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SECTION I - HENRY MILLER
LETTERS TO MILLER FROM OTHERS
1. Arnaud, Michele. 15 letters (typed & holograph) signed from Arnaud to Henry Miller, along with 3 carbon typed letters from Miller to Arnaud. Paris: 1972-1974. Arnaud was involved with the film production of Miller's Quiet Days in Clichy, and was also a close personal friend. The letters from Arnaud, which are in French, are warm and laudatory - in one, Arnaud tells Miller that he admires him over any one else he knows, not because he is such a great author but because he is such a wonderful man. Fine. (200/300).
2. Bowles, Paul. 3 T.L.s. (each single page) to Henry Miller, in original envelopes. Tangier: 1979. An interesting group of letters in which Bowles criticizes James Laughlin (who "did not handle my first book very professionally"), the Black Sparrow Press, mentions translating Mrabet's letters to Miller and reading one aloud to Mrabet from Miller: "But I was the one who could fully appreciate your letter. It gave me the feeling that the years I'd spent gathering and translating Mrabet texts had paid off, that I'd been justified in keeping the style straight and devoid of decoration. There's no collaboration between us; I simply translate what comes up on the tape. And the tapes always advance the argument, as you say, `simply and tellingly.' My principal concern has been to avoid making it affectedly simple -- faux-naif; if it doesn't sound natural, it doesn't exist. Thus your letter made me happy." Miller's note in ink "File - Paul Bowles" to envelopes. One set of stamps clipped, else about fine. (500/800).
3. Brown, Gov. Jerry. Short T.L.s. to Henry Miller thanking him for money donated to his campaign. Los Angeles: Dec. 8, 1978. With a humorous note initialed by Miller on envelope: "Sandi - Read! Did you send him money for his campaign?" Also with xeroxed article containing ink note from Miller to file under Jerry Brown. Fine. (70/100).
4. Burstyn, Ellen. 6 pp. A.L.s. from actress Ellen Burstyn (who starred in the film version of Tropic of Cancer) to Henry Miller, on personal stationery. N.p.: Aug. 22, 1976. A very personal letter from Burstyn describing for the first time her desire to write, in her new house on the Hudson beside a beautiful, mammoth tree, about the transformation she has made to understand the desire to write. Fine. (100/150).
5. Cendrars, Blaise - Photographs. Two original photographs (5x7 & 3-1/2x2-1/2) and postcard of Cendrars. Photographs show him with his arm around a donkey in the French Alps (1948) & sitting with Georges Braque in Villefranche (1948). The postcard is of Cendrars at middle age, smoking a cigarette [c.1950]. Various places: various dates. All three are inscribed & signed by Cendrars to Henry Miller on versos, 2nd with Miller's holograph note placing Cendrars & Braque. Fine. (80/120).
6. Cendrars, Miriam. 2-pp. A.L.s. from Miriam Cendrars, daughter of Blaise Cendrars, to Henry Miller, regarding her project of publishing the correspondence between Blaise and Henry. Paris: March 19, 1979. Cendrars writes of her old plan of publishing the correspondence, refueled by mutual friend Bert Mathieu, "My idea is to take the various letters as `points de refère' along your relationship with Blaise and place them in the context of the world's happenings and atmosphere: not only literary, but also political, economical, historical...As far as I am concerned, I want to try and achieve it through love for you and Blaise, I could have no other reason. Love for both men and operas - and for their futures, which is ours..." Initialed holograph note from Miller to front of envelope. Fine. (60/90).
