The Devil at Large (39 page)

My Life and Times.
Gemini Smith/Playboy Press, Chicago, 1971.

A large illustrated book containing photographs, watercolors, an autobiographical essay by Henry, an introduction by Bradley Smith, a chronology of Henry’s life made by himself. A typical Henry-mélange of wisdom and humbug. The recollections of childhood are valuable, but the pictures of Henry playing Ping-Pong with bosomy naked blondes did his reputation more harm than good.

The Nightmare Notebook.
New Directions, New York, 1975.

Facsimile of Henry’s notebook during the tour of America with Abe Rattner that was the basis for
The Air-Conditioned Nightmare.
Fascinating descriptions of places, people, moods, as well as watercolors by Henry.

Book of Friends: A Tribute to the Friends of Long Ago.
Capra Press, California, 1976.

An octogenarian Henry recalls the Brooklyn of his youth and the friends he made on the street. As Brooklyn recedes, it gets rosier and rosier. There is a wooliness to the writing here; it is not Henry’s best work. Useful for autobiographical background.

Sextet.
Capra Press, California, 1977.

The short works collected here were first published separately by the Capra Press. They are: “On Turning Eighty,” “Reflections on the Death of Mishima,” “First Impressions of Greece,” “The Waters Reglitterized,” “Reflections on the Maurizius Case,” and “Mother, China and the World Beyond.” Another miscellany of works first published as pamphlets. In “Mother, China and the World Beyond,” Henry anticipates reunion with his mother in paradise and allows her a sweetness he has never recorded before. He seems to be preparing for his own death.

The World of Lawrence: A Passionate Appreciation.
Capra Press, California, 1980.

Begun after Kahane’s acceptance of
Tropic of Cancer
in 1932, and worked on intermittently for the next twenty years at least, this study of D.H. Lawrence never really found a coherent form. It chases its tail—Henry in search of Lawrence, finding Henry—but is full of revealing insights into Miller’s patriarchal view of the universe, sex, death, creativity.

Opus Pistorum.
Grove Press, New York, 1983.

(Republished in paperback as
Under the Roofs of Paris,
1984.) Under any title, this pornography-for-hire experiment is horribly written and besmirches Henry’s reputation. Some have argued it is a forgery. Forgery or not, it exemplifies the way fame betrays the famous. At his best, Henry Miller understood that sex and spirit were very close. At his worst, he played right into the hands of his critics.

Paint As You Like and Die Happy: The Paintings of Henry Miller
, ed. Noel Young. Chronicle Books, San Francisco, n.d. (circa 1990).

Illustrated volume of Henry’s watercolors from the thirties to the seventies. Also contains interesting prefaces by Noel Young and Lawrence Durrell. Reprints four Henry Miller essays on painting, including “To Paint Is to Love Again,” “The Painting Lesson,” and “The Waters Reglitterized.”

Crazy Cock.
Grove Press, New York, 1991. Introductions by Mary Dearborn and Erica Jong.

An early effort at fiction from the twenties, abandoned after Henry found his voice in
Tropic of Cancer.
It is not very good, but should be extremely encouraging to young writers in that it makes one see how desperately far Miller’s early voice was from the voice he eventually found. Henry seemed to know that this book should be burned, but unfortunately he didn’t burn it. It was found at U.C.L.A. after his death. He apparently told many friends it had been lost. Wishful thinking.

What Are You Going To Do About Alf?
Privately printed, Paris, 1935; American edition: Bern Porter, California, 1944.

Miller’s first “open letter to all and sundry” to raise money for Perlès so that he can go on with his Paris life. Reprinted “not as an appeal for alms but as a good joke.” Henry was to make something of a specialty of these open letters—both for his friends and for himself. The first (Paris) edition of this pamphlet is the rarest of all Henry’s Paris works.

Aller retour New York.
Obelisk Press/Editions du Chêne, Paris, 1935; Scorpion Press, England, 1959.

A very long letter to Alfred Perlès recounting Henry’s trip back to New York from Paris in the mid-thirties. Useful in demonstrating what New York meant to Henry, and in contrasting it with the freedom that he found in Paris.

An Open Letter to All and Sundry.
Privately printed, Chicago, 1943.

An appeal for support in exchange for watercolors. Portions of this letter were later published in
The New Republic
where they had “a howling success” (in Henry’s words), even though the same magazine had just “printed a critical villification of me as a man and artist.”

Dear Friends …”.
Privately printed, Big Sur, 1944.

An appeal for money so that Henry can continue his assault on literature. This was also placed in quarterlies. Henry requested $2,500 to enable him to write for a year. He was then at work on
The Air-Conditioned Nightmare
and
The Rosy Crucifixion.

Murder the Murderer: An Excursus on War from
The Air-Conditioned Nightmare. Berkeley/Big Sur; Porter/Miller, 1944

A diatribe against war published in 1944 was guaranteed to bring trouble. And it did. It was in 1944 that Miller was visited by the F.B.I. for having given a supposedly seditious speech at Dartmouth. This pamphlet was not widely distributed for political reasons and “Murder the Murderer” eventually appeared in
Remember to Remember
, 1947.

Semblance of a Devoted Past.
Bern Porter, Berkeley, California, 1944.

Letters from Henry to Emil Schnellock, written in Paris and Corfu between 1930 and 1939. Illustrated with Miller watercolors, they are full of insights into the writing of
Tropic of Cancer.
These letters later appear in
Letters to Emil
, edited by George Wickes, New Directions, New York, 1989.

Sunday After the War.
New Directions, Norfolk, Virginia, 1944.

