Editing Under the Volcano (section)

==Genesis and publication history==
Lowry had already published one novel, [[Ultramarine (novel)|''Ultramarine'']] (1933), by the time he was working on ''Under the Volcano'', and in 1936 wrote a short story called "Under the Volcano" containing the kernel of the future novel.<ref>Spender vii–viii.</ref> That story was not published until the 1960s; passages of it are found also in the account of Sigbjorn Wilderness, found in ''Dark as the Grave Wherein my Friend Is Laid'', edited by [[Margerie Bonner]] (Lowry's second wife) and published in 1968. It contains what [[Conrad Aiken]] would later call "the horse theme," so important in ''Under the Volcano''. The story includes the horse branded with the number seven, the dying Indian encountered while on a bus trip, the ''pelado'' who steals the Indian's money to pay his bus fare, and the inability of the spectator (Wilderness in the short story, the Consul in the novel) to act. All this ended up in the novel's eighth chapter.<ref>Costa 6–7.</ref>

The first version of the novel was developed while Lowry lived in Mexico, frequently drunk and out of control while his first marriage was breaking up.<ref>Costa 6.</ref> In 1940, Lowry hired an agent, Harold Matson, to find a publisher for the manuscript but found nothing but rejection—this manuscript is referred to by scholars as the 1940 version, and differs in details of various significance from the published version. Between 1940 and 1944, Lowry revised the novel (with significant editorial assistance from Margerie Bonner), a process which occupied him completely: during those years Lowry, who had been wont to work on many projects at the same time, worked on nothing but the manuscript,<ref>Asals 1–3.</ref> a process documented exhaustively by Frederick Asals. One of the most significant changes involved Yvonne's character: In earlier versions she was the Consul's daughter, but, by 1940, she was his unfaithful wife. In that version (and a 1941 revision), chapter 11 ended with her and Hugh making love.<ref>Asals 81.</ref>

In 1944, the manuscript was nearly lost in a fire at the Lowrys' cabin in [[Dollarton, North Vancouver|Dollarton]], British Columbia. Margerie Bonner rescued the unfinished novel, but all of Lowry's other works in progress were lost in the blaze.<ref>Lowry, "Introductory Note" 6; Lucy and McHoul 6.</ref> The burned manuscript was called ''In Ballast to the White Sea,'' and would have been the third book in a trilogy made up of ''Under the Volcano,'' an expanded version of ''Lunar Caustic'', and ''In Ballast.'' Like [[Dante Alighieri|Dante]]'s ''[[Divine Comedy]],'' these were to be infernal, purgatorial, and paradisal, respectively.<ref>Breit and Lowry (eds.), ''Selected Letters'' 63.</ref> Asals notes that the important 1944 revision evidences Lowry and Bonner paying extraordinary attention to references to fire in the novel, especially in Yvonne's dream before her death.<ref>Asals 286.</ref>

The novel was finished in 1945 and immediately sent to different publishers. In late winter, while travelling in [[Mexico]], Lowry learned the novel had been accepted by two publishing companies: [[Reynal & Hitchcock]] in the United States and [[Jonathan Cape]] in the United Kingdom. Following critical reports from two readers, Cape had reservations about publishing and wrote to Lowry on 29 November 1945 asking him to make drastic revisions, though he added that if Lowry didn't make the revisions "it does not necessarily mean I would say no".<ref>Breit and Lowry (eds.), ''Selected Letters'' 424–25.</ref> Lowry's lengthy reply, dated 2 January 1946, was a passionate defence of the book in which he sensed he had created a work of lasting greatness: "Whether it sells or not seems to me either way a risk. But there is something about the destiny of the creation of the book that seems to tell me it just might go ''on'' selling a very long time." The letter includes a detailed summary of the book's key themes and how the author intended each of the 12 chapters to work;<ref>Breit and Lowry (eds.), ''Selected Letters'' 57–88.</ref> in the end, Cape published the novel without further revision.

''Under the Volcano'' and ''Ultramarine'' were both out of print by the time Lowry died of alcoholism (and possibly sleeping pills) in 1957,<ref>Cross 218.</ref> but the novel has since made a comeback. In 1998, it was rated as number 11 on the list of the [[Modern Library List of Best 20th-Century Novels|100 best novels of the 20th century]] compiled by the [[Modern Library]]. ''[[Time (magazine)|TIME]]'' included the novel in its list of "100 best English-language novels from 1923 to the present," calling it a "vertiginous picture of self-destruction, seen through the eyes of a man still lucid enough to report to us all the harrowing particulars."<ref>Lacayo.</ref>