Editing Henry Miller (section)

===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>