Henry Miller Thread

Henry Miller
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Henry Valentine Miller (December 26, 1891 - June 7, 1980) was an American writer and, to a lesser extent, painter. He is known for breaking with existing literary forms and developing a new sort of "novel" that is a mixture of novel, autobiography, social criticism, philosophical reflection, surrealist free association, and mysticism, one that is distinctly always about and expressive of the real-life Henry Miller and yet is also an imaginative construct. His most characteristic works of this kind are Tropic of Cancer, Tropic of Capricorn, and Black Spring. He also wrote travel memoirs and essays of literary criticism and analysis.

He was played by Fred Ward in the 1990 movie Henry & June, and Rip Torn in the 1970 film adaptation of Tropic of Cancer.

Biography
Miller was born to tailor Heinrich Miller and Louise Marie Neiting, in Manhattan, New York City, of German Catholic heritage. As a child he lived at 662 Driggs Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. As a young man, he tried a variety of jobs and briefly attended the City College of New York. In both 1928 and 1929, he spent several months in Paris with his second wife, June Edith Smith (June Miller). He moved to Paris the next year unaccompanied, where he lived until the outbreak of World War II. He lived an impecunious lifestyle that depended on the benevolence of friends, such as Anaïs Nin, who became his lover and financed the first printing of Tropic of Cancer in 1934.

In the fall of 1931, Miller got a job with the Chicago Tribune (Paris edition) as a proofreader, thanks to his friend Alfred Perlès who worked there. Miller took the opportunity to submit some of his articles under Perlès name, since only the editorial staff were permitted to publish in the paper in 1934.

A small number of his works contain detailed accounts of sexual experiences, and his books did much to free the discussion of sexual subjects in American writing from both legal and social restrictions. He continued to write novels that were banned in the United States on grounds of obscenity. Along with Tropic of Cancer, his Black Spring (1936), and Tropic of Capricorn (1939), were smuggled into his native country, building Miller an underground reputation. One of the first acknowledgements of Henry Miller as a major modern writer was by George Orwell in his essay Inside the Whale [1], where he wrote in 1940, "Here in my opinion is the only imaginative prose-writer of the slightest value who has appeared among the English-speaking races for some years past. Even if that is objected to as an overstatement, it will probably be admitted that Miller is a writer out of the ordinary, worth more than a single glance; and after all, he is a completely negative, unconstructive, amoral writer, a mere Jonah, a passive acceptor of evil, a sort of Whitman among the corpses."

In 1940, he returned to the United States settling in Big Sur, California. He continued to produce his vividly written works that challenged contemporary American cultural values and moral attitudes. He spent the last years of his life in Pacific Palisades.

The publication of Miller's Tropic of Cancer in the United States in 1961 led to a series of obscenity trials that tested American laws on pornography. The US Supreme Court, in Grove Press, Inc., v. Gerstein, citing Jacobellis v. Ohio (which was decided the same day in 1964), overruled the state court findings of obscenity and declared the book a work of literature; it was one of the notable events in what has come to be known as the sexual revolution. Elmer Gertz, the lawyer who successfully argued the initial case for the novel's publication in Illinois, became a lifelong friend of Miller's. Volumes of their correspondence have been published.

Miller was also a painter and wrote books about his painting. He was also an amateur pianist.

Miller died in Pacific Palisades, California. After his death, he was cremated and his ashes scattered off Big Sur where he had lived for some time. There are two museums holding Henry Miller's watercolors: The Henry Miller Museum of Art in Omachi City in Nagano, Japan and The Henry Miller Art Museum at Coast Gallery in Big Sur.

Miller's papers were donated to the UCLA Young Research Library Department of Special Collections.

Dan Bern wrote a song called Marilyn, where he hypothesizes that Marilyn Monroe would have been better off marrying Henry Miller, instead of Arthur Miller, because the sex life she would have had with Henry Miller would have been better for her self-esteem, and she might not have committed suicide.

