"I have lived only nineteen years and all of them more or less badly," wrote a young Malcom Lowry to Conrad Aiken, twenty years his senior. Further correspondence cemented a fast friendship (and rivalry) between the two; Aiken later acted in loco parentis for Lowry, whose early (and self-confessedly "parasitic") novel Ultramarine was heavily influenced by, and named in parody of, Aiken's Blue Voyage. For his part, Aiken had suggested the novel be titled Purple Passage.

Above: Conrad Aiken. Photo: Brown Brothers.

Aiken referred to Under the Volcano as Poppagetsthebotl, alluding to both the volcano Popacatapetl and the constant theme of alcohol. (Lowry, Letters from Lowry, p. 45).

"'...my-little-Oedipusspusspuss,' and the cat, recognizing a friend and uttering a cry of pleasure, wound through the fence and rubbed against the Consul's legs, purring." – UTV, 138.

Lowry's cat puns ("Priapusspuss"; "Oedipusspusspuss") are a tribute to Aiken, who liked both cats and puns – Aiken's cat, for example, was named Oedipus Simplex.

'poor old Oedipuss died the very day you left apparently, he'd already been thrown down the barranca...' – UTV, 93.

The fate of poor Oedipuss (Geoffrey has already been identified with the cat's Greek namesake) anticipates that of the Consul.

Above: Aiken and Lowry in the Alhambra gardens, 1933.