Editing Henry Miller (section)

===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>