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Posts from the ‘Henry Miller’ category

The Henry Miller Memorial Library in Big Sur, California

This time each month I post a quote by American writer, Henry Miller. And we will get to that. But this post is about a trip I took this week to The Henry Miller Memorial Library in Big Sur, California. Few places on earth remain timeless but Big Sur comes as close as it gets. Located only 77 miles south of my home, the trip takes a little under two hours of coastal agricultural views before morphing into a turning and twisting drive of beautiful Pacific Ocean panoramas, small creeks, scenic bridges and tall redwoods. It’s impossible for me to take that drive without getting flashbacks of being a young boy on family trips in the family vehicle, a 1954 Buick.

The Henry Miller Memorial Library is located 100 yards south of the well known Nepenthe restaurant.

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This is the sign upon arrival. Henry Miller was against memorials, in general and for him specifically. For Henry the best testament of a man was how he lived, not how he was remembered by others.

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Just through the gate after a short walk through tall redwoods one is greeted by a simple redwood structure with a grove to the right with a stage and viewing screen.

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Inside one finds books, books and more books many written by Henry but other notable authors as well such as Jack Kerouac’s 1962 novel titled Big Sur.

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There are also plenty of paintings and prints by and of Henry but I saw no originals, probably because of their value. An original Henry Miller watercolor which he routinely gave away while at Big Sur and later sold or took a tax deduction of $300 per now fetch a few thousand dollars or more.

HenrySculpture The above bust sculpture of Henry is located by the cash register, along with a sign noting that with a $5.00 donation a book about the museum is included.

Typewriter

An old Underwood typewriter was one of many interesting artifacts to be enjoyed. You cannot get much further from the hustle and bustle of Paris, France where Henry Miller lived prior to moving to Big Sur in 1948 but in both cases Henry was opting out of conventional wisdom.

Tea

I bought a couple of Henry Miller books and brought them outside where tea and coffee were served under the honor system, which I am sure Henry would have approved.

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Around the back is where they keep the ping pong table for staff and visitors alike to play, which brings us to the Quote of the Month:

I keep the Ping Pong table for people I don’t want to talk to. You know, it’s simple, I just play Ping Pong with them. – Henry Miller

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It’s a peaceful and timeless environment. There were only five other people enjoying the museum and I saw only one laptop open.

Kevin Cummings Thailand Footprint Big SUr Santa Cruz CA

Here I am forgetting myself just enough not to look into the lens of a rare Kevin Cummings selfie. A portrait of Henry Miller looms above my head.

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Some of the staff that work at the library live and camp on the premises. This sign reads: STAFF ONLY – WRITE NOW

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The library was previously the residence of Henry Miller’s longtime friend, Emil White. Henry once wrote about Emil: “One of the few friends who has never failed me.” Henry Miller lived about 5 miles from the library, up on a mountain top. The property is inaccessible to the general public. Emil set up the library to honor Henry’s life after his passing.

Another great author, George Orwell wrote in his 1940 essay, “Inside the Whale,” of Henry Miller:

“Here in my opinion is the only imaginative prose-writer of the slightest value who has appeared among the English-speaking races for some years past.”

In the 17 months I have been writing this blog a few people have wondered why I include Henry Miller? It’s a fair question. Weaving in Henry Miller throughout this Thailand based web site is one of the things I like best about it, and the quotes always rank high in traffic and the almighty, Likes. But for the answer you need look no further than one of my all time favorite Bangkok fiction novels, Missing in Rangoon by Christopher G. Moore. Like many of my good ideas it was not original. Borrowed is how I like to think of it, kindly. There is a Henry Miller thread woven into Missing in Rangoon, which adds greatly to the story. As timing would have it just yesterday Christopher G. Moore wrote about Henry Miller and George Orwell and the Missing in Rangoon and The Marriage Tree passages involving the two authors, in an essay titled, Obey, at Reality Check found at his excellent blog, InternationalCrimeAuthors.com . It is well worth the read as he discusses how two authors went about the near impossible but worthy endeavor of, writing about truth. Each one in his own and distinct way.

Big Sur Coast

I hope you enjoyed this photo-essay on my visit to The Henry Miller Memorial Library. If you find yourself within a 300 mile radius of the library consider the journey for yourself. The ride back is even better for some reason.