29 A.L.S. FROM JUNE TO HENRY
7. Corbett, June Mansfield [Miller]. Group of 29 A.L.s. (mostly one page) to Henry Miller from his second wife, June (represented by his characters "Mona" & "Mara", among others, in his novels), who was with him and Anaïs Nin in Paris during the time Miller was working on Tropic of Cancer. Forest Hills, NY: [1966-72]. Many of the letters complain of ill health & poverty, some delve into the past, a few are diificult to read because of ink bleeding. From one: "When I left with you for [Paris?] I was running away from a situation that had reached its peak..." From another: "Henry - this is to explain more that I simply acted as a buffer of the world surrounding you - I tried at the time to explain - I could not understand Anais or anyone's influence - I could not & still do not understand your ---...I still am unequipped to write and explain anything - for me the world dropped. I sat through the nights with a stranger who assumed a p-- of nonsense, who used the excuse of making love to me but lacked the understanding - all..." From yet another, "I tuned in to Merv Griffin and heard and saw you, and you looked younger, more beautiful than anyone on the program. It confirms all my beliefs, that you are the saint, the master that I believed in...." From the last, "I really have no idea. I hope that you make sense of all that has happened. I don't. All my love, always, June." Accompanied by a 1-page T.L.s. from Bill Allen, Dept. of Social Welfare, & 4 letters (2 typed, all signed) from Annette & James Baxter, all long-time friends of both Henry and June, regarding June's welfare, & discussing Henry's continuous financial support of her, 1971-72. A fine, important archive of letters from the woman who aided and abetted Miller's and Nin's genius in their early Paris years - both wrote often about June. (3000/5000).
8. Corbett, June Mansfield [Miller] - Photographs. Group of 4 color photographs of June, Henry Miller's second wife. 3-1/2x5. [New York]: 1958. Poignant photographs of an older June, the muse and bane of Miller's existence for many years - her beauty is still quite striking in these later photographs. (100/150).
TWO ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHS BY ROBERT DOISNEAU
9. Doisneau, Robert. Original 7x9-1/2" black & white photograph of Blaise Cendrars in a bar with other patrons & his arm around a young girl, in Aix-en-Provence. [Aix-en-Provence: 1947]. Doisneau's stamp to verso, along with signed inscription from Cendrars to Henry Miller, dated 1947. Much creasing & pin-holes to extremities, short tear to bottom edge, else about very good. (200/300).
10. Doisneau, Robert. Original 7x9-1/2 black & white photograph of Blaise Cendrars having a drink next to some enoromous stacks of books. [Paris: N.d.]. Doisneau's stamp to verso, partially obstructed by label from New Directions Publishers, on which is written "To: Blaise Cendrars - photo Robert Doisneau." Holographed in upper corner in Henry Miller's hand is "Blaise Cendrars - Please return to Henry Miller, Big Sur, California." Clearly the photograph was used or intended to be used in a New Directions publication, and was lent by Miller to the publishers. Near fine - a charming portrait of the French intellectual. (300/500).
5 GREAT LETTERS FROM DURRELL
11. Durrell, Lawrence. Group of 5 letters (4 T.L.s. & 1 A.L.s.) in original envelopes from Durrell to Henry Miller. Sommieres: 1977-79. The letters have wonderful content, with many references to the past, Durrell's & Miller's lovers, their work, famous friends in Paris and elsewhere, his trip to Egypt, etc. One letter ends amusingly: "Its amazing to have participated in the creation of a legend. It will please you to know that the new Cacharel scent named after Anais (Anais-Anais) is a great success and when I last had the luck to take a youngling to bed in Paris that was what she smelt of. I lay there in the dark smelling it and thinking and saying never a word." From another he writes: "...the Egyptian trip did me real good, and I ran into a new Justine in Alexandria who set my poor old heartstrings twangling...Paris smells like New York now, and the people are yellow, exhausted, cadaverique. I can't bear it any more..." Regarding his recent work, Durrell writes in another letter (1977): "...I am leaving for London tomorrow to spend two weeks proofing Livia the new novel as well as the big book called Greek Islands. These two are both coming out this summer. Livia is not bad, it clears up all the queries in Monsieur and opens the way forward for Constance in Love, the next bloody book. But much more congenial for me and more exciting is the fact that Fabers are going to do my collected poems - a real Collected at last. After this I can die happy...My verse has been plunged into shadow by the novels. Perhaps I can give it air...I will turn myself out to grass now and waste a couple of years fooling about the rest of the Avignon Quintet, "the quinx" as I call it...Shall I give your love to London? Old memories are there - Dylan Thomas and you setting off for the old Holborn Empire...Dear me, the years roll away so fast." Regarding his brother, author Gerald Durrell, he notes, "My brother Gerry is buying the Mazet and is busy knocking it about. He plans to marry a nice American girl this year and spend the summers there. He is rich and famous as a Zoo Man now and has very happily shed his last wife who gave him a lot of trouble..." On his recent return from Egypt, the first visit of which had originally spawned his Alexandria Quartet, he comments from yet another letter, written in November, 1977, "I had been so often accused of overwriting it [Egyptian scenery] that I expected it to be paler than my refelections of it. But the flamboyance and extravagance of Egypt cannot be exaggerated and beside the reality my versions read like washed out and twice sucked jujubes...Cairo is one horrible sweat of mankind and cars. ALL the world is being devoured by the petrol engine - what can we do? But once upriver the feluccas take over and their grave manovres colour everything. The Nile is not all that broad, and in some places very narrow and calm like a village river. All life flows down it...Down below there on the sea all is sophistication, but once upriver gravity sets in; the statues become enormous and grave and they sit pondering in deserted valleys bathed in a gold pharaonic light and framed by the whistling desert with its winds and odours..." This fabulous letter continues on brilliantly - each letter contains gems worth reprinting, but space does not permit it all. Each letter is a full 1 page. A fine set, all with notes to file in Miller's hand on envelopes. (800/1200).
