Alfred Perles

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Alfred Perlès (1897 - 1990) was an Austrian-British writer, who was most famous for his associations with Henry Miller, Lawrence Durrell, and Anaïs Nin.

Born in Vienna in 1897, to Czech parents, Perles struggled as a writer in Paris during his early 30's, where he worked for a while for the Paris office of the Chicago Tribune. In 1933, American writer Henry Miller -- not yet known--took an apartment with Perles in Clichy. Miller wrote of this experience in his book Quiet Days In Clichy (1956, orig. written 1940), in which the character "Carl" is based on Perles. Other Miller works about Perles in Paris include his early What Are You Going To Do About Alf?, and a letter to Perles in Aller Retour New York.

By 1936, Perles was part of a vibrant Parisian literary scene that included Miller, Lawrence Durrell, and Anais Nin, as well as Antonin Artaud, Michael Fraenkel, Hans Reichel and others. Miller and Durrell often referred to Perles as "Joe" or "Joey". Some of these writers were featured in a magazine called The Booster, which Perles published in 1936, along with Miller. In 1939, the group broke apart, as Miller moved on to Greece and Perles to England (where he later became a British citizen). A few years later, Perles wrote a piece about this circle in Henry Miller at Villa Seurat (featured in The Happy Rock anthology, 1945).

Perles and Miller maintained a lifelong friendship. Miller visited Perles in the UK and Perles visited Miller in Big Sur, California, where he wrote My Friend Henry Miller (written in 1954/55). Miller wrote a tribute to Perles in the memoir Joey.

Perles changed his name to Alfred Barret later in life. He died in 1990.