Editing Malcolm Lowry (section)

===Early years in England===
Lowry was born in [[New Brighton, Merseyside|New Brighton]], [[Wirral Peninsula|Wirral]],<ref name="Washington Post">{{cite news|url=https://archive.org/details/pursuedbyfuriesl00bowk|title=Pursued by Furies: A Life of Malcolm Lowry|last=Bowker|first=Gordon|year=1995|work=Book|publisher=St Martin's Press|location=London|isbn=978-0-312-12748-0|access-date=24 May 2014|url-access=registration}}</ref> the fourth son of Evelyn Boden and Arthur Lowry, a cotton broker with roots in [[Cumberland]]. In 1912, the family moved to [[Caldy]], on another part of the [[Wirral peninsula]]. Their home was a [[mock Tudor]] estate on two acres with a tennis court, small golf course and a maid, a cook and a nanny.<ref name="Washington Post" /><ref name="NFB"/> Lowry was said to have felt neglected by his mother, and was closest to his brother.<ref name="NFB"/> He began drinking alcohol at the age of 14.<ref name="NFB">{{cite news|url=http://www.nfb.ca/film/volcano|title=Volcano: An Inquiry into the Life and Death of Malcolm Lowry |year=1976|work=Documentary film|publisher=National Film Board of Canada|access-date=31 March 2009}}</ref>

In his teens Lowry was a boarder at [[The Leys School]] in Cambridge,<ref name=Dict.>''A Dictionary of Twentieth Century World Biography.'' United Kingdom: [[Book Club Associates]], 1992, p. 351.</ref> the school made famous by the novel ''[[Goodbye, Mr. Chips]]''. At age 15, he won the junior golf championship at the [[Royal Liverpool Golf Club, Hoylake]].  His father expected him to go to Cambridge and enter the family business, but Malcolm wanted to experience the world and convinced his father to let him work as a deckhand on a tramp steamer to the Far East.  In May 1927, his parents drove him to the [[Liverpool]] waterfront and, while the local press watched, waved goodbye as he set sail on the freighter S.S. ''Pyrrhus''.<ref name="NFB"/> The five months at sea gave him stories to incorporate into his first novel, ''[[Ultramarine (novel)|Ultramarine]]''.

After returning to Britain Lowry enrolled at [[St Catharine's College, Cambridge]], in autumn 1929, in an attempt to placate his parents. He spent little time at the university,<ref name="NFB"/> however, and his penchant for drink was already apparent; [[Hugh Sykes Davies]], one of Lowry's academic supervisors and later a friend, found that the only place in which it was possible to teach him was in a pub.<ref>T. E. B. Howarth, ''Cambridge Between Two Wars'' (London: Collins, 1978), p. 73. {{ISBN|0002111810}}</ref> Nonetheless, he excelled in writing, graduating in 1932 with a [[British undergraduate degree classification#Degree classification|third-class honours degree]] in English upon submitting several extracts of his first draft of ''Ultramarine'' for examination.<ref>Bowker, Gordon, [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/34610 "Lowry, (Clarence) Malcolm (1909–1957)"], ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004; online edition, May 2007. Retrieved 4 April 2023. {{subscription required}}</ref>  During his first term, his roommate, Paul Fitte, killed himself. Fitte had wanted a homosexual relationship, which Lowry refused.  Lowry felt responsible for his death and was haunted by it for the rest of his life.<ref name="NFB"/> Lowry was already well travelled; besides his sailing experience, between terms he made visits to America, to befriend his literary idol, [[Conrad Aiken]],<ref>[https://archive.org/details/malcolmlowrysvol00mark <!-- quote=malcolm lowry volcano markson. --> David Markson's ''Malcolm Lowry's Volcano: Myth, Symbol, Meaning''] quote=A case in point involved Aiken, who had filled an ''in loco parentis'' role for [Lowry] in his youth... (Pg. 224).</ref> and to Norway and Germany.

After Cambridge, Lowry lived briefly in London, existing on the fringes of the vibrant [[Auden Group|Thirties literary scene]] and meeting [[Dylan Thomas]]. He met his first wife, Jan Gabrial, in Spain.  They were married in France in 1934. Theirs was a turbulent union, especially due to his drinking, and because she resented homosexuals attracted to her husband.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}