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Arthur Hoyle Interview – Biographer of The Unknown Henry Miller: A Seeker in Big Sur

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Arthur Hoyle

I am pleased to welcome writer, educator, and independent filmmaker Arthur Hoyle. His documentary films have won numerous awards and have aired on PBS. Arthur received Bachelors and Masters Degrees in English from the University of California, Los Angeles. He taught English, coached tennis, and served as an administrator in independent schools. He currently volunteers as a naturalist in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, leading interpretive walks on Chumash Indian culture. He lives in Pacific Palisades, California. Arthur Hoyle’s biography of Henry Miller, The Unknown Henry Miller: A Seeker in Big Sur, was published in March 2014 by Skyhorse/​Arcade, which I listened to and reviewed in July of this year at Chiang Mai City News (Click here to read review). Arthur’s biography of Henry Miller is the subject of this interview today.

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KC:  Curiosity was one of Henry Miller’s strengths. I am curious about how your decision to do a comprehensive biography of Henry Miller came about? A biography is an enormous undertaking, particularly when researching someone who has at least three existing biographies, as is the case with Miller. You promise the reader in your title an unknown Henry Miller. What were your objectives as you began your research and why did you choose Henry Miller as your subject? 
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 AH: I had been reading Miller since the mid 1990s. Discovered him by chance, browsing in a book store. Though I did graduate work at UCLA in English, I had never been assigned to read Miller. I read most of his books, and the three biographies. I came to the conclusion that he had not been fully understood by his  previous biographers. I also felt that critical perceptions of him placed too much emphasis on his sexual content, and not enough on his spiritual content, and many critics failed to see the connection between his interest in sexuality and his spiritual quest. For all of these reasons, I felt he was “unknown” and I decided to make him more visible through my biography. I also discovered through the research that there were two Millers: the fictional Miller of the Tropics and The Rosy Crucifixion, and the Miller who is revealed in his correspondence.
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 KC: Let’s expand on Miller’s spiritual side. Particularly God and his interest in Astrology. Did you find a clear picture of Henry’s belief in God during your research or was he conflicted on the subject? Is it possible to define Henry’s God? What do you feel was appealing about Astrology to Henry? I came away after listening to The Unknown Henry Miller surprised at how much he depended on it at times. Finally, how would you summarize Henry’s spiritual side?
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 AH: Miller did believe in the existence of God, but not the God of any organized religion. He was on a  mystical quest to experience union with the cosmos, and this is why he was interested in astrology and other occult traditions. Astrology is a system that links the inner self to the universe; it is a metaphorical language. But Miller did turn to it for guidance, in spite of his disclaimers to the contrary. Miller believed that God was accessible to all human beings and could be reached through individual effort, work on the self. Part of this work was disengaging from the norms and conventions of society in order to become detached. He was influenced by Zen Buddhism and the Taoist philosophy. Also by the American transcendentalists.
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 KC: A lot of focus on Miller’s life has been given to June, his second wife, and Anais Nin. Rightfully so. They are more about the known Henry Miller and the Paris years. I’d like to focus  on a less discussed woman: Janina Lepska, Miller’s third wife and the mother of two of Henry’s three children. What did you learn about Henry’s Big Sur years concerning Miller’s family life that you were unaware of going in?
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 AH: I knew nothing about Lepska before I began work on the book. The first thing I did was interview her. At the time of the interview, which extended over a period of six months at her home in Santa Barbara, she was 84 years old and still very alert, with a strong memory. It was clear that she had been unhappy with Miller and deeply regretted her decision to leave her academic fellowship at Yale to come to Big Sur as his wife. Miller was a selfish husband who expected his wives to mother him, and showed little interest in their needs. His unsuccessful marriages could all be traced to his dysfunctional relationship with his own mother. Nin saw this aspect of Miller very clearly, which is why she eventually broke with him.
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 KC:  Another important person in Henry’s life was Barney Rosset, the publisher of Grove Press and The Evergreen Review. Can you talk about Barney’s persistence in pursuing Henry’s work for publication in the USA? Henry came across as ambivalent, at best, about making legal challenges. Can you explain the differences between Miller’s thinking and Rosset’s?
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 AH: Rosset had been pursuing Miller for the rights to Tropic of Cancer since the late 1950s. Miller was not interested in bringing his banned books out in the US at that time. He didn’t want the controversy, and he didn’t need the money. He also feared that people would read the banned books for the wrong reasons—sensationalistic reasons. He changed his mind because of his relationship with Renate Gerhardt. He needed money if he was going to set up a new life with her in Europe. As it turned out, he was correct in his expectations for America’s reception of the banned books. And his relationship with Renate fizzled out. The publication of the banned books made him a celebrity, a role he had mixed feelings about. The flood of money that came in also caused him problems he would rather not have had.