[edit]
Works
Tropic of Cancer, Paris: Obelisk Press, 1934. ISBN 0802151825
What Are You Going to Do about Alf?, Paris: Printed at author's expense, 1935.
Aller Retour New York, Paris: Obelisk Press, 1935.
Black Spring, Paris: Obelisk Press, 1936. ISBN 0802131824
Max and the White Phagocytes, Paris: Obelisk Press, 1938.
Opus Pistorum, New York: Grove Press, 1938. ISBN 0394533747
Tropic of Capricorn, Paris: Obelisk Press, 1939. ISBN 0802151825
Henry Miller's Hamlet Letters, Vol. I, with Michael Fraenkel, Santurce, Puerto Rico: Carrefour, 1939. ISBN 0809540584
Vol. II, with Michael Fraenkel, New York: Carrefour, 1941.
Vol. I complete New York: Carrefour, 1943.
The Cosmological Eye, New York: New Directions, 1939. ISBN 0811201104
The World of Sex, Chicago: Ben Abramson, Argus Book Shop, 1940.
The Colossus of Maroussi, San Francisco: Colt Press, 1941. ISBN 0811201090
The Wisdom of the Heart, New York: New Directions, 1941. ISBN 0811201163
Sunday after the War, New York: New Directions, 1944.
Semblance of a Devoted Past, Berkeley, Calif.: Bern Porter, 1944.
The Plight of the Creative Artist in the United States of America, Houlton, Me.: Bern Porter, 1944.
Echolalia (book)|Echolalia, Berkeley, Calif.: Bern Porter, 1945.
Henry Miller Miscellanea, San Mateo, Calif.: Bern Porter, 1945.
Why Abstract?, with Hilaire Hiller and William Saroyan, New York: New Directions, 1945. ISBN 0838318371
The Air-Conditioned Nightmare, New York: New Directions, 1945. ISBN 0811201066
Maurizius Forever, San Francisco: Colt Press, 1946.
Remember to Remember, New York: New Directions, 1947. ISBN 0811203212
Into the Night Life, privately published 1947
The Smile at the Foot of the Ladder, New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1948.
Sexus (Book One of The Rosy Crucifixion), Paris: Obelisk Press, 1949. ISBN 0875291732
The Waters Reglitterized, San Jose, Calif.: John Kidis, 1950. ISBN 0912264713
The Books in My Life, New York: New Directions, 1952. ISBN 0811201082
Plexus (Book Two of The Rosy Crucifixion), Paris: Olympia Press, 1953. ISBN 0802151795
Quiet Days in Clichy, Paris: Olympia Press, 1956. ISBN 080213016X
The Time of the Assassins: A Study of Rimbaud, New York: New Directions, 1956. ISBN 0811201155
Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch, New York: New Directions, 1957. ISBN 0811201074
The Red Notebook, Highlands, N.C.: Jonathan Williams, 1958.
Reunion in Barcelona, Northwood, England: Scorpion Press, 1959.
Nexus (Book Three of The Rosy Crucifixion), Paris: Obelisk Press, 1960. ISBN 0802151787
To Paint Is to Love Again, Alhambra, Calif.: Cambria Books, 1960.
Watercolors, Drawings, and His Essay "The Angel Is My Watermark," Abrams, 1962.
Stand Still Like the Hummingbird, New York: New Directions, 1962. ISBN 0811203220
Just Wild about Harry, New York: New Directions, 1963. ISBN 0811207242
Greece (with drawings by Anne Poor), New York: Viking Press, 1964.