12. Durrell, Lawrence - Photographs. Six color snapshots of Durrell, all but one with women. One with holograph description by Durrell on verso, others (except 2) labeled in holograph by Miller on versos. [France: 1970]. Fine. (100/150).
13. Fowlie, Wallace. Seven T.L.s. from Fowlie to Henry Miller, mostly regarding the publication of their letters from 1943 to 1972, but some also newsy. Durham, NC: 1965-1972. Letters are each 1-page & signed "Michel," apparently Fowlie's pseudonym with Miller. One with holograph note by Miller added at end. Fine; 2 envelopes present. (200/300).
ARCHIVE OF LETTERS FROM MILLER'S EARLY PUBLISHER
14. Girodias, Maurice. Archive of 25 A.L.s. & T.L.s. of varying lengths from Girodias to Henry Miller, including 7 on Olympia Press stationery. Girodias was sentenced in 1964 to a year in prison, fined nearly 7000 pounds, & was prohibited for publishing anything in France for the next 20 years because of his pornographic publications. Various places: 1958-79. The letters cover a long spate of time and address many of the issues facing the publisher at various times, and publishing plans for Miller's works. From a letter of 1963, Girodias writes: "...the censorship situation in France has become increasingly critical; I have had more than sixty books banned, and I have been sentenced a number of times to heavy fines and even prison terms (suspended, until now). This has completely paralyzed my publishing activities, and our sales and production have dwindled to practically nothing. That situation has some pretty ironical aspects: First of all I do not publish any books in French and I don't clearly see why I am so persistently persecuted by the French administration; and, secondly, I believe I have helped quite substantially in defeating censorship in America as well as in England - as a result of those efforts, some books for which I am in trouble here in France are now being freely printed and sold in America..." One letter begs Miller's forgiveness for not having paid him for certain projects, while that letter and others go in depth into what Girodias has done for him as a publisher. After Miller's agent, Michael Hoffman, cancelled his contract with Girodias in 1965 due to non-payment, Girodias typed out an increasingly hostile letter that again forces the issue of all the money Girodias made for Miller by convincing him to be published in America (thus avoiding piracies) and culminates: "I saw Miriam Worms...and she told me how she had discussed the whole thing with you, and you said once more that you had been perfectly justified in letting Hoffman get our contract cancelled because I had failed to pay what I owed you in time. Well, the truth of the matter is simply that you behaved like a total pig, didn't you? For someone who claims he is not concerned with money and all that, I think it would have been better to appear detached and cynical about it, rather than give us that half-assed explanation and running to hide yourself in the skirts of St. Michael Hoffman. But I guess that's your style for ever, and there is nothing we can do about it, except say it..." Miller & Girodias were able to repair their relationship after Olympia Press went out of business, and the correspondence continues in more amicable tones through 1979. An important archive with many publishing specifics about Millers' works. (3000/5000).
15. Jong, Erica. East-West Blues: A New-Yorker Goes West. 23-page carbon typescript of the piece Jong wrote for Four Visions of America, published by Capra Press. N.p.: n.d.. Inscribed & signed by Jong to Henry Miller on the front page, & additionally signed by her at the end. Holograph note in Miller's hand to upper left corner. Fine. (100/150).
