Durrell, Lawrence. ZERO And ASYLUM IN THE SNOW

Rhodes: Privately Printed, 1946. First edition. 8vo. The first of these surrealistic musings was dedicated to Henry Miller, the second to Anais Nin. This is the dedication copy, inscribed on the title page by the author: "For Henry Miller -- on the Great Catafalque of Reality Prune! Law. Durrell." The Miller / Durrell 35-year literary and personal friendship was amply documented in the 1988 volume of their correspondence.

In 1935 a young Durrell sends an adulatory letter to Miller, 20 years his senior, in which he extols Miller's groundbreaking novel, "Tropic of Cancer," which had been published in the previous year. Two years later they launch an audacious expatriate magazine, "The Booster," with Anais Nin. "Zero" was one of a number of privately printed publications that Durrell issued, all of which were done in small numbers and are rare today.

This copy was bound in full morocco with the wrappers bound in by Edmond Bomsel who was a collector in Versailles and an intimate of Surrealists, including Andre Breton and Giacometti. With Bomsel's bookplate affixed opposite the title page along with Henry Miller's own bookplate which he has signed. A monumental association copy. Fine and housed in a custom slipcase. Provenance: The Bart Auerbach Collection of dedication copies. Pictorial wrappers.