jan 1961.  "I write you again about the short story of Edita’s entitled The Pagan which I sent you many months ago."  Typed and signed letter, 1s.

John Davenport.  Undated.  Calling card with autograph note.

Murdoch, Iris

John Davenport.  17 Jan 1961.  "I hope you will believe me if I say that there is no one whose pat on the back I was more delighted to have than yours, over that Ludo Kennedy correspondence."  Handwritten and signed letter, 2s.

John Davenport.  17 Feb 1961.  "I said I’d let you know whether I’d be in London next Tuesday, when you’ll be up for Audrey W---‘s party."  Handwritten and signed letter, 2s.

John Davenport.  10 Mar 1961.  "It was very nice to hear you last night.  Just afterwards I got through to Peter and found they’d had a daughter."  Handwritten and signed letter, 3s.

John Davenport.  12 Mar 1961.  "Something awful has happened, at least it makes me feel awful because it means I cannot manage our lunch on Tuesday."  Handwritten and signed letter, 2s.

John Davenport.  9 Sept 1962.  "Really I’ve had a feeling lately that you are the one and only person who ever reads me in that column."  Handwritten and signed letter, 2s.

John Davenport.  18 May 1962.  "I have been trying to think of a way of telling you how proud and touched and grateful I was for you wonderful letter in the Spectator."  Handwritten and signed letter, 1s.

John Davenport.  24 Mar 1965.  "I can’t tell you how ashamed I am, when I think what a long time ago the film Lord Jim was, not to have thanked you before this for your very charming, kind letter."  Handwritten and signed letter, 3s.

John Davenport.  7 May 1965.  "I think you have admired Bassani’s earlier books and thought you might like to have the latest one to be translated.”  Handwritten and signed letter, 1s.

John Davenport.  17 Jun 1965.  "I have felt so discourteous, not answering your splendid letters, particularly the last one about Bassani."  Handwritten and signed letter, 2s.

John Davenport.  16 Feb 1966.  "It was so nice to have your letter after Christmas, and I very much hope go well with you now."  Handwritten and signed letter, 1s.

John Davenport.  30 Mar 1966.  "It is very nice the way you actually read books - and comment on them!  I’m afraid the Sunday Times agreed with you about San [Sibrano], the cork-oaks and humans."  Handwritten and signed letter, 2s.

John Davenport.  5 May 1966.  "I wanted to thank you very much for your charming letter and to say, especially that I didn’t mean to tell you about Italian ‘preciousness’ and so on."  Handwritten and signed letter, 4s.

John Davenport.  23 May 1966.  "I think you will think me more than ever ungracious for taking so long to answer the letter your wrote just after your hundred and eighth birthday, with its generous, marvelous post script about your review, so long ago, of my novel."  Handwritten and signed letter, 3s.

John Davenport.  Undated.  Christmas card.

John Davenport.  18 Mar 1954.  "Thank you very much and I will love to do the Defoe..."  Handwritten and signed letter, 1s.

John Davenport.  3 Apr.  "I’m only just back, to find your letter waiting, from old Demarary.  I’m afraid I shan’t be able to come and mull over Tabitha with you..."  Handwritten and signed letter, 1s.

Photocopy of Malcolm Lowry’s articles, short stories, and poems appearing in his school newspaper, The Leys Fortnightly (at Cambridge), with a photocopy of a typed and signed letter from J. Howard Woolmer, Bookseller to David Farmer, Head of Special Collections, McFarlin Library, 2 Jun 1980, 1s.  Titles include:

"The Blue Bonnet."

"The Cook in the Galley."

"Correspondence [to the Editor]."

"Der Tag."

"The Glory of the Sea."

[Hockey.]  3 sports reports.

"Homoepathic Blues."

"The Light That Failed Not."

"Macbeth."

"The Old Woman Who Buried Cats."

"The Rain Fell Heavily."

"The Rainy Night."

"The Repulsive Tragedy."

"Satan in A Barrel."

"Traveling Light."

[Poems.]  The majority of the following poems are typescripts with handwritten notes by [Marjerie Lowry] with a few poems excised from various sources.

"The Abacus."

"About Ice."

"Alas, there is not a still path...."

"And each of all the oppressed...."

"Bosun's Song."

"Cain shall not slay Abel...."

"Danish Sailor's Song."

"Death of A Oaxazueñian."

"Delirium in Vera Cruz."

"Deserter."

"Doggerel."  (See also "The Magic World")

"Draft Board."

"Eye-Opener."

"Fisherman's Return."

"Foul, or Twenty-Five!"

"Freighter 1940."

"Ghosts In New Houses."

"The Glaucous Winged Gull."

"Happiness."

"Harpies."

"The Illegal Heart."

"In Memorium: Ingvald Bjorndal and His Comrade."

"In Praise of an Understudy."

"Jokes Aloft."

"Jokes Amidships."

"Jokes On the Poop."

"Joseph Conrad."

"Kingfishers in British Columbia."

"Lament - June 1944."

"Lines On the Poet Being Informed That His Epic About the Philistines Etc.

Needed Cutting."

"The Magic World."

"Marina."

"Men With Coats Thrashing."

"Mill-wheel reflections of sun on water...."

"Mr. Lowry's Good Friday Under A Real Cactus."

"No Time To Stop and Think."

"Nocturne."

"Nocturne in Burrard Inlet."  (See "The Magic World")

"October Sunset."

"Old Freighter in an Old Port."

"A pilgrim passer through the town...."

"Plingen, plangen auf gefangen...."

"Poem to Be Placed at the Conclusion of a Long Obscure Passionate and Eloquent Book of Poems."

"Port Moody."

"Prayer for Drunks."

"A Quarrel."

"R. Usher."

"Reflection to Windward.

"Salmon Drowns Eagle."

"The sea...."

"The Search."

"Sestina in A Cantina."

"Ship."

"Song." [1]

"Song." [2]

"The stars have simple paradigns [sic]...."

"Stoker Tom's Ukulele."

"Sunrise."

"Tashtego Believed Red."  (See "The Magic World")

"There is no mail...."

"There is no poetry...."

"Those Were the Days."  (See "The Magic World")

"Walk In Canada."

"Warning From False Cape Horn."

"The Western Ocean."

"The Wild Cherry."

"Wind Blowing Through the Shack."

"Xocxitepec."

"-- You think you are a man...."

Selected Letters of Malcolm Lowry.  Edited by Harvey Breit and Marjerie Bonner Lowry.  Press cutting of review.

Handwritten preface (requested by Lippincott and Jonathan Cape for the 1962-1963 edition) with handwritten revisions and editor's marks, written by John Davenport, 10 May 1962, p1-17.

Typed fragment, a second version, with handwritten revisions, p9-12, 16.

Typed fragment, a third version, with handwritten revisions, p9-17.

Press cuttings of reviews.