HENRY MILLER - AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED 11/20/1952 - HFSID 285184

HENRY MILLER

Signed Autograph Letter to friend Harry Marshall (1952), seeking Marshall's help in securing a passport so that he can return to Paris

Autograph Letter signed: "Henry Miller", 1 page, 8½x11. No place, 1952 November 20. To Harry Marshall, in full: "I'm coming up your way Sunday to go to Passport Bureau in S. F. on Monday morning and will call you up Sunday afternoone to see if a) I may stay overnight at your place and b) if you would be able to go with me Monday morning as an 'identifying witness' for the passport rigmarole. All this because I received a letter from my agent in Paris the other day saying a substantial sum was being transferred to me - enough to make the long projected trip to Paris. When I see you we can talk about the possibility of renting my place - if you are still interested. If you are not going to be home, and you get this in time to answer, write me immediately, will you. This in haste".  Henry Miller (1891-1980) is best known for his controversial 1934 novel, Tropic of Cancer, which, along with Tropic of Capricorn, chronicled Miller's life as an expatriate in Paris (1930-1939). First published in France, the works resulted in a 30-year censorship debate in the U.S. (which Miller finally won), over their sexual candor and concern for self-realization. While in Paris, Miller, the author of more than 36 works, became involved with married author Anais Nin. Ironically, it was Nin, not Miller, who documented their romance, which inspired the 1992 film, Henry and June. (June was June Edith Smith Mansfield, a former taxi driver and the second of Miller's five wives, who also had an affair with Nin). At the time he wrote this letter, Miller was living in Big Sur, which he helped to establish as an artist's colony during his stay there (1944-1963). He would later move to Pacific Palisades, California, where he died in 1980. Miller, who had begun writing Plexus, Book Two of The Rosy Crucifixion trilogy, in 1947, finished it in 1949; the work would not be published until 1953. In the year of this letter, Miller began work on Nexus, Book Three in the trilogy, which he would not complete 1959 (published in 1960). Also in 1952, Miller divorced Janina Lepska and left for Europe on December 29 with Eve McClure, whom he would marry the following December. 1 horizontal 2 vertical fold creases. Lightly toned. Otherwise fine condition.