MARCEL MARCEAU WRITINGS
16. Marceau, Marcel & Henry Miller. 23 pp. A.L.s. from Marceau to Miller, with numerous whimsical ink drawings of clowns, smiling suns, angels, etc., and a 1-page copy T.L.s. from Miller (initialed by him) to Marceau in response. [France & America]: March, 1973. The letters are flights of mutual admiration, declaring one another "Zen Master" and "super genius," as well as other names, though Miller does try to ground Marceau a bit in his letter. Fine. (250/400).
17. Marceau, Marcel. 33-page typescript of a conversation between Marceau and Henry Miller (recorded by Tom Schiller), regarding Miller's book The Smile at the Foot of the Ladder. N.p.: n.d.. With marginal notes & separate initialed note by Miller laid-in. In folder titled in ink by Miller. Fine. (200/300).
18. Miller, Barbara. 48 letters (mostly T.L.s.) from Henry Miller's oldest daughter to him, and one initialed copy letter from Henry to Barbara, dated 1965. Various places: 1966-1977. The letters begin angrily in 1966 to an absent father (Miller) and warm up considerably as the two evidently reestablished contact and got to know one another. The 1971-72 letters are quite interesting as they focus on Barbara's affair with a married man and all the miseries that come along with that predicament; she refers to Henry's past often. She writes that she is not bitter about their past (when Henry abandoned his first family for June and Paris) and believes in him and his philosophies and ideals. She mentions her misery growing up only a little, and reveals a few interesting tidbits about her mother, Henry's first wife, in one letter, "Your remark about Bea and the type of life she led in the convent, stuck like glue in my brain. I had never understood my mother. I thought about this day and night and finally went to see her on some pretext. "Sister Alphonsus!" Daddy, you were absolutely right!...Suddenly the entire jigsaw puzzle of my life was pieced together: why she wouldn't allow me any boyfriends, why her attitude towards men in general, everything!...." A lengthy and important set of letters. (300/500).
19. Miller, Barbara - Photographs. Group of 16 original photographs of Barbara, Henry Miller's first child, most of her as a very young child in Brooklyn (incl. one of her on the running board of a car with 2 men, one of whom may be Miller) and as a teenager; a couple later. Various places: [c.1922-1960]. The very early photographs of Barbara that Henry Miller held on to throughout his life show that perhaps it was not as easy to leave his first family as is commonly thought. A few labeled on versos, some in Henry Miller's hand. Very good or better. (250/400).
20. Miller, Eve. 5 A.L.s. (3 to 11 pp. each) from Eve, Henry Miller's 4th wife, to Henry. * Group of 21 original photographs & 1 slide of Eve (some with friends, child, etc.). 8x10 or smaller, a couple labled on versos in Miller's hand. Big Sur: c.1950's-65. Friendly letters regarding family members, particularly Henry Miller's guardianship of his retarded sister Lauretta, along with a copy of a letter from Henry Miller to Charles Rembar about Lauretta. The photographs show Eve mostly during the years of her marriage to Miller (though one shows her at age 17 or 18). One was used in a publication The Intimate Henry Miller. Very good to fine. (300/500).
21. (Miller, Lauretta) File concerning the death and cremains burial of Henry Miller's sister, Lauretta (1895-1969), at "The Evergreens" Cemetery in Brooklyn. Various places: 1970. Letters are from Miller's cousin, Irving, the cemetery, & the crematorium in Carmel. The correspondence regards money for perpetual care, family burial planning (incl. Henry), etc. Miller's holograph notes to some. A morbid yet mildly interesting group. (80/120).
22. Miller, Lepska. 3 brief A.L.s. to Henry Miller from Lepska, Henry's third wife, regarding a loan. Altadena: Lepska Miller, 1972. Very good. (70/100).
LAUDATORY LETTERS FROM MRABET
23. Mrabet, Mohammed. 2 T.L.s. (2 pp. & 3 pp.) from Mrabet to Henry Miller, translated into English & typed by Paul Bowles, in original envelopes. Tangier: 1979. The letters are very sweet, and clearly Miller and Mrabet were mutual admirers. Mrabet writes about writing, and conditions in his country: "I've heard that you like good food. If Pacific Palisades were nearby, I'd go every day to your house and prepare fantastic dishes for you. All kinds of Moroccan recipes, and a few French ones. Besides, there are dishes which are my own invention. Forgive me for being so far away. It's too bad. And I can't get a passport in any case. I'm a slave. I can't go out of Morocco because they think here that all writers are criminals. They give passports only to important people in the government, because those people have plenty of money, and with it they can carry on a very good business of selling hashish...." Miller's notes "File - Mrabet" to envelopes. Fine. (300/500).
