The Durrell-Miller Letters 1935-1980

It is well-known that Lawrence Durrell and Henry Miller became friends after Durrell wrote a letter to Miller in Paris, praising the latter's 'Tropic of Cancer' when it was still banned both in Britain and the United States. What devolved from this sincere letter of praise is shown in this volume, a successor to the 'Durrell-Miller Letters' of thirty years ago. Of necessity more complete than its predecessor, the 'Durrell-Miller Letters: 1935-80' tells a story in its own right of the lives of two great friends, who met over a book and stayed the course for the next forty-five years.In these pages we find Durrell, always in exile no matter where he has chosen to settle, be it England, Corfu, Cyprus, Argentinia, Yugoslavia, Egypt or France, writing to Miller, an American first abroad in Paris then returned to the United States, to New York and eventually to Big Sur, where he was to live for most of the rest of his life. Over the course of the letters a remarkable friendship blossomed, one which withstood the tests of distance and age with remarkable fortitude, and which only death eventually ended. The letters are often exuberant, coarse, and amusing; they chronicle the developing literary and personal fortunes of two remarkable men: one the author of some of the most controversial books of the twentieth century, the other author of the much-praised Alexandria Quartet, as well as countless volumes of poetry, drama, and travel writing.Introduced and annotated by Ian MacNiven, Durrell's official biographer, and completed two years before Durrell's death in 1990, this volume is a marvellous addition to the library of any reader of either Durrell or Miller, or anyone who appreciates seeing at first hand the inner workings of rare and unique minds.