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 KC: Miller’s writing style was unique at the time. Henry Miller blurred the line between fact and fiction, often. He could embellish facts or omit them completely in his novels. I found the research you did regarding Henry’s correspondence one of the most interesting aspects of your biography. What stands out among the volumes of letters Henry wrote during his lifetime? What did he reveal in his letters or conversely what did he hide about himself in his books?
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 AH: Miller wrote expressionistically in his autobiographical novels. It was his way of reaching the truth, a truth found only in art. There is no way to know how much of Miller’s fiction is “factual” or “representational” and how much is embellishment. He was writing from his own experience, but using language to transform that experience and, in the process, to transform himself. What you see in the correspondence that you do not see in the novels is Miller’s insecurity and vulnerability about his mission as a writer. He was trying to perform a magical act with his writing, and in his correspondence, especially to Durrell, you see him wondering if he is not deceiving both himself and his readers.
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KC:  Can you talk about Henry’s relationship with books? As you note, one of his more accessible publications is The Books in My Life.  What did you learn about the importance of reading versus the importance of life experience according to Miller?
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 AH: For Miller, everything was life experience, including the reading of books. Miller believed that through certain books he could absorb the life experiences of great men whom he admired, men he called “exemplars.” His literary heroes were Dostoevsky and Whitman, writers who he believed had brought the fulness of life into their books. Miller’s experiences as a reader shaped him as a writer and as a man, which is why he wrote The BOOKS in My LIFE. The two are really inseparable. But for Miller, only certain types of books were worth reading, and each person had to discover what they were—the books that would illuminate the reader’s life.
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 KC: Lets move to Miller’s Southern California years. A territory you know well. What year did he move south from Big Sur? These were Henry’s full blown celebrity years. Henry seemed to enjoy some, but not all, aspects of being a celebrity artist. Tell me about that time for Henry? Was it a period of contentment or discontent? And please work in the subject of his water colors, if you can.
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 AH: Miller moved permanently to Pacific Palisades in 1961, though he kept his house in Big Sur. On the advice of his accountant, he bought a house in an upscale neighborhood known locally as The Huntington. For a time, Lepska, divorced from her second husband, moved in with him along with Tony and Val. It was a mixed time for Miller. His health was deteriorating, he was not in a romantic relationship of any significance (though he did make a foolish marriage to a young Japanese woman who took advantage of him), and he was pretty much played out as a writer. He hobnobbed with celebrities, was lionized by the media, and became somewhat of an oracle for the countercultural upheavals going on all across American society. He was painting a lot of watercolors during the 1960s, but he sometimes felt like a drudge doing it because the paintings were being used to obtain tax write-offs. He went into serious physical decline in the 1970s, but remained a spirited presence until his death in 1980, in part due to his passionate attachment to the beautiful Brenda Venus.
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 KC: Your biography shows that Henry Miller was a seeker and on a journey of discovery. Miller also showed ample disdain for the USA periodically. What, specifically, did Henry Miller discover about himself or the world that you haven’t already mentioned above and what in particular did Henry find so unappealing about his birth country and the American people in general?
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 AH: Miller reacted against two influences: his mother’s bourgeois conventionality, that he associated with her humorlessness and joylessness; and the materialism and consumerism of mainstream American life. It is important to remember that Miller was born in Brooklyn at the height of the Gilded Age, and he matured during World War One and the Roaring Twenties. Given the literary influences on him mentioned above, he was moving in a personal direction that was opposed to the direction of American life. He saw spiritual desolation in the American scene, and he expressed this most directly in his book The Air-Conditioned Nightmare. But there are also abundant passages in the Tropics and The Rosy Crucifixion that express his dismay with the values most Americans choose to live by. He opted out, first by going to Europe, then by secluding himself in Big Sur.
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 KC: What is next for Arthur Hoyle? If you could choose only one writer, living or dead, to research for another biography, who would it be and why? 
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 AH: I think if I were to write another literary biography, I would do it on the English writer John Berger, a fascinating man, and a brilliant one. I am writing a non-fiction book now, portraits of American men and women who, like Miller, have made significant but overlooked or under appreciated contributions to our culture.
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KC: Thank-you, Arthur. I very much enjoyed listening to The Unknown Henry Miller: A Seeker in Big Sur. It helped fill in a lot of the blanks about his life for me. Your next book sounds equally interesting. I look forward to that publication. Thanks again for taking the time to talk about an often misunderstood and under-appreciated writer.

