Lawrence Durrell

Lawrence Durrell (February 27, 1912 – November 7,1990) was a British novelist, poet, dramatist, and travel writer, though he resisted affiliation with Britain and preferred to be considered cosmopolitan. He was born in India and, at the age of eleven, was sent to attend school in England – a country in which he was never happy and which he left as soon as possible.

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His first novel, Pied Piper of Lovers, was published in 1935. In that year Durrell, his wife, siblings and mother moved to the Greek island of Corfu where they lived until 1941, when they had to leave the island due to WWII.

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Lawrence Durrell separated from his wife in 1942, and became peripatetic, living for some time in Egypt, Rhodes, Argentina, and Greece, and finally settling in the south of France. He was married four times in all.

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In August of 1937 he and his wife Nancy arrived at the Villa Seurat in Paris, on a sort of pilgrimage to meet an idol of his, Henry Miller (of Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn fame.) The two got on well as they had similar subjects at the time, Durrell's "The Black Book" abounded with "four letter words... grotesques,... its mood equally as apocalyptic" as "Tropic." Together with Anais Nin and Alfred Perles, Miller and Durrell "began a collaboration aimed at founding their own literary movement. Their projects included 'The Booster,' a country club house organ the Villa Seurat group appropriated for their own artistic...ends." (Dearborn, Mary V., The Happiest Man Alive: A Biography of Henry Miller. pp. 192 and picture insert captions.)

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His most famous work was The Alexandria Quartet, a tetralogy.

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His brother, Gerald Durrell, was a major British naturalist and wildlife conservationist.

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February 27: February 27 is the 58th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 307 days remaining, 308 in leap years....

1912: 1912 was a leap year starting on Monday....

November 7: November 7 is the 311th day of the year (312th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 54 days remaining....

Lawrence Durrell related Images and Photos (experimental)

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