12 LETTERS FROM ANAÏS TO HENRY
24. Nin, Anaïs. Group of 12, one to two-page typed & holograph letters, almost all signed, and 6 holograph postcards signed, to Henry Miller. Various places: 1966-1976. The letters and postcards from Nin to Miller discuss much about her diaries, and what could and could not be published of the correspondence in her Diaries, as well as mutual acquaintances, surgeries, current activities, and memories. From one letter, Nin writes, "I am winning my battle with man hating feminists. Kate Millet who wrote such a hate filled book against men, has paid me a tribute and changed considerably. I suppose you have heard that my papers will be with yours at UCLA but most of it goes to taxes. Unbelievable. I have been venturing out in spite of the hole in my stomach caused by radiation and which erupts at unexpected moments which kept me in the house for a year and a half..." From another, dated 1973, "Have been reliving the past so unfortunately left out of the Diary (compassion!) Xeroxing your personal letters for the day they can be published. I will of couse show you a copy. I did the job myself for privacy at a College xerox machine! An hour a day is all I could do. I hope this year there won't be so many lectures. Deep down I don;t like the public life - prefer just to write and stay home but my horoscope gives me dependants...." There are also a couple of letters from a trip to Asia that Nin took in 1966, describing her travels, particularly in Japan: "My publisher entertained me royally, with Geisha dinner - and they are eager to do the same when you come. I feel at home with that mixture of deep meaning expressed in outward beauty - the immaculateness, the caring, the tranquility, the poetry - Nothing is literal. A garden is a representation of the eternal, it must always be green, no flowers, flowers die and disturb contemplation of eternity!...." A number of the letters have Anais' last name holographed in Miller's hand next to her signature. About fine - only one in original envelope; postcards with Nin's return address printed on rectos. (1500/2500).
25. Nin, Anaïs - Photographs. Group of 11 original photographs of Nin & 1 photograph of a drawing of her. 8x10 or smaller. Various places: [c.1940's-1971]. The photographs cover a long stretch of time, from a copy-photograph of Nin in the 1930's, to 1940's-era snapshots of her in a bathing suit, a picture of Nin seated in Henry Miller's living room (with his paintings behind her), a large photograph of her in a vault with her diaries, and several of Nin in Los Angeles, 1971. One signed & labeled by Nin on verso, most others with verso notations in Miller's hand. Fine. (250/400).
26. O'Brien, Edna. 2 A.L.s. (each 2 pp.) & 1 T.L.s. from O'Brien to Henry Miller. London: 1977. Three warm letters expressing affection for Miller's work & thanking him for compliments he made on her work. Fine - one with original envelope stapled to top. (100/150).
LETTERS FROM MILLER'S IMPORTANT CHILDHOOD FRIEND
27. Pasta, James. Group of 5 A.L.s. (of varying numbers of pages) from Jimmy Pasta to his childhood friend, Henry Miller, along with a photocopied brief memoir of Miller by Pasta. Woodhaven, NY: 1974-79. Pasta attended P.S. 85 with Miller in Brooklyn, and later got him a job at the office of the Brooklyn Park Commissioner, where he earned enough money for his passage to Paris. Pasta appeared as Tony Marella in Miller's Plexus & Nexus, and is referred to many times in Miller's notebooks of outlines for The Rosy Crucifixion. These letters were written when both men were in their eighties, with news of old aquaintances and comments on Miller's writing: "I have glanced thru Vol. 2 of `Friends' - Henry, I think you are now beginning to show to the world the depth and warmth of your true self - your compassion and love for people and their struggles for a better and more fruitful life..." Fine - an important set of letters. (300/500).
