The Amazing and Invariable Beauford Delaney
Another artist portrait built from friendship.
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Order and Chaos Chez Hans Reichel
by Henry Miller
A richly made tribute to the painter Hans Reichel, where friendship, abstraction, order, and improvisation converge.
- 1966
- Atmospheric
- Elegiac
- lyrical
- intimate
- autobiographical
About Henry Miller
The story, briefly
Spoiler-freeOrder and Chaos Chez Hans Reichel is Henry Miller’s tribute to the German painter Hans Reichel, a friend from his Paris years. Loujon Press issued the essay in Tucson in 1966 as an elaborate illustrated limited edition, with an introduction by Lawrence Durrell and multiple signed states. Miller reads Reichel’s small, luminous abstractions as evidence that disciplined order and creative chaos can occupy the same field.
The story, in more detail
Miller remembers Reichel as both person and maker, connecting the intimacy of the studio to the metaphysical reach of the paintings.
The book’s lavish construction is part of its argument. Loujon’s typography, papers, reproductions, and signed variants turn a critical remembrance into an artist book in its own right.
Themes and analysis
A book first addressed to one friend
Order and Chaos Chez Hans Reichel began as a manuscript written and illustrated for the painter Hans Reichel in 1937–1938. Reichel was part of Miller’s Paris artistic circle. The address to a particular friend gives the work a more intimate starting point than a public treatise explaining art to an anonymous audience.
The mixture of writing and drawing is integral to that address. Miller does not appear only as a novelist borrowing a painter’s reputation: he is also making a visual object for someone with whom artistic practice is a shared concern.
Manuscript, facsimile, and added material
UCLA’s Miller papers preserve evidence of the original work and the later publication process. The finding aid identifies a typescript containing the original text, a postscript, and a French section. It also records the photocopy of the manuscript used for the Loujon edition.
This matters because the published book has more than one historical layer. Its Paris origin belongs to the 1930s; its elaborate small-press presentation and Lawrence Durrell’s introduction belong to the 1960s. Durrell is a contributor to that later framing, not the recipient of Miller’s original manuscript.
Loujon’s interpretation of the manuscript
Loujon Press published the book in Tucson in 1966. Its material design makes the distinction between manuscript and ordinary typeset text unusually visible. Reproductions of handwriting and drawings preserve aspects of the gift that a plain transcription would lose.
The publication can therefore be approached both as a record of friendship and as an example of ambitious independent bookmaking. Its title should not be reduced to a promise of a systematic philosophical argument. The object itself puts different forms of expression together: private address, image, retrospective additions, and an introduction by another writer.
Why we recommend it
Friendship as criticism
Miller’s knowledge of Reichel’s life gives the paintings emotional and philosophical context.
A Loujon landmark
The press made the tribute one of Miller’s most distinctive physical books.
What this book explores
The people in its pages
Hans Reichel
The German painter and Paris friend whose intimate abstractions are the book’s subject.
Timeline
1930s
Miller and Reichel know one another in Paris.
1966
Loujon Press publishes the illustrated tribute in Tucson.
Book editions
Hardcover
- Hardcover
- Loujon Press
- 1966
Reader reviews
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Order and Chaos Chez Hans Reichel: frequently asked questions
Who was Hans Reichel?
A German painter associated with modern abstraction and a friend of Miller’s in Paris.
Who introduced the book?
Lawrence Durrell contributed the introduction.
Why is the edition notable?
Loujon Press produced it as an elaborate illustrated limited book in several signed states.
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References
References
The sources below include the primary text, editions, scholarship, archival materials, and other records that informed this page. They document Order and Chaos Chez Hans Reichel, its publication, and its place in literary history.
1Order and Chaos Chez Hans Reichel
EssaysHenry Miller, 1966Used forThe primary text represented by this page, used for descriptions of the work’s contents and for any quoted passages shown here.
2Finding Aid for the Henry Miller Manuscripts, 1896–1980
ArchiveUCLA Library Special CollectionsUsed forArchival evidence used to document the historical record connected to Order and Chaos Chez Hans Reichel.
3Order and Chaos Chez Hans Reichel — printed-book record
Official recordThe Morgan Library & MuseumUsed forOfficial record used to verify names, dates, institutional details, or other factual information on this page.
4The Happiest Man Alive: A Biography of Henry Miller
BiographySimon & Schuster, 1991Used forBiographical evidence used to verify chronology, relationships, and historical context connected to Order and Chaos Chez Hans Reichel.
5Henry Miller: A Life
BiographyW. W. Norton, 1991Used forBiographical evidence used to verify chronology, relationships, and historical context connected to Order and Chaos Chez Hans Reichel.
6Henry Miller: An Inventory of His Collection
ArchiveHarry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at AustinUsed forArchival evidence used to document the historical record connected to Order and Chaos Chez Hans Reichel.
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Why these sources are here
The primary text is the baseline reference for every book page. Additional references document publication history, interpretation, and historical context where that evidence is available.
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