Henry Miller (1891-1980)

I believe that today more than ever a book should be sought after even if it has only one great page in it: we must search for fragments, splinters, toenails, anything that has ore in it, anything that is capable of resuscitating the body and soul. It may be that we are doomed, that there is no hope for us, any of us, but if that is so then let us set up a last agonizing, bloodcurdling howl, a screech of defiance, a war whoop! Away with lamentation! Away with elegies and dirges! Away with biographies and histories, and libraries and museums! Let the dead eat the dead. Let us living ones dance about the rim of the crater, a last expiring dance. But a dance!
Henry Miller, Tropic of Cancer, 1934

http://www.levity.com/corduroy/millerh.htm

I enjoyed Black Spring.

excerpt by Miller, on Arthur Rimbaud, from The Time of the Assassins.

http://members.tripod.com/RoadSide6/miller.htm

Actors die so loud.
Henry Miller

An artist is always alone - if he is an artist. No, what the artist needs is loneliness.
Henry Miller

Any genuine philosophy leads to action and from action back again to wonder, to the enduring fact of mystery.
Henry Miller

Art is only a means to life, to the life more abundant. It is not in itself the life more abundant. It merely points the way, something which is overlooked not only by the public, but very often by the artist himself. In becoming an end it defeats itself.
Henry Miller

Chaos is the score upon which reality is written.
Henry Miller

Confusion is a word we have invented for an order which is not understood.
Henry Miller

Develop an interest in life as you see it; the people, things, literature, music - the world is so rich, simply throbbing with rich treasures, beautiful souls and interesting people. Forget yourself.
Henry Miller

Develop interest in life as you see it; in people, things, literature, music - the world is so rich, simply throbbing with rich treasures, beautiful souls and interesting people. Forget yourself.
Henry Miller

Every man has his own destiny: the only imperative is to follow it, to accept it, no matter where it leads him.
Henry Miller

Every man with a bellyful of the classics is an enemy to the human race.
Henry Miller

I have never been able to look upon America as young and vital but rather as prematurely old, as a fruit which rotted before it had a chance to ripen.
Henry Miller

I have no money, no resources, no hopes. I am the happiest man alive.
Henry Miller

I see America spreading disaster. I see America as a black curse upon the world. I see a long night settling in and that mushroom which has poisoned the world withering at the roots.
Henry Miller

If men cease to believe that they will one day become gods then they will surely become worms.
Henry Miller

If there is to be any peace it will come through being, not having.
Henry Miller

If we are always arriving and departing, it is also true that we are eternally anchored. One's destination is never a place but rather a new way of looking at things.
Henry Miller

Imagination is the voice of daring. If there is anything Godlike about God it is that. He dared to imagine everything.
Henry Miller

In expanding the field of knowledge we but increase the horizon of ignorance.
Henry Miller

In this age, which believes that there is a short cut to everything, the greatest lesson to be learned is that the most difficult way is, in the long run, the easiest.
Henry Miller

Instead of asking - "How much damage will the work in question bring about?" why not ask - "How much good? How much joy?"
Henry Miller

Life is 440 horsepower in a 2-cylinder engine.
Henry Miller

Life is constantly providing us with new funds, new resources, even when we are reduced to immobility. In life's ledger there is no such thing as frozen assets.
Henry Miller

Life, as it is called, is for most of us one long postponement.
Henry Miller

Moralities, ethics, laws, customs, beliefs, doctrines - these are of trifling import. All that matters is that the miraculous become the norm.
Henry Miller

Music is a beautiful opiate, if you don't take it too seriously.
Henry Miller

Nine-tenths of our sickness can be prevented by right thinking plus right hygiene - nine-tenths of it!
Henry Miller

No man is great enough or wise enough for any of us to surrender our destiny to. The only way in which anyone can lead us is to restore to us the belief in our own guidance.
Henry Miller

No matter how vast, how total, the failure of man here on earth, the work of man will be resumed elsewhere. War leaders talk of resuming operations on this front and that, but man's front embraces the whole universe.
Henry Miller

Obscenity is a cleansing process, whereas pornography only adds to the murk.
Henry Miller

One has to be a lowbrow, a bit of a murderer, to be a politician, ready and willing to see people sacrificed, slaughtered, for the sake of an idea, whether a good one or a bad one.
Henry Miller

One of the reasons why so few of us ever act, instead of react, is because we are continually stifling our deepest impulses.
Henry Miller

