Writing to the woman who would become his third wife, Hermann Hesse complained: “Life for me now holds almost no pleasures any more, in fact I am living in Hell.” The event that had reduced Hesse to this state of near-despair was that his wife-to-be Ninon Dolbin had moved some of his books without his permission. For him this was an intolerable disruption of the orderly existence he believed essential to a writer who had detached himself from the world. His independence required that he hold all of humankind, and even his closest companion, at a rigorously policed distance . Accordingly, although the two of them lived under the same roof, he communicated with Ninon mainly in writing. As his latest biographer, Gunnar Decker, relates: .........
Can you paraphrase the highlighted part please? The reason I am asking is that what I do not understand when it comes to translating this passage is how it says once orderliness was essential to a self-isolated writer like Hesse and immediately it says his independence required he hold of all humankind . How if he is detached he needs to hold of humankind? Eventually he needs to be alone or connected? And later when it says “ even his closest companion” why it says “even” ?