Henry Miller

Henry Miller 1891-1980, American author, b. New York City. Miller sought to reestablish the freedom to live without the conventional restraints of civilization. His books are potpourris of sexual description, quasi-philosophical speculation, reflection on literature and society, surrealistic imaginings, and autobiographical incident. After living in Paris in the 1930s, he returned to the United States and settled in Big Sur, Calif. Miller's first two works, Tropic of Cancer (Paris, 1934) and Tropic of Capricorn (Paris, 1939), were denied publication in the U.S. until the early 1960s because of alleged obscenity. The Colossus of Maroussi (1941), a travel book of modern Greece, is considered by some critics his best work. His other writings include the Rosy Crucifixion Trilogy— Sexus (1949), Plexus (1953), and Nexus (1960). In 1976 Norman Mailer edited a selection of Miller's writings, Genius and Lust.

Bibliography: See his autobiography My Life and Times (1972); memoir by K. Winslow (1986). See biographies by J. Miller (1978) and R. Ferguson (1991); W. A. Gordon, The Mind and Art of Henry Miller (1967), E. B. Mitchell, ed., Henry Miller (1971), and N. Mailer, Black Messiah (1981).

Miller, Henry (1891–1980),New York‐born author, lived in various parts of the U.S., as an expatriate in Europe (1930–40), and after 1942 in California. His books are essentially autobiographical, expressing with gusto his intense individualism, his love of freedom, his affection for natural responses, his hatred of all that blocks or blunts human impulses, and his enthusiastic search for intellectual and aesthetic adventure. Their energetic lyrical prose merges Rabelaisian dialogue and descriptions with sprawling statements of the author's own emotions, moods, and beliefs. Among his many works the best known is Tropic of Cancer (France, 1934; U.S., 1961), an intense personal narrative in fictive form of the emotional and intellectual life of an American expatriate in Paris, marked by its frank treatment of sexual relations and animated by a belief that “more obscene than anything is inertia.” A similar autobiographical narrative is Tropic of Capricorn (France, 1939; U.S., 1962), treating the adolescence of the author in New York, and a related work is Black Spring (France, 1936; U.S., 1963), gathering autobiographical essays and sketches ranging from his Brooklyn boyhood to his Paris experiences. His other writings include Aller Retour New York (1935), a letter about a round‐trip voyage during his expatriation; Max and the White Phagocytes (1938), on one of his unusual friends; The Cosmological Eye (1939), fiction and essays; The Wisdom of the Heart (1941), a similar collection; The Colossus of Maroussi (1941), an unconventional travel account on the spirit of Greece, emphasizing people, not sites, in a search for “a world of light”; Sunday After the War (1944), sketches; The Air‐Conditioned Nightmare (1945) and its sequel, Remember To Remember (1947), on his responses to the American scene; The Smile at the Foot of the Ladder (1948), a tale; The Books in My Life (1952), about the very varied reading that affected him; Nights of Love and Laughter (1955), stories; The Time of the Assassins (1956), a study of Rimbaud; Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch (1957), treating his life in California; To Paint Is To Love Again (1960), containing reproductions of his art; Stand Still Like a Hummingbird (1962), essays; Just Wild About Harry (1963), a play; and My Life and Times (1971), tape‐recorded interviews. The Rosy Crucifixion, composed of Sexus (1949), Plexus (1953), and Nexus (1960), is a memoir of his youth and life prior to expatriation in a form partly fictive, partly essay‐like. Genius and Lust (1976) is an anthology of his writings selected by Norman Mailer, who wrote a lengthy introduction to it. Many volumes of Miller's correspondence have been printed, including Hamlet (2 vols., 1939, 1941), philosophic exchanges with Michael Fraenkel; and with Durrell (1963) and with Anaïs Nin (1965). Letters to Emil [ Schnellock] (1990) document the years 1922 through 1934. Miller was also a major influence on the Beat movement.

Miller, Henry (1891–1980) US writer. Miller's sexually explicit novels, such as Tropic of Cancer (1934) and Tropic of Capricorn (1939), were considered obscene, and many were banned in the USA and Britain until the 1960s. Other works include The Rosy Crucifixion trilogy: Sexus, Plexus, and Nexus (1949–60).