 

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The Unknown Henry Miller: A Seeker in Big Sur by Arthur Hoyle is available at many chain and independent bookstores as well as Amazon.com and Audible.com

 

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This interview may also be read at Chiang Mai City News by clicking the banner

 

 

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Henry Miller Quote of the Month – June 2014

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​”A world torn by indescribable upheavals, a world preoccupied with social and political transformations, will have less time and energy to spare for the creation and appreciation of works of art. The politician, the soldier, ​the industrialist, the technician, all those in short who cater to immediate needs, to creature comforts, to transitory and illusory passions and prejudices, will take precedence over the artist. The most poetic inventions will be those capable of serving the most destructive ends.”

Henry Miller on Writing. First published in 1964, now in its 18th printing.

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Henry Miller Quote of the Month – May 2014

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“What I want is to open up. I want to know what’s inside me. I want everybody to open up. I’m like an imbecile with a can-opener in his hand, wondering where to begin – to open up the earth. I know that underneath the mess everything is marvelous. I’m sure of it.

I know it because I feel so marvelous myself most of the time. And when I feel that way everybody seems marvelous… everybody and everything… even pebbles and pieces of cardboard… a match stick lying in the gutter… anything… a goat’s beard, if you like.” – Henry Miller

 

 

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Henry Miller Quote of the Month – April 2014

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”Tomorrow I will discover Sunset Boulevard. Eurhythmic dancing, ball-room dancing, tap dancing, artistic photography, ordinary photography, lousy photography, electro-fever treatment, internal douche treatment, ultra- violet treatment, elocution lessons, psychic readings, institutes of religion, astrological demonstrations, hands read, feet manicured, elbows massaged, faces lifted, warts removed, fat reduced, insteps raised, corsets fitted, busts vibrated, corns removed, hair dyed, glasses fitted, soda jerked, hangovers cured, headaches driven away, flatulence dissipated, limousines rented, the future made clear, the war made comprehensible, octane made higher and butane lower, drive in and get indigestion, flush the kidneys, get a cheap car-wash, stay-awake pills and go-to-sleep pills, Chinese herbs are very good for you and without a Coca-Cola life is unthinkable.” Henry Miller (1891-1980), U.S. author. “Soirée in Hollywood,”

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Henry Miller Quote of the Month – March 2014 – Nod to Barney Rosset

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Now hailed as an American classic, Tropic of Cancer, Henry Miller’s masterpiece, was banned as obscene in the USA for twenty-seven years after its first publication in Paris in 1934.

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Barney Rosset, Publisher of Grove Press and Champion of Free Speech

Only a historic court ruling championed by Grove Press publisher, Barney Rosset, which changed American censorship standards, ushering in a new era of freedom and frankness in modern literature, permitted the publication of this first volume of Miller’s famed mixture of memoir and fiction, which chronicles with unapologetic gusto the bawdy adventures of a young expatriate writer, his friends, and the characters they meet in Paris in the 1930s. Tropic of Cancer is now considered, as Norman Mailer said, “one of the ten or twenty great novels of our century.”

“I believe that today more than ever a book should be sought after even if it has only one great page in it. We must search for fragments, splinters, toenails, anything that has ore in it, anything that is capable of resuscitating the body and the soul.” — Henry Miller, TROPIC OF CANCER

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Henry Miller Quote of the Month – February 2014

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We do not talk—we bludgeon one another with facts and theories gleaned from cursory readings of newspapers, magazines and digests. Henry Miller (1891-1980), U.S. author. “The Shadows,” The Air-Conditioned Nightmare (1945).

