Anaïs Nin

Anaïs Nin , 1903-77, American writer, b. Paris. The daughter of the Spanish composer Joaquín Nin, she came to the United States as a child. She was a psychoanalytic patient of Otto Rank , and a deep concern with the subconscious is evidenced in her work. This is particularly true of her best-known works, her autobiographical diaries, which reveal her psychological and artistic development. These have been published in several collections: early diaries, 1914-31 (4 vol., 1980-85, J. Sherman, ed.); diaries, 1931-74 (7 vol., 1969-81, G. Stuhlmann, ed.); and unexpurgated diaries (4 vol., 1986-96). Nin's fiction, which is noted for its poetic style and searching portraits of women, includes the novels Winter of Artifice (1939) and A Spy in the House of Love (1954). Her published works include her correspondence with Henry Miller (1965); critical works, such as The Novel of the Future (1970); and two volumes of erotica, The Delta of Venus (1977) and Little Birds (1979).

Bibliography: See biography by D. Bair (1995); study by B. L. Knapp (1978).