The Colossus of Maroussi
How Lawrence appears in its pages: The British poet and novelist who was living on Corfu and kept inviting Henry Miller to come. Miller went, and Durrell is his companion for much of the trip.
Read the character guide- Author
- Poet
Lawrence Durrell
The Alexandria Quartet's author — converted to writing by Tropic of Cancer at twenty-three, and Miller's correspondent and ally for forty-five years.
In images
Details
- 1912–1990
- 27 February 1912
- Jalandhar, India
- 7 November 1990
- Sommières, France
- British
- AuthorPoet
About Lawrence Durrell
Lawrence Durrell read Tropic of Cancer on Corfu at twenty-three, wrote its author a fan letter declaring it the book of the century for his generation, and got back a friendship that lasted forty-five years. He joined the Villa Seurat circle in 1937 — co-editing The Booster with Miller and Perlès — and went on to the fame the older man had predicted: the Alexandria Quartet, poetry, and the island books. The Durrell–Miller letters, published across the decades, are one of the great sustained literary correspondences of the century.
Featured in these books
The Diary of Anaïs Nin, 1934–1939
How Lawrence appears in its pages: A young British writer who came to Paris out of admiration for Henry Miller, made friends with Nin in an afternoon, and published her first book of fiction.
Read the character guidePeople they knew
Henry Miller
- Author
Met · 1937
It began with a 1935 fan letter about Tropic of Cancer and became a lifelong alliance — Durrell joined the Villa Seurat circle in person in 1937, and the correspondence ran forty-five years to Miller's death.
Alfred Perlès
- Author
- Journalist
Met · 1937
Co-editors of The Booster, the Villa Seurat circle's gleefully unserious magazine — the alliance of Miller's two lieutenants, Paris 1937.
George Katsimbalis
- Editor
- Critic
- Translator
Met
Durrell was living in Greece before Miller arrived and was in the party for much of the 1939 trip. It is his letter, printed whole, that Miller uses to close the book.
George Seferis
- Poet
- Translator
- Author
Met · 1939
They were in the same Athens circle in 1939, and the acquaintance became a working one: Durrell was among the translators of The King of Asine and Other Poems, published in London in 1948 and one of the first substantial selections of Seferis in English.
Sourced claims
Frequented · 1937–1939
18 Villa Seurat
Durrell arrived from Corfu in August 1937 to meet the man he'd been writing fan letters to — and stayed to co-found the circle's projects: The Booster, and the Villa Seurat Series that published his Black Book in 1938.
Met · 1937
Henry Miller
It began with a 1935 fan letter about Tropic of Cancer and became a lifelong alliance — Durrell joined the Villa Seurat circle in person in 1937, and the correspondence ran forty-five years to Miller's death.
Met · 1937
Alfred Perlès
Co-editors of The Booster, the Villa Seurat circle's gleefully unserious magazine — the alliance of Miller's two lieutenants, Paris 1937.
Met
George Katsimbalis
Durrell was living in Greece before Miller arrived and was in the party for much of the 1939 trip. It is his letter, printed whole, that Miller uses to close the book.
Met · 1939
George Seferis
They were in the same Athens circle in 1939, and the acquaintance became a working one: Durrell was among the translators of The King of Asine and Other Poems, published in London in 1948 and one of the first substantial selections of Seferis in English.