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Henry Miller Quote of the Month … January 2014 …

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“Every day we slaughter our finest impulses. That is why we get a heartache when we read those lines written by the hand of a master and recognize them as our own, as the tender shoots which we stifled because we lacked the faith to believe in our own powers, our own criterion of truth and beauty. Every man, when he gets quiet, when he becomes desperately honest with himself, is capable of uttering profound truths. We all derive from the same source. there is no mystery about the origin of things. We are all part of creation, all kings, all poets, all musicians; we have only to open up, only to discover what is already there.”
Henry Miller

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Paris 1928 – Nexus II by Henry Miller … What if Henry had called an Audible to Siam?

paris-1928A few people have wondered why Henry Miller is included in this blog? A few others have been complimentary that he is. The reasons are numerous. Henry and I do have a few things in common. Both of us were born in America; both took to a beautiful place along California’s coastline at some point and both have been expats of sorts in foreign lands. Henry to France and European travels and me to Thailand and South East Asian travels. Fantasy leagues are popular in sports, although I never got into them. They could just as easily be applied to literature. What if Rocky Marciano had fought Cassius Clay? Fun for some. What if Henry Miller had come to Thailand? Fun to think about or not?

The truth of the matter is, in this literary fantasy, I think I would have blown Henry off, had I ever crossed paths with him. I think it is highly likely I would have created distance with myself and him ASAP. Whether the fantasy occurred in 1931 or 2013. My bad. It gets back to practicing, forgetting yourself. It is harder than it sounds. But it is worth practicing. The rewards do pay off.

I’ve just completed listening to, not reading, PARIS 1928 – NEXUS II by Henry Miller an abandoned writing project of his, which was only recently published in English in 2012. I’m really glad I listened to it, as one of my first choices on Audible.com, an Amazon company. I’m equally glad I did not read it. It is more for the Miller historians or Miller buffs. I’m more of a student or a fan. I’ve never found Miller’s stream of consciousness writing style particularly easy, for me, to read. Hence, I have not read a lot of Miller. I find the author and what he said about living and how he lived his life more interesting than his books. But that may change as I do plan to listen to more of his books on Audible.com in the future.

In Paris 1928, Miller recounts the events of sailing into Paris on a steamer ship with his second wife, Mona. His recollections of Paris at that time are vivid, along with the characters, cafes, conversations, literature, authors, money consciousness, food and wine along the way. I don’t like everything I have learned about Miller in the past year nor do I feel it is necessary to like everything about him. But I did like him a lot in Paris 1928. Little things like how he asks a friend not to use the word nigger when speaking about a black American living in Paris who had helped them when money became tight as they waited for an American Express transfer; I found that refreshing considering the time and place. Miller is not a passive guy. He’s an active guy. I like that. At one point he laments the need to find a male companion willing to explore the streets of Paris on foot or bicycle, not merely sit on one’s butt in a cafe and talk the day away, like so many.

At another point a Parisian friend suggests to Miller and his wife that perhaps they should consider other countries to live and visit, besides France and Siam is suggested. “I bet you never considered Siam?” the friend asks Miller and his wife.

What would Miller’s life have been like had he gone to Siam or Thailand in 1939 instead of returning to the USA or the air-conditioned nightmare as Miller famously referred to America in his book of the same name, published in 1945, six years after his return?

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We’ll never know, of course, just as we’ll never know how Marciano would have fared against Clay, but it is fun to think about. In Paris 1928 we certainly get glimpses into Miller’s thinking and psyche and I enjoyed what he revealed. He saves his risque, erotica for the last two chapters, recounting a flash back episode that takes place in New York’s Central Park and leads to a 36 hour sexual romp with not one but two wholesome neighborhood women, despite being flat broke. It seems every young man’s fantasy of the 1960s summer of love actually took place for Henry in the summer of 1928. Good for him. You’d think that might be cause to stick around Brooklyn. But the next day, a cablegram is received from Mona and Henry is soon on a steamer ship headed to Paris.

I enjoyed my first Audible.com listening experience and think Henry Miller is one of a few authors that I will be listening to, rather than reading, more of in the future. Progress, I think.

Henry Miller - 1931

Henry Miller –  The Paris Years 1931

 

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Henry Miller Quote of the Month … December 2013 …

Portrait of the author Henry Miller (1891 - 1980), wearing a white shirt, California, mid twentieth century. (Photo by Larry Colwell/Anthony Barboza/Getty Images)

This month’s quote by Henry Miller seems particularly timely, but then many of Henry’s quote are timeless. There is a lot of uncertainty for Thais and expats alike in the political arena. Order is trying to be made out of chaos. Truth must be sorted from all the lies. Cursed times or interesting times? More time is needed. Already there are reports of 4 deaths in the Kingdom of Thailand related to political gatherings. Hopefully, they will be the last related to the political unrest.

Without further ado:

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The world is not to be put in order; the world is order, incarnate. It is for us to harmonize with this order. – Henry Miller

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