SOURCE: Wood, Barry. “Malcolm Lowry's Metafiction: The Biography of a Genre.” Contemporary Literature 19, no. 1 (winter 1978): 1-25.

In the following essay, Wood contends that Lowry's short story “Ghostkeeper” reveals insights into his creative process and acts as a model for his later work.

The 1973 publication of “Ghostkeeper” in American Review made available one of the most tantalizing of Malcolm Lowry's later stories. Most commentators who have mentioned it note that it exists only in a first draft with inserted notes for revision; and Margerie Lowry includes an apologetic footnote to this effect in her Psalms and Songs version (1975).¹ Yet this story, with its hesitations, variants for the next draft, Lowry's inserted notes, and apparent confusions and philosophical speculations, offers revealing glimpses into Lowry's creative processes. Moreover, while “Ghostkeeper” seems incomplete as a story by Malcolm Lowry, it functions as a complete story about a writer called Tom Goodheart who...