SEVEN LETTERS FROM ALFRED PERLÈS
28. Perlès, Alfred. Group of seven T.L.s. from Perlès to his lifelong friend, Henry Miller, many with holograph postscripts, each one to two pages in legth. 4 in original envelopes (with Miller's notes to fronts). 1 contains an original color snapshot of Perlès and a woman playing chess at home; also with color snapshot of Perlès & his wife in Greece, 1971. Various places: 1975-78. The letters reminisce some and also discuss at length the illness and upcoming death they both face. One letter criticizes Brassaï's biography of Miller: "Since I have my own rather proprietary slant on you, Joey, I am hypercritical of anything written about you, but I agree with you that it isn't a very good book. Not grandeur nature at all. I don't mind so much the factual errors, of which there are many. What I find disappointing is the lack of deeper insight into your essential nature...Although he [Brassaï] was in our midst he was never quite with us. That's why his book reads as if written from hearsay by a friendly reporter...there are quite a few interesting apercus in the book; I liked in particular his juxtaposition of June and Manon Lescaut, which I found rather to the point. And the photographs of course are first rate..." From another, he writes, "Naturally I'm distressed about your physical condition but your handwriting looks as young as ever. Nor do you seem to have lost your old sense of humour. That remark of yours that you think of me `every other day' made me laugh. I. too, think of you very often and always with affection and gratitude for what you've done for me. It's you who have made a writer of me. Not that I couldn't have written even without you, but you've channeled my vision of things in the right direction..." From another: "So, you're writing another book about me, a `loving portrait' this time. I wonder what you can possibly say about me that you haven't already said so often in your previous references to me. Or can you intuitively take into account the mental and spiritual changes I've undergone since we last saw each other, nearly twenty years ago? There are days or moments I have a strong longing of seeing you again in the flesh. But what could we say to each other that we haven't already said before? The best we could do would be to weep together..." A few letters amiably end, "Keep your pecker up, Joey." Fine - a nice set of letters between these famed friends who first met when Miller moved to Paris and they shared a room, food, and women in their Monmartre studio. (500/800).
29. Perlès, Alfred & Henry Miller - Photographs. Two original black & white photographs of Perlès & Miller together, candidly conversing. 4-1/2x3-1/2, matted. Taken by W. Bullock. N.p.: W. Bullock, [c.1960's]. Signed by Bullock on the mats. Fine - attractive images of these old friends together. (100/150).
30. Perlès, Alfred - Photographs. Group of 41 original photographs, 1 postcard, & 1 original etching, of Alfred Perlès. 8x10 or smaller, some color, but most black & white. Various places: [c,1940's-1970]. Photographs depict Perlès in the British Pioneer Corps in the 1940's, in a Fleet Street pub, with several women, with his new wife Anne in 1951, in Cyprus in 1965, with Henry Miller in the 1940's & again in the 1960's, portraits, etc. Most are labeled on verso in the hands of Perlès or Miller (a few perhaps in Anne Perlès' hand). Very good or better - a nice group. (200/300).
TWO LETTERS FROM I.B. SINGER
31. Singer, Isaac Bashevis. 2 full-length 1-page A.L.s. from Singer to Henry Miller on personal stationery, in original hand-addressed envelopes with holograph return addresses, along with an A.N.s. from Miller writing out a congratualotry telegram to Singer. Surfside, FL: 1979. The letters are very laudatory in nature: "Everybody in literature, including myself, is grateful to you for your works and for your courageous and selfless fight for literary freedom, also for your gift to be a real friend..." And from the other, Singer writes in response to having promised Miller to help nominate him for the Nobel Prize, and then winning it himself: "I did not write to you until now because I was deeply ashamed. I felt like a matchmaker who himself marries the bride. God is my witness that I never knew I was a candidate and I was completely suprised when the prize came. I said it to reporters in Stockholm and in France that I consider you the writer who most deserves the Nobel Prize both for your works and for your selfless fight for literary freedom..." Accompanied by some ephemeral material, with notes by Miller on them. Neat tears to creases of this second letter, else about fine - a great association. (300/500).
LETTERS & WRITINGS OF HENRY MILLER
32. Miller, Henry. 1-page carbon T.L.s. (signed with initials in ink at end by Miller) to Anaïs Nin. N.p.: Feb., 1964. Formal letter, "In appreciation of our long friendship of many years," gifting to Nin the world rights to publish any letters Miller had sent to her in the 1930's & '40's. A bit of creasing to extremities, else very good - an important letter of authorization. (200/300).