One's destination is never a place but rather a new way of looking at things.
Henry Miller

Our own physical body possesses a wisdom which we who inhabit the body lack. We give it orders which make no sense.
Henry Miller

Plots and character don't make life. Life is here and now, anytime you say the word, anytime you let her rip.
Henry Miller

Sex is one of the nine reasons for reincarnation... the other eight are unimportant.
Henry Miller

The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware.
Henry Miller

The City of New York is like an enormous citadel, a modern Carcassonne. Walking between the magnificent skyscrapers one feels the presence on the fringe of a howling, raging mob, a mob with empty bellies, a mob unshaven and in rags.
Henry Miller

The concert is a polite form of self induced torture.
Henry Miller

The great work must inevitably be obscure, except to the very few, to those who like the author himself are initiated into the mysteries. Communication then is secondary: it is perpetuation which is important. For this only one good reader is necessary.
Henry Miller

The legal system is often a mystery, and we, its priests, preside over rituals baffling to everyday citizens.
Henry Miller

The man who is forever disturbed about the condition of humanity either has no problems of his own or has refused to face them.
Henry Miller

The man who looks for security, even in the mind, is like a man who would chop off his limbs in order to ahve artificial ones which will give him no pain or trouble.
Henry Miller

The one thing we can never get enough of is love. And the one thing we never give enough is love.
Henry Miller

The ordinary man is involved in action, the hero acts. An immense difference.
Henry Miller

The real leader has no need to lead - he is content to point the way.
Henry Miller

The waking mind is the least serviceable in the arts.
Henry Miller

The world is not to be put in order; the world is order, incarnate. It is for us to harmonize with this order.
Henry Miller

There is no salvation in becoming adapted to a world which is crazy.
Henry Miller

Topographically the country is magnificent - and terrifying. Why terrifying? Because nowhere else in the world is the divorce between man and nature so complete. Nowhere have I encountered such a dull, monotonous fabric of life as here in America. Here boredom reaches its peak.
Henry Miller

True strength lies in submission which permits one to dedicate his life, through devotion, to something beyond himself.
Henry Miller

Until we accept the fact that life itself is founded in mystery, we shall learn nothing.
Henry Miller

We do not talk - we bludgeon one another with facts and theories gleaned from cursory readings of newspapers, magazines and digests.
Henry Miller

We have two American flags always: one for the rich and one for the poor. When the rich fly it means that things are under control; when the poor fly it means danger, revolution, anarchy.
Henry Miller

We live in the mind, in ideas, in fragments. We no longer drink in the wild outer music of the streets - we remember only.
Henry Miller

What holds the world together, as I have learned from bitter experience, is sexual intercourse.
Henry Miller

Whatever I do is done out of sheer joy; I drop my fruits like a ripe tree. What the general reader or the critic makes of them is not my concern.
Henry Miller

Whatever there be of progress in life comes not through adaptation but through daring.
Henry Miller

When one is trying to do something beyond his known powers it is useless to seek the approval of friends. Friends are at their best in moments of defeat.
Henry Miller

Whenever a taboo is broken, something good happens, something vitalizing. Taboos after all are only hangovers, the product of diseased minds, you might say, of fearsome people who hadn't the courage to live and who under the guise of morality and religion have imposed these things upon us.
Henry Miller

The Henry Miller Library at Big Sur

Henry Miller is one of those authors that convinced me that there is a great difference between the masculine and the feminine point of view. Of course probably haven't tried to read any of his works since the '60's--perhaps I've matured?

There is a great divide in Miller's works. I don't know which book marks the change, but books like Big Sur and the Oranges of Heironymous Bosch (sp?) might well have been written by a different person than the author of the Tropics.

As you know, many of Henry Miller's books were published in Paris.

So I've read many of them in French.

Does anyone knows if there's an English title for "Virage à 80"?

Francis, I am not familiar with that.

It was, I think, his last book, when he turned eighty...