A Literate Passion: Letters of Anaïs Nin & Henry Miller, 1932-1953

Rating:
Summary: Henry Miller
Review: Big fan of these two, but more of a Henry Miller fan personally. The letters bring Henry Miller out of his fiction/novels and bring him into the realm where Nin was in writing her Diaries. Good for that reason, two lovers but volatile ones. Testing sexual boundaries is a touchy thing, after all.

Rating:
Summary: Yes! Ah, ah, yes!
Review: Forget Nin's works of fiction, the journals, letters, and life are truly worth experiencing over and over again for their honesty, passion, and viewing the internal turned external for our benefit. Everyone knows of Miller's and Nin's relationhip, through "Henryand June" if anything, but it is through this work that we see them less as romantic figures and more as humans capable of the idiocy, devotion, and prolongation of things we should all end and just don't for whatever reason. This is a great buy if you are a lover a letters. Reading "Fire" is a must, however.

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Summary: The Language of Sexual Liberation
Review: How much deeper can you get into a person's complexities and simplicities, understand the origin of their joys and frustrations, their motivators and their fears, if not by reading the letters they wrote to one another, and, in this case, one of their best friends and lovers?

This is a powerful door to Anais' heart and soul, and even more powerful than her diaries itself. Because here you get deep into one of the most significant periods of her life, the many years she let her own life and self entwined with Henry Miller's.

Indispensable reading for anyone, even more for those who admire Anais and Miller as ordinary people who loved each other, or as writers ahead of their time, unafraid of other people's opinions.

Immerse yourself: you're gonna want to sink.

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Summary: Spying In The House of Love
Review: Like many others, I have been fascinated with and frustrated by Anais Nin for many years, since reading the first volume of her expurgated diary in 1977.

This volume of letters enables the reader who has already read other versions of the Nin-Miller story to form additional conclusions about what might actually have happened. Because the letters were sent into the possession of others, they were less subject to the constant revision and reinvention that bedevils all attempts to determine objective facts about the mercurial Nin.

If you are not already an amateur historian of literary trends of the 1930's, fear not. The letters are worth reading as an introduction to Anais Nin and Henry Miller as well, for they depict a real-life romance conducted by two who absolutely relished the game and were highly articulate in dramatically different ways.

Rating:
Summary: Enlightening. . .
Review: What a provocative read! Having read all of Nin's diaries and fiction, I felt that this book filled in the missing gaps of her life. I came away admiring her perseverence in achieving the goal of publishing her writing. I felt I finally understood how she and Miller drifted apart after having had such a burning, passionate, intense beginning to their long love affair. Alas, they were both mere mortals just as you and I! If you love Nin or Miller, you'll be thoroughly entertained by this book.

Rating:
Summary: Delirium and Denial
Review: When two writers fall in love, they write and write and write. Their writing being the best expression of their inner natures. Here Anais and Henry write two-hundred-and fifty letters back and forth in a passionate literary romance. The friendship is passionate from the start and Anais is poised for an intellectual and physical adventure. These letters are heady intellectual exchanges as both writers realize themselves in words.

Most of the letters do seem to focus on their literary loves of the moment. D.H. Lawrence is discussed in detail because of Anais' essays and "Unprofessional Study of D.H. Lawrence," in the 1930s. Henry suggests that they thrash things out by letter and asks her to keep his letters. I'm almost certain she would never have thought to destroy them. Not in this life!

In these letters, Henry divulges his most intimate thoughts about Anais. He writes her about everything he does as if to make a literary life with her. This place they both share is ecstasy to them both. Words connect the borders of their world.

Both writers desperately hang onto their real lives while all the while wanting desperately to be together in some fantasy situation. Henry dreams of just living simply, but we know Anais needs luxury almost as much as love. She does however sacrifice a lot for Henry in many ways. The fact is, she supports him financially for years.

Perhaps she feels she owes him her life. At the start of this relationship, Anais was at the point of wanting to kill herself over her imaginary lover, John. A man who rejected her before even accepting her in many ways. It does seem that she needs a reason to live. Someone to care for as she doesn't have her own children. Perhaps in a way, Henry becomes her child although she is 28 and he is 40 when they meet. She does not seem satisfied in her marriage.

I am not sure why Hugh's love is not enough. Everything she writes about Hugh is so complimentary. Maybe it is because Hugh is not completely dedicated to writing. Henry is drunk with desire to write and to experience life to the fullest. In Anais, he finds a soul mate.

Henry is serious, silly and seductive. I was imagining Anais laughing-out-loud at some of his adorable recollections. He may have been open and frank, but his love for her was a completely beautiful expression. She makes him so happy because he can talk to her about anything. There is no need to hide feelings. They talk about the most intense emotional situations.

Anais' friendship and sympathy is everything to Henry. What I noticed was how she tells Henry all her deepest desires just like she tells her diary. Until a certain point when she seems to draw back sharply. I assume some letters where lost. This is where reading her journals will become more interesting. I have only read a few and now I am interested in reading the rest. I must know her thoughts between "some" of the letters from Henry. Otherwise, the picture will never be complete.

It is enjoyable to see how the letters start formally and then at times just go off into the most intoxicating thoughts. What amazes the mind is their intense focus on the evaluation of their own writing. Here you see how each book came to be and realize the force of the influence of small comments, advice, notes.

I'm convinced that any woman would sell her soul to receive letters with such passion. Yet, it seems Anais wanted more. We can't quite figure out what she wanted, but she wanted perhaps a carbon copy of herself? She is much better suited to living with Hugo and so she lives out her romantic dreams with Henry until writing and publishing take hold of them both and swirl them into the inevitability of their destiny.

Anais brings beauty to Henry's existence, which is often far below her standard of living. Could he have provided for her in a way that satisfied her? Was her giving him financial help beautiful because he accepted it in such a way that in return he gave her love? At the end of the book the tables turn and Henry is able to pay Anais back for all her love and attention. In this way, the book becomes beautiful despite the human frailty of both writers.

What I thought many would object to probably does not need mentioning, but you can see various attitudes of racism here and there. There is also the question of Anais Nin's common sense in regards to her father and her views on parents are hardly acceptable. I force myself to overlook various aspects because the overall content is in many ways rather incredible.

What you have in this book, is a man "in love" pouring out his very soul and a woman slowly but surely becoming estranged from him. There seems to be no way these two writers can be together and yet through the years, Anais and Henry support and encourage one another through their letters.

They also seem to occasionally have a inclination towards mentally torturing one another. As one runs about the world in one direction, the other follows. At one point Anais feels that what he is asking her to accept is beyond what a human being should have to endure. She pulls away.

Could the life they dreamed of really have brought them happiness? Was it not the constant struggle that spurned them on to write. That is my conclusion. That writers need to struggle. To feel and to die and be reborn. This is fully evident in "A Literate Passion."

When reading the letters between Henry and Anais, I am a butterfly on the wall of their world and my wings beat happily as I watch their most intimate thoughts flow by me in words.

Read after "Henry & June."

Rating:
Summary: STUNNING, INCREDIBLY POWERFUL GLIMPSE OF THEIR LOVE
Review: You'll laugh, cry, and find yourself feeling a little like a voyeur at times when reading this book. The letters are so personal, and so alive with intense emotion that if you read this book along with the diary dates that correspond to the letters, you'll get a little more insight into what was really going on. This is the kind of reading that once you get started, it's hard to put down, and you'll find yourself marvelling at the images that Henry and Anais concoct.