A miscellany of earlier work.

The Angel Is My Watermark.
Holve-Barrows, Fullerton, California, 1944.

The earliest version in book form of “An Open Letter to All and Sundry,” with seven watercolors by Miller. Also contains the essay “The Angel is My Watermark!” a description of the process of making a watercolor, with digressions about writing, Spinoza, Bosch, and Miller’s New York family.

The Plight of the Creative Artist in the United States of America.
Bern Porter, Maine, 1944.

A collection of open letters including the famous “An Open Letter to All and Sundry.” The begging letter raised to an art form. Fund-raisers take note.

Varda, The Master Builder.
Circle Editions, Berkeley, California, 1947.

Biographical essay about Jean Varda of Monterey, Henry’s artist friend. Later reprinted in
Remember to Remember.

Echolalia: Reproductions of Water Colors.
Bern Porter, Berkeley, California, 1945.

Henry Miller Miscellanea.
Bern Porter, Berkeley, California, 1945.

Another anthology of early work.

Obscenity and the Law of Reflection.
Alicat Book Shop, Yonkers, New York, 1945.

The use of obscenity to awaken the reader. Henry sees obscenity as a form of revelation.

Why Abstract?
With Hilaire Hiler and William Saroyan. New Directions, New York, 1945.
*

The Amazing and Invariable Beauford Delaney.
Alicat Book Shop, Yonkers, New York, 1945

A biographical essay/story about the African-American artist Beauford Delaney. He was an artist in Africa, long before the white men began raiding that dark continent for slaves. Africa is the home of the artist, the one continent on this planet which is soul-possessed. But in white North America, where even the spirit has become bleached and blanched until it resembles asbestos, a born artist has to produce his credentials, has to prove that he’s not a hoax and a fraud, not a leper, not an enemy of society, especially not an enemy of our crazy society in which monuments are erected a hundred years too late. We discover that Henry was a multiculturalist before the term was invented. This essay/story appears also in
Remember to Remember.
It is a paean to blackness, which Henry equates with Buddhahood and enlightenment.

Maurizius Forever.
Colt Press, California, 1946.

A review/essay of
The Maurizius. Case
by Jacob Wassermann, 1929. The piece begins as a review, but becomes a philosophical essay about war, human civilization, and the possibility of mankind’s reaching a new level of consciousness.

Men God Forgot
by Albert Cossery. Gotham Book Mart, New York, 1946.

A book review by Henry, which originally appeared in
Circle
, a literary magazine.

Money and How It Gets That Way.
Booster Publications, Paris, 1938

Henry’s philosophy of money, written in response to Ezra Pound’s. Pound wrote Henry after he read
Tropic of Cancer
and asked him to think about the meaning of money.

“The Pointilliste of Big Sur.” Raymond & Raymond, California, 1946.

Announcement of Emil White’s exhibition of paintings, with short text by Miller.

Of, By & About Henry Miller.
Edited by Oscar Baradinsky. Alicat Bookshop, Yonkers, New York, 1947.

Contains the essays “Let Us Be Content With Three Little New-Born Elephants,” “The Novels of Albert Cossery, Another Bright Messenger,” and “Anderson the Storyteller.” Also contains articles on Miller by Herbert Read and others.

“I Defy You.” Henry Miller Literary Society, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1962.

An offprint from
Playboy
magazine in which Henry defies the Boston censors who banned
Tropic of Cancer
in 1962.

Journey to an Antique Land.
Ben Ben Press, Big Sur, 1962. Privately printed.
*

Just Wild about Harry: A Mel-Melo in Seven Scenes.
New Directions, New York, 1963.

Henry’s only play, written in two days.

Henry Miller on Writing.
Edited by Thomas H. Moore. New Directions, New York, 1964.

A compendium of excerpts from
Tropic of Cancer
,
Tropic of Capricorn
,
Black Spring
,
Sexus
,
Nexus
,
Plexus
,
The Hamlet Letters
,
The Cosmological Eye
,
The World of Sexus
, etc., which deal with the writing process and the supreme subject of writing—liberation. A wonderful book, showing the heart of Miller’s lifelong struggle to become a writer. Contains his commandments to himself, his daily program (1932–33) as well as his painting and reading agendas. Also contains the charts he made while writing
Plexus.
Fascinating, if you’ve ever wanted to write.

Face to Face with Henry Miller: Conversations with Georges Belmont.
Sidgwick & Jackson, London, England, 1971; published as
Henry Miller in Conversation
, Quadrangle Books, Chicago, 1972.

Interviews by Georges Belmont, originally made for French radio, ranging over such subjects as Henry’s life, the writing process, religion, etc.

Four Visions of America.
With Kay Boyle, Erica Jong, and Thomas Sanchez. Capra Press, California, 1977.

Originally conceived as a series of essays about America in her bicentennial year. Henry’s “A Nation of Lunatics” takes off from a phrase of Whitman’s. It is a burning indictment of America in 1976. It shows that even at eighty-five, Henry had lost none of his iconoclastic fire. The present author’s essay is a meditation on living on two coasts; Kay Boyle’s is about the longing for “Report from Lock-Up,” and Thomas Sanchez’s is about the liberation of Wounded Knee. A passionate, four-handed critique of America at two hundred.

Gliding into the Everglades, and Other Essays.
Lost Pleiade, Lake Oswego, Oregon, 1977.

Six brief essays on Japanese women, Picasso, Cabeza de Vaca, Marie Corelli, and Jack Nicholson, as well as the title piece, which deals with Miller’s trