Dylan Thomas Circle
on Malcolm Lowry's Trail
By EIFION WILLIAMS
VANCOUVER - The Vancouver Dylan Thomas Circle held its Annual Outing on July 29 with a visit to North Vancouver's Cates Park, home in the 1940s and 1950s to famous novelist Malcolm Lowry.
Lowry and Dylan Thomas were contemporaries and friends. Their last meeting occurred in the Hotel Vancouver during the latter's visit to Vancouver in 1950. Lowry and his wife Margerie Bonner were living at the time in a squatter's shack at Dollarton on Burrard Inlet, now part of Cates Park. It was there that he wrote most of Under the Volcano, probably the most famous book ever written in British Columbia.
On a beautiful west coast summer's day Circle participants were treated to an entertaining and instructive afternoon commemorating two of the Twentieth Century's most prominent literary figures. After a lunch gathering at North Vancouver's Marinaside Grill, the group met at the Cates Park covered picnic area and were welcomed by past-president Don Thomas and Richard Mells, the Dylan Thomas Circle's vice-president.
Outing organizer Neville Thomas introduced Albert Cox, who provided members with a brief history of the shoreline shacks and the community of squatters who occupied them. Lowry first occupied what he called his "beloved little hermitage," without plumbing or electricity, in 1940.
Dylan Thomas Circle member and former Langara English instructor Ted Langley then gave a brief account of the life and works of Malcolm Lowry, from his early life in England, through his travels in Europe and North America, culminating in his arrival in British Columbia in 1940. Lowry came to British Columbia from Mexico, which provided the setting for Under the Volcano.
Ted Langley described Lowry's alcoholism, his self-tortured literary life and his observations on British Columbia. Lowry despised Vancouver, which he referred to as Enochville, meaning "city of the son of Cain." He especially hated the city's liquor laws, which in those days required its dark, cavernous beer parlours to be divided into Men Only and Ladies and Escorts. On the other hand, he referred to the site of the squatter's shacks on Burrard Inlet as Eridanus, the river in Virgil's Aenid which waters the Elysian Fields of the Earthly Paradise.
According to Ted Langley, local literary figures periodically occupied neighbouring shacks, including poets Earle Birney and Dorothy Livesay, both of whom came to know Lowry well. Under the Volcano is not an easy book to read and Langley suggested that readers might find a better introduction to Lowry by reading his Vancouver-related collection of short stories, Hear Us O Lord from Heaven Thy Dwelling Place, for which Lowry received a posthumous Governor-General's Award.
The group was then led on a guided tour by well-known North Vancouver author and newspaper columnist Trevor Carolan, who has long been involved in preserving Lowry's heritage and connection with North Vancouver, both as a district councillor and a college English teacher. (He is shortly to take up a position as Director of Literary Studies at the Banff College of Fine Arts.)
After providing a brief history of Cates Park, Carolan led the group along the Lowry Trail to the marker plaque which has been placed near the site of Lowry's shack. At one point along the trail, the group congregated at a rocky waterfront site and was entertained by a reading of Dylan Thomas's The Outing by award-winning actor Damon Calderwood.
Calderwood recently played the lead role in the play Dylan, directed by Richard Mells, at North Vancouver's Presentation House Theatre. The excellent reading, together with the location, resonated with an audience very much aware of Dylan's love of words and the sea.
For many participants the afternoon ended with a visit to Deep Cove and a gathering at the Raven Pub for a meal, liquid refreshment and some Dylan Thomas poetry readings. Circle members also expressed their appreciation to Neville Thomas for organizing one of the Circle's most memorable Outings.
Anyone interested in joining the Vancouver Dylan Thomas Circle, should contact Heather Davies at (604) 734-5500.
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