33. Miller, Henry. 1-page carbon typed tribute to Beuford Delaney, sent for an evening in his honor at the American Cultural Center in Paris. With: 2 T.L.s. from Hélène Baltrusaitis, organizer of the event, to Miller requesting & thanking Miller for the tribute (with initialed holograph note from Miller on one), and a carbon typed letter from Miller to her, initialed by him in ink. Pacific Palisades & Paris: 1969. Delaney was honored by Miller in a chapter about him in Remember to Remember. Rust marks from paperclip, else very good. (100/150).
IMPORTANT PERSONAL LETTER TO AUTHOR CLAUDE HOUGHTON
34. Miller, Henry. 9-page T.L. from Miller to author Claude Houghton, with holograph corrections (some by Miller, some by Houghton). Also with A.N.s. from Houghton to Miller, returning the letter in 1958. Hollywood: [1942]. Houghton was a British writer who exchanged a series of letters with Miller beginning in 1942. Miller said that his letters to Houghton were some of the most personal he ever wrote, and this letter does not disappoint. Miller found important similarities in emotions described in a book of Houghton's to his own feelings when his second wife, June, left him for another woman in about 1927, spurring him to write
Tropic of Capricorn. (Interestingly, he states a couple of times in the letter that June was his third wife, not his second, with no explanation, so, a mystery.) On page 2, Miller really gets going: "In the year 1927 June, to whom I got married soon as I had divorced my second wife, left me to go to Europe - with a woman, a woman whom I loathed and detested. I hated as I had never hated before. it was like the Otto Steele affair. (My only great hatred). That temporary divorce was a real death to me. Just as you described yourself slowly and painfully struggling back to life, so might I described my return to life during the next seven years. Up to that point I mentioned, when I saw the pattern of my life clearly and significantly. In that three months when she was abroad I sank to the lowest point. I resolved then that I would write a book about her, about us, which would be immortal...It will take me to the end of my days to tell the story of my meeting with her and our life thereafter, which lasted until one day in 1933 or 34, in Clichy, where I was living with Perlès, when she suddenly ran away, leaving a note on the table for me, saying she wanted a divorce. I have never seen her since...I have not the courage to see her, and yet I must see her one day - there must be a reckoning...." In the following few pages, Miller quotes brief passages from Houghton's book and contrasts their striking similarity with the events, arguements, feelings, philosophies, etc. in his (Miller's) past. A fine and wonderfully revealing letter that should be seen and is quite worthy of being published. (1500/2500).
35. Miller, Henry. 3-page carbon T.L.s., March 28, 1968 & 2-page carbon T.L.s., Aug. 9, 1968, both initialed by Miller at end & with his holograph corrections, to French publisher Louis Pauwels. Accompanied by 2-page T.L.s. in French by Pauwels, dated March 17, 1968. Various places: various dates. Both of Millers' letters are of a philisophical nature, and the first was published by Pauwels in Planete Revue, Sept. 1968. Some creasing, else very good. (150/250).
15 PAGE LETTER TO CLURMAN
36. Miller, Henry. 15-page holograph letter to Harold Clurman, accompanied by 6-page typed carbon of the letter with holograph corrections by Miller & 4 pages of holograph notes by Miller forming the letter. N.p.: [July 18, 1975]. Miller writes to Clurman regarding a book Clurman had written on theatrical and literary Americans (likely Clurman's The Fervent Years: Group Theatre in the Thirties), adding many of his own memories of the people and events mentioned in Clurman's book: "I began going to the theatre (vaudeville) at about seven years of age. Sat in the `Nigger Heaven' every Saturday afternoon for ten cents! Saw Uncle Tom's Cabin with my mother when eight or nine and was disgusted with her for weeping over little Eva. `Mama,' I said, `it's only a play!'...Strange, but I often think of my early acquaintances in Europe. So easy to make friends with them. Right from the start I knew Kokoschka, Zadkine, Tihayi. When I finally met Sherwood Anderson and Dos Passos, at a bar in the Royalton Hotel, it was too late. My ten years in France had spoiled me for such Americans as these. We began to quarrel soon after our meeting. I despised everything American...To come back to a few wonderful souls I knew - 1.) Marcel Duchamp (the most civilized man I ever met), Man Ray (an expert on the Marquis de Sade), Jean Renoir, one of the most lovable human beings...But the days of the Greenwich Village Theatre, later the Theatre Guild - what playwrights! Werfel, Wedekind, Scnhitzler, Andreyev Gorky, Molnar, etc., etc., etc. At that time my wife June was an understudy for Winifred Lenihan's Joan of Arc. I met her in a dance hall (Greek) opposite The Roseland. First time around the floor (she was a taxi girl) she's telling me about Strindberg's `Miss Julie'. I was stunned! Later she began to resemble the Filipovna woman..." Miller remembers knowing Frank Harris and W.E.B. DuBois as a young man, philosophizes on the lonliness of William Faulkner, corrects and adds a few trivial facts to Clurman's research, and remarks on numerous books and authors that Clurman has perhaps also read. He tells Clurman that the author's personal reminiscences don't work in the book, but towards the end counters himself by writing, "But then comes a digression about the terrible quarrels between your parents. That strikes a deep chord in me. At the dinner table I used to choke on my food listening to them. For years I choked on my food and sometimes without food, just on my own spittle. When my son grew up he talked of his `traumatic' childhood, meaning what he endured listening (in bed, like you) to me quarreling, first with his mother and then with his stepmother. I still feel guilty when I think of these things. One should never, never quarrel before one's children. It's like putting a curse on them!...On page sixteen you metion your mother in a wonderful way. It was about money matters. How different from my mother, who, because I didn't become a tailor, refused to read anything of mine. And when I returned from Paris penniless she said to me, in all seriousness, `Why don't you write a book like `Gone With the Wind.' (I used to steal from her purse regularly.)" The notes differ greatly from the text of the letter. Holograph letter initialed by Miller in the upper corner. Rust marks from paperclips, else about fine - an important and meaningful letter, likely unpublished. (1000/1500).
37. Miller, Henry. 2 pp. A.L.s. on personal stationery to Robert A. Buchanan, Coordinator of Activites at Illinois Dept. of Corrections, regarding Miller's friend, prisoner Gene Lovitz. Pacific Palisades: May 8, 1976. The letter recommends Lovitz as a candidate for enrollment in a college program that was available through the prison, ending thus: "Why a man of his intelligence and abilities must rot in prison is one of those mysteries which baffles me. He is now a man of forty-seven. He has still a hard road to go. I admire his courage. In his place I would kill myself instead of seeking to round out my education." Fine. (120/180).
38. Miller, Henry. 4-page carbon typed open letter, signed, to various editors slamming his Japanese publishers. With a few holograph corrections. N.p.: 1974. Miller accuses his Japanese publishers of cheating him of his royalties, while at the same time lauding the overall population of Japanese women. Signed in purple ink. Rust marks from paperclip, else about fine. (100/150).
6-PAGE LETTER DESCRIBING MILLER'S MUSICAL THEORIES
39. Miller, Henry. 6-page A.L.s. to piano classmate Robin Commagere, regarding music. N.p.: Feb. 8, 1976. Commagere had given Miller the complete piano works of Scriabin for Christmas, and Miller discusses the music along with expounding his philosophies of music: "In Scriabin I am able to see myself. He sounds like the King of Dissonances at times and at other times like a divine stutterer...He seems to make his own rules - maybe that's what I like best about him...I don't suppose I ever told you but when I was in my late teens there came a period when I composed in my sleep. My specialty then was symphony music. I don't doubt that they were infantile and according to no rules but they seemed tremendous to me...Why did I hear no original music [at concerts], I used to ask myself. And so, in my sleep, I made up for all these followers of the rule and I went berserk. I think I probably did the same in writing. The Tropic of Cancer came like a --- there was a reason, or rather, many reasons for it. I was fed up, not only with rules, but with laws, principles, ideas and ideologies. Though I didn't realize it then, I was beginning to resemble an American Siddhartha, if you can imagine such a being. I was at the threshold of wisdom and close to insanity...." He goes on about the orgasmic experience of jazz, hearing Fletcher Henderson at the Roseland Dance Hall in New York (where he met June), Wagner, gypsy music, etc. A fine letter with great content. (500/800).