Editing Henry Miller (section)

==Career==

===Brooklyn, 1917–1930===
Miller married his first wife, Beatrice Sylvas Wickens, in 1917;<ref>[[Frederick W. Turner|Frederick Turner]], ''Renegade: Henry Miller and the Making of'' Tropic of Cancer, New Haven: [[Yale University Press]], 2011, pp. 88, 104.</ref> their divorce was granted on December 21, 1923.<ref>Dearborn, ''The Happiest Man Alive'', p. 85.</ref> Together they had a daughter, Barbara, born in 1919.<ref>Robert Ferguson, ''Henry Miller: A Life'', New York: [[W. W. Norton & Company]], 1991, p. 60.</ref> They lived in an apartment at 244 6th Avenue in [[Park Slope, Brooklyn]].<ref>Dearborn, ''The Happiest Man Alive'', p. 59.</ref> At the time, Miller was working at [[Western Union]]; he worked there from 1920 to 1924, as personnel manager in the messenger department. In March 1922, during a three-week vacation, he wrote his first novel, ''Clipped Wings''. It has never been published, and only fragments remain, although parts of it were recycled in other works, such as ''[[Tropic of Capricorn (novel)|Tropic of Capricorn]]''.<ref>Dearborn, ''The Happiest Man Alive'', pp. 70–73.</ref> A study of twelve Western Union messengers, ''Clipped Wings'' was characterized by Miller as "a long book and probably a very bad one."<ref>Henry Miller (ed. Antony Fine), ''Henry Miller: Stories, Essays, Travel Sketches'', New York: MJF Books, 1992, p. 5.</ref>

In 1923, while he was still married to Beatrice, Miller met and became enamored of a mysterious dance-hall ingénue who was born Juliet Edith Smerth but went by the stage-name [[June Miller|June Mansfield]]. She was 21 at the time.<ref>Dearborn, ''The Happiest Man Alive'', pp. 78–80.</ref> They began an affair, and were married on June 1, 1924.<ref>Dearborn, ''The Happiest Man Alive'', p. 87.</ref> In 1924 Miller quit Western Union in order to dedicate himself completely to writing.<ref name="gwickes">{{Cite journal |last=Wickes |first=George |date=Summer–Fall 1962 |title=Henry Miller, The Art of Fiction No. 28 |url=http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/4597/the-art-of-fiction-no-28-henry-miller |journal=The Paris Review |volume=Summer-Fall 1962 |issue=28}}</ref> He later describes this time – his struggles to become a writer, his sexual escapades, his failures, his friends, his philosophy – in his autobiographical trilogy ''[[The Rosy Crucifixion]]''.

Miller's second novel, ''[[Moloch: or, This Gentile World]]'', was written in 1927–28, initially under the guise of a novel written by his wife Juliet (June).<ref name="pw">[http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-8021-1419-8 "Moloch, Or, This Gentile World,"] ''[[Publishers Weekly]]'', September 28, 1992.</ref> A rich older admirer of June, Roland Freedman, paid her to write the novel; she would show him pages of Miller's work each week, pretending it was hers.<ref name="mdearborn">Mary V. Dearborn, "Introduction," ''Moloch: or, This Gentile World'', New York: [[Grove Press]], 1992, pp. vii–xv.</ref> The book went unpublished until 1992, 65 years after it was written and 12 years after Miller's death.<ref name="pw" /> ''Moloch'' is based on Miller's first marriage, to Beatrice, and his years working as a personnel manager at the Western Union office in [[Lower Manhattan]].<ref name="rferguson1">Ferguson, ''Henry Miller: A Life'', pp. 156–58.</ref> A third novel written around this time, ''Crazy Cock'', also went unpublished until after Miller's death. Initially titled ''Lovely Lesbians'', ''Crazy Cock'' (along with his later novel ''Nexus'') told the story of June's close relationship with the artist Marion, whom June had renamed Jean Kronski. Kronski lived with Miller and June from 1926 until 1927, when June and Kronski went to Paris together, leaving Miller behind, which upset him greatly. Miller suspected the pair of having a lesbian relationship. While in Paris, June and Kronski did not get along, and June returned to Miller several months later.<ref>Dearborn, ''The Happiest Man Alive'', pp. 102–17.</ref> Kronski committed suicide around 1930.<ref>Dearborn, ''The Happiest Man Alive'', p. 119.</ref>

===Paris, 1930–1939===
[[File:P1110205 Paris XIV villa Seurat rwk.JPG|thumb|Villa Seurat in Paris, where Henry Miller lived]]

In 1928, Miller spent several months in Paris with June, a trip which was financed by Freedman.<ref name="rferguson1"/> One day on a Paris street, Miller met another author, [[Robert W. Service]], who recalled the story in his autobiography: "Soon we got into conversation which turned to books. For a stripling he spoke with some authority, turning into ridicule the pretentious scribes of the Latin Quarter and their freak magazine."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://robertwservice.blogspot.com/2015/05/henry-miller-1891-1980.html|title=Henry Miller (1891–1980)|website=robertwservice.blogspot.com|access-date=March 15, 2018}}</ref> In 1930, Miller moved to Paris unaccompanied.<ref name="canderson">{{Cite web |url=http://www.bonjourparis.com/story/henry-miller-born-to-be-wild/ |title=Henry Miller: Born to be Wild |last=Anderson |first=Christiann |date=March 2004 |website=BonjourParis |access-date=September 30, 2011}}</ref> Soon after, he began work on ''[[Tropic of Cancer (novel)|Tropic of Cancer]]'', writing to a friend, "I start tomorrow on the Paris book: First person, uncensored, formless – fuck everything!"<ref>Alexander Nazaryan, [http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2013/05/henry-miller-brooklyn-hater.html "Henry Miller, Brooklyn Hater,"] ''[[The New Yorker]]'', May 10, 2013.</ref> Although Miller had little or no money the first year in Paris, things began to change after meeting [[Anaïs Nin]] who, with [[Hugh Parker Guiler|Hugh Guiler]], went on to pay his entire way through the 1930s including the rent for an apartment at 18 Villa Seurat. Nin became his lover and financed the first printing of ''Tropic of Cancer'' in 1934 with money from [[Otto Rank]].<ref>Dearborn, ''The Happiest Man Alive'', p. 171.</ref> She would write extensively in her journals about her relationship with Miller and his wife June; the first volume, covering the years 1931–34, was published in 1966.<ref name="canderson" /> Late in 1934, June divorced Miller by proxy in Mexico City.<ref>Dearborn, ''The Happiest Man Alive'', p. 174.</ref>

In 1931, Miller was employed by the ''[[Chicago Tribune]]'' Paris edition as a [[proofreading|proofreader]], thanks to his friend [[Alfred Perles|Alfred Perlès]], who worked there. Miller took this opportunity to submit some of his own articles under Perlès' name, since at that time only the editorial staff were permitted to publish in the paper. This period in Paris was highly creative for Miller, and during this time he also established a significant and influential network of authors circulating around the Villa Seurat.<ref>Gifford, James. Ed. '' The Henry Miller-Herbert Read Letters: 1935–58''. Ann Arbor: Roger Jackson Inc., 2007.</ref> At that time a young British author, [[Lawrence Durrell]], became a lifelong friend. Miller's correspondence with Durrell was later published in two books.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Lawrence Durrell & Henry Miller: A Private Correspondence |publisher=Dutton |year=1963 |editor-last=Wickes |editor-first=George |location=New York |oclc=188175}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=The Durrell-Miller Letters 1935–80 |publisher=Faber |year=1988 |isbn=0-571-15036-5 |editor-last=MacNiven |editor-first=Ian S |location=London}}</ref> During his Paris period he was also influenced by the French [[Surrealism|Surrealists]].

His works contain detailed accounts of sexual experiences. His first published book, ''[[Tropic of Cancer (novel)|Tropic of Cancer]]'' (1934), was published by [[Obelisk Press]] in Paris and banned in the United States on the grounds of obscenity.<ref name="Baron">{{Cite web |url=http://illinois.edu/db/view/25/12046 |title=Celebrate Banned Books Week: Read Now, Before It's Too Late |last=Baron |first=Dennis |date=October 1, 2009 |website=Web of Language |publisher=University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign |access-date=September 30, 2011 |archive-date=May 11, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200511232805/https://illinois.edu/db/view/25/12046 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The dust jacket came wrapped with a warning: "Not to be imported into the United States or Great Britain."<ref name="ahoyle051414">Arthur Hoyle, [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arthur-hoyle/remember-henry-miller_b_5320782.html "Remember Henry Miller? Censored Then, Forgotten Now,"] ''[[Huffington Post]]'', May 14, 2014.</ref> He continued to write novels that were banned; along with ''Tropic of Cancer'', his ''[[Black Spring (novel)|Black Spring]]'' (1936) and ''[[Tropic of Capricorn (novel)|Tropic of Capricorn]]'' (1939) were smuggled into his native country, building Miller an underground reputation. While the aforementioned novels remained banned in the US for over two decades, in 1939, [[New Directions Publishing|New Directions]] published ''The Cosmological Eye'', Miller's first book to be published in America. The collection contained short prose pieces, most of which originally appeared in ''Black Spring'' and ''Max and the White Phagocytes'' (1938).<ref>Arthur Hoyle, ''The Unknown Henry Miller: A Seeker in Big Sur'', New York: [[Arcade Publishing]], 2014, pp. 23, 38–39.</ref>

Miller became fluent in French during his ten-year stay in Paris and lived in France until June 1939.<ref name="hieronymus">Henry Miller, ''Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch'', New York: [[New Directions Publishing|New Directions]], 1957, pp. 1–2.</ref> During the late 1930s he also learned about German-born sailor [[George Dibbern]], helped to promote his memoire ''Quest'' and organized charity to help him.

===Greece, 1939–1940===
In 1939 [[Lawrence Durrell]], British novelist who was living in [[Corfu]], Greece, invited Miller to Greece. Miller described the visit in ''[[The Colossus of Maroussi]]'' (1941), which he considered his best book.<ref name="gwickes" /> One of the first acknowledgments of Henry Miller as a major modern writer was by [[George Orwell]] in his 1940 essay "[[Inside the Whale]]", where he wrote:

{{blockquote|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.<ref>Orwell, George [http://www.netcharles.com/orwell/essays/inside-the-whale1.htm "Inside the Whale"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050802085103/http://www.netcharles.com/orwell/essays/inside-the-whale1.htm |date=2005-08-02 }}, London: Victor Gollancz Ltd., 1940.</ref>}}

===California, 1942–1980===
[[File:Henry Miller Landscape Watercolor 1957.jpg|thumb|A 1957 watercolor by Miller.]]
In 1940, Miller returned to New York. After a year-long trip around the United States, a journey that would become material for ''[[The Air-Conditioned Nightmare]]'', he moved to California in June 1942, initially residing just outside [[Hollywood, Los Angeles|Hollywood]] in [[Beverly Glen]], before settling in [[Big Sur]] in 1944.<ref name="hieronymus"/> While Miller was establishing his base in Big Sur, the ''Tropic'' books, then still banned in the US,<ref>For details re the ban in the United States, see e.g., [[Tropic of Cancer (novel)#Legal issues]].</ref> were being published in France by the [[Obelisk Press]] and later the [[Olympia Press]]. There they were acquiring a slow and steady notoriety among both Europeans and the various enclaves of American cultural exiles. As a result, the books were frequently smuggled into the States, where they proved to be a major influence on the new [[Beat Generation]] of American writers, most notably [[Jack Kerouac]], the only Beat writer Miller truly cared for.<ref>Dearborn, ''The Happiest Man Alive'', pp. 286–87.</ref> By the time his banned books were published in the 1960s and he was becoming increasingly well-known, Miller was no longer interested in his image as an outlaw writer of smut-filled books; however, he eventually gave up fighting the image.<ref>Dearborn, ''The Happiest Man Alive'', p. 279.</ref>

In 1942, shortly before moving to California, Miller began writing ''Sexus'', the first novel in ''[[The Rosy Crucifixion]]'' trilogy, a fictionalized account documenting the six-year period of his life in Brooklyn falling in love with June and struggling to become a writer.<ref>Ferguson, ''Henry Miller: A Life'', p. 295.</ref> Like several of his other works, the trilogy, completed in 1959, was initially banned in the United States, published only in France and Japan.<ref>Frank Getlein, [https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=okgaAAAAIBAJ&sjid=fiYEAAAAIBAJ&pg=1854,4861215&dq=henry+miller&hl=en "Henry Miller's Crowded Simple Life,"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923115849/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=okgaAAAAIBAJ&sjid=fiYEAAAAIBAJ&pg=1854,4861215&dq=henry+miller&hl=en |date=September 23, 2015 }} ''[[Milwaukee Journal]]'', June 9, 1957.</ref>
Miller lived in a small house on Partington Ridge from 1944 to 1947, along with other bohemian writers like [[Harry Partch]], Emil White, and Jean Varda.<ref>{{cite web |title=Anderson Canyon :: Big Sur, California |url=http://www.andersoncanyon.com/history.php |access-date=January 6, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090319054450/http://www.andersoncanyon.com/history.php |archive-date=March 19, 2009}}</ref> While living there, he wrote "Into the Nightlife". He writes about his fellow artists who lived at Anderson Creek as the Anderson Creek Gang in ''[[Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch]]''.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://henrymiller.org/2014/02/03/miller-on-february-in-big-sur/ |title=Miller on February in Big Sur.... |date=February 3, 2014 |access-date=January 6, 2020 |archive-date=September 20, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160920014159/https://henrymiller.org/2014/02/03/miller-on-february-in-big-sur/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> Miller paid $5 per month rent for his shack on the property.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.henrymiller.org/pingpong2008p183.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101123063907/http://www.henrymiller.org/pingpong2008p183.pdf|url-status=dead|title=PingPong, 2008|archive-date=November 23, 2010}}</ref>

In other works written during his time in California, Miller was widely critical of consumerism in America, as reflected in ''Sunday After the War'' (1944) and ''The Air-Conditioned Nightmare'' (1945). His ''[[Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch]]'', published in 1957, is a collection of stories about his life and friends in Big Sur.<ref>Dearborn, ''The Happiest Man Alive'', pp. 263–64.</ref>

[[File:Aankomst op Schiphol van de Amerikaanse schrijver Henry F. Miller, Bestanddeelnr 910-3816.jpg|thumb|Miller (1959)]]
In 1944, Miller met and married his third wife, Janina Martha Lepska, a philosophy student who was 30 years his junior.<ref name="canderson" /> They had two children: a son, Tony, and a daughter, Valentine.<ref>Barbara Kraft, [http://www.laobserved.com/visiting/2012/01/anas_nin_and_henry_miller_in_l.php "Hanging in LA with Anaïs Nin (and Henry Miller),"] ''LA Observed'', January 24, 2012.</ref> They divorced in 1952. The following year, he married artist Eve McClure, who was 37 years his junior. They divorced in 1960,<ref name="canderson" /> and she died in 1966, likely as a result of alcoholism.<ref>Ferguson, ''Henry Miller: A Life'', p. 356.</ref> In 1961, Miller arranged a reunion in New York with his ex-wife and main subject of ''The Rosy Crucifixion'' trilogy, June. They had not seen each other in nearly three decades. In a letter to Eve, he described his shock at June's "terrible" appearance, as she had by then degenerated both physically and mentally.<ref>Dearborn, ''The Happiest Man Alive'', p. 280.</ref>

In 1948, Miller wrote a novella which he called his "most singular story," a work of fiction entitled "The Smile at the Foot of the Ladder".

In February 1963, Miller moved to 444 Ocampo Drive, [[Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles|Pacific Palisades]], Los Angeles, California, where he would spend the last 17 years of his life.<ref>Ferguson, ''Henry Miller: A Life'', p. 351.</ref> In 1967, Miller married his fifth wife, Japanese born singer Hoki Tokuda ([[:ja:ホキ徳田]]).<ref name=Tokuda>Carolyn Kellogg, [http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2011/02/henry-millers-last-wife-hoki-tokuda.html "Henry Miller's last wife, Hoki Tokuda, remembers him, um, fondly?"], ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'', February 23, 2011.</ref><ref>John M. Glionna, [https://www.latimes.com/world/la-xpm-2011-feb-22-la-fg-henry-miller-wife-20110222-story.html "A story only Henry Miller could love"], ''Los Angeles Times'', February 22, 2011.</ref> In 1968, Miller signed the "[[List of historical acts of tax resistance#Vietnam War, 1968–72|Writers and Editors War Tax Protest]]" pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War.<ref>"Writers and Editors War Tax Protest," ''[[New York Post]]'', January 30, 1968.</ref> After his move to Ocampo Drive, he held dinner parties for the artistic and literary figures of the time. His cook and caretaker was a young [[model (art)|artist's model]] named [[Twinka Thiebaud]] who later wrote a book about his evening chats.<ref>Thiebaud, Twinka. ''Reflections: Henry Miller''. Santa Barbara, CA: [[Capra Press]], 1981. {{ISBN|0-88496-166-4}}</ref> Thiebaud's memories of Miller's table talk were published in a rewritten and retitled book in 2011.<ref>Thiebaud, Twinka. ''What Doncha Know? about Henry Miller''. Belvedere, CA: [[Eio Books]], 2011. {{ISBN|978-0-9759255-2-2}}</ref>

Only 200 copies of Miller's 1972 [[chapbook]] ''On Turning Eighty'' were published. Published by Capra Press, in collaboration with Yes! Press, it was the first volume of the "Yes! Capra" chapbook series and is 34 pages in length.<ref name="Miller1972">{{Cite book |last=Miller |first=Henry |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YsmwAAAAIAAJ |title=On turning eighty; Journey to an antique land; foreword to The angel is my watermark |publisher=Capra Press |year=1972 |isbn=978-0-912264-43-1}}</ref> The book contains three essays on topics such as aging and living a meaningful life. In relation to reaching 80 years of age, Miller explains:

{{blockquote|
If at eighty you're not a cripple or an invalid, if you have your health, if you still enjoy a good walk, a good meal (with all the trimmings), if you can sleep without first taking a pill, if birds and flowers, mountains and sea still inspire you, you are a most fortunate individual and you should get down on your knees morning and night and thank the good Lord for his savin' and keepin' power.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2014/08/henry-miller-on-turning-eighty/ |title=Henry Miller on Turning 80, Fighting Evil, And Why Life is the Best Teacher |last=Parrish |first=Shane |date=11 August 2014 |website=Farnham Street Blog |access-date=17 August 2014}}</ref>}}

In [[1973 Nobel Prize in Literature|1973]], Miller was nominated for the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]] by professor of the [[University of Copenhagen]] Allan Philip (1927–2004).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://sa-admin.lb.se/assets/a97cceda-c3ff-499c-b248-1c25c91fb23f.pdf/F%C3%B6rslagslista%201973.pdf|title=Nobelarkivet-1973|website=svenskaakademien.se|access-date=2 January 2024}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show_people.php?id=16810|title=Nomination Archive - Henry Valentine Miller|website=NobelPrize.org|date=March 2024|access-date=14 March 2024}}</ref>

Miller and Tokuda divorced in 1977.<ref name=Tokuda/> Then in his late 80s, Miller filmed with [[Warren Beatty]] for the 1981 film ''[[Reds (film)|Reds]]'', which was also directed by Beatty. He spoke of his remembrances of [[John Reed (journalist)|John Reed]] and [[Louise Bryant]] as part of a series of "witnesses". The film was released eighteen months after Miller's death.<ref>[[Vincent Canby]], [https://www.nytimes.com/1981/12/04/movies/beatty-s-reds-with-diane-keaton.html "Beatty's 'Reds,' With Diane Keaton,"] ''New York Times'', December 4, 1981.</ref> During the last four years of his life, Miller held an ongoing correspondence of over 1,500 letters with [[Brenda Venus]], a young ''[[Playboy]]'' model and columnist, actress and dancer. A book about their correspondence was published by William Morrow, NY, in 1986.<ref>''Dear, Dear Brenda: The Love Letters of Henry Miller to Brenda Venus''. New York: William Morrow, 1986. {{ISBN|0-688-02816-0}}</ref>