The Henry Miller Reader

by Henry Miller and Lawrence Durrell

Book Overview

In 1958, when Henry Miller was elected to membership in the American Institute of Arts and Letters, the citation described him as: "The veteran author of many books whose originality and richness of technique are matched by the variety and daring of his subject matter. His boldness of approach and intense curiosity concerning man and nature are unequalled in the prose literature of our times." It is most fitting that this anthology of "the best" of Henry Miller should have been assembled by one of the first among Miller's contemporaries to recognize his genius, the eminent British writer Lawrence Durrell. Drawing material from a dozen different books Durrell has traced the main line and principal themes of the "single, endless autobiography" which is Henry Miller's life work. "I suspect," writes Durrell in his Introduction, "that Miller's final place will be among those towering anomalies of authorship like Whitman or Blake who have left us, not simply works of art, but a corpus of ideas which motivate and influence a whole cultural pattern." Earlier, H. L. Mencken had said, "his is one of the most beautiful prose styles today," and the late Sir Herbert Read had written that "what makes Miller distinctive among modern writers is his ability to combine, without confusion, the aesthetic and prophetic functions." Included are stories, "portraits" of persons and places, philosophical essays, and aphorisms. For each selection Miller himself prepared a brief commentary which fits the piece into its place in his life story. This framework is supplemented by a chronology from Miller's birth in 1891 up to the spring of 1959, a bibliography, and, as an appendix, an open letter to the Supreme Court of Norway written in protest of the ban on Sexus, a part of which appears in this volume.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0811201112
• ISBN13: 9780811201117
• Release Date: January 1969
• Publisher: New Directions Publishing Corporation
• Length: 397 Pages
• Weight: 0.96 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Henry Miller Reader

Edited by Lawerence Durrell, The Henry Miller Reader encapsulates some of the very best of Miller's writings. It includes sections from the Tropic books, Black Spring, and Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch. I have the 1956 New Directions edition of the book, and I don't know whether it has been re-edited since that point, but any erotic, or sexual content had to be strained out for the censors. What is left is pure genius. There is a wonderful section on Alfred Perles...otherwise known as "Joey," to those familar with Miller's work. His insights on the writings of Anais Nin hold a certain poignancy in light of their twenty year relationship which both writers had to withold from their readers; Ms. Nin was married still to Hugh Guiller. I would highly recommend this book be purchased along with The Tropic of Cancer, or any other of his works.