Profession: writer

Huxley very briefly taught him at school. He met Dos Passos in civil-war Spain. Eliot (who later rejected ‘Animal Farm’ for publication) was a colleague at the BBC during WWll, as were Empson and Anand. Forster (as an invited speaker) enjoyed working with Orwell; Anand and Koestler were friends; Empson recalled him affectionately, though found Orwell’s smell (perhaps related to his tuberculosis) hard to bear. Powell and Spender were regular hospital visitors during Orwell’s final weeks. The apolitical Miller gave Orwell, off to fight fascism in Spain, his warm corduroy jacket: his contribution (he said) to the cause.

Hausmann and Jung started an anarchist magazine in Berlin, and enjoyed what Richter described as a “remarkable friendship, cold-blooded and macabre.” As co-editor of ‘Club Dada’, Jung got to know the brothers Herzfelde and Heartfield, Höch and Huelsenbeck; Huelsenbeck described him as “slightly sinister” and recounted a drink-and-cocaine fuelled night in Berlin. He worked with Grosz, Herzfelde and Heartfield on ‘Die Neue Jugend’, the first Berlin Dada publication. Grosz and Jung subsequently contributed jointly to the periodical ‘Jedermann sein eigener Fussball.’ Piscator was another collaborator. Unfortunately no good online biography in English could be found.

Harris was the first ‘real’ writer that Miller met. Wells and Shaw both wrote journalism for him, Wells (so the unreliable Harris said) calling him his ‘literary godfather.’ Harris wrote biographies of his Irish-born friends Shaw and Wilde, though the latter was unpublishable during Wilde’s lifetime (Wilde also forgot to mention that the dramatic plot he’d given him, he’d also sold to others). Ruskin reputedly described Turner’s erotic paintings to him, which he claimed to have burned. Maupassant and Sinclair were correspondents, while Thurber was given an unsettling recipe for becoming a centenarian.

Anderson suggested he go to Paris and introduced him to Stein, who helped him out. Pound, like Stein a strong influence, was part of the Paris expatriate scene, as were Lewis and MacLeish. Fitzgerald drank with him there, his wife accusing them of having an affair. Miró met him at a gym where both boxed. Dos Passos had been a great friend until they fell out bitterly in civil-war Spain (where Buñuel got him and Ivens papers to film). Gellhorn was one of his wives. Joyce used to drink with Hemingway, provoking altercations then hiding behind him. Baker danced with him all night, wearing only a fur coat.

Éluard, Char and Jacob were Jabès’ earliest literary friendships, Jacob writing for five years — a deep correspondence — and becoming a close friend (Jabès thought of Jacob as his guide). He invited Derrida and Celan, another close friend, to lunch together (the two were university colleagues who had never really met). Tàpies collaborated on a book, while Auster interviewed him, apparently awestruck. Blanchot and he both lived in Paris and were in the habit of writing to one another, but they almost certainly never met.

Nin, Miller and Barker wrote pornography for quick money. She had a passionate affair with Miller, the two joining with Durrell to attempt to publish their own work, Miller however hijacking her printing press. Durrell and more improbably her friends Artaud and Vidal were among her listed lovers (Nin the diarist was a great blurrer of the truth, and separation of fact and fiction in her life is an ongoing issue: her relations with Miller’s wife are notably uncertain). She underwent therapy with Rank, who passed patients on to her and was another lover, and appeared in films by her friends Anger and Deren.

He visited Maeterlinck in Ghent, became a regular at Mallarmé’s, and dedicated an early book to Valéry. He met Wilde in Algiers, and went to Berlin with Denis. Rilke, Proust, Jammes and Claudel (a colleague in publishing) were noted correspondents. Klossowski (Rilke’s ward) provided him with erotic stories and became his secretary. Sartre admired his clarity, Milhaud was strongly influenced by him. Capote and Cocteau both came across the aged Gide in Sicily: he told Cocteau he was spoiling the view. Shortly after his death Green received a telegram saying “There is no hell. You can dissipate yourself. Alert Claudel.”