The Unknown Henry Miller: A Seeker in Big SurHenry Miller was one of the most distinctive voices in twentieth-century literature, yet he remains misunderstood. Better known in Europe than in his native America for most of his career, he achieved international success and celebrity during the 1960s when his banned “Paris” books—beginning with Tropic of Cancer—were published here and judged by the Supreme Court not to be obscene. The Unknown Henry Miller recounts Miller’s career from its beginnings in Paris in the 1930s but focuses on his years living in Big Sur, California, from 1944 to 1961, during which he wrote many of his most important books, including The Rosy Crucifixion trilogy, married and divorced twice, raised two children, painted watercolors, and tried to live out a credo of self-realization. Written with the cooperation of the Henry Miller and Anaïs Nin estates, The Unknown Henry Miller draws on material previously unavailable to biographers, including interviews with Lepska Warren, Miller’s third wife. Behind the “bad boy” image, Arthur Hoyle finds a man whose challenge of literary sexual taboos was part of a broader assault on the dehumanization of man and commercialization during the postwar years, and he makes the case for restoring this groundbreaking writer to his rightful place in the American literary canon. Skyhorse Publishing, along with our Arcade, Good Books, Sports Publishing, and Yucca imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs. Our list includes biographies on well-known historical figures like Benjamin Franklin, Nelson Mandela, and Alexander Graham Bell, as well as villains from history, such as Heinrich Himmler, John Wayne Gacy, and O. J. Simpson. We have also published survivor stories of World War II, memoirs about overcoming adversity, first-hand tales of adventure, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home. |
Contents
Foreword by James M Decker Introduction | |
The Paris Years | |
Interlude in Greece | |
Adrift in America | |
Settling in Big | |
A Writer in Big | |
Marriage and Family | |
A Year of Crisis | |
The Rosy Crucifixion | |
Europe Beckons | |
Celebrity | |
Acknowledgments | |
Farewell to Big | |
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Air-Conditioned Nightmare Alfred Perlès American Anaïs Nin Angeles artist astrology banned books Barbara Bern Porter Big Sur Birge Black Spring Brooklyn Cendrars censorship Charles Charles E Colossus of Maroussi copies diary Dibbern Directions Publishing Directions Publishing Corp edition Emil Schnellock Emil White essay Europe feel Fraenkel France French friends Gertz Girodias Grove Press Henry Miller Collection Henry Tony Miller Hoffman James Laughlin Jane Howell June Lawrence Durrell Leite Letters to Anaïs letters to Emil literary living Los Angeles Miller wrote Mona Moricand mother never Nexus novel obscenity Paris Partington Ridge Rattner readers relationship Renate Reprinted by permission Rimbaud Rosy Crucifixion royalties sexual Sexus Southern Illinois University Special Collections Department Stuhlmann Tropic of Cancer Tropic of Capricorn University of California University University Valentine Lepska Miller Wallace Fowlie watercolors Whitman wife writing wrote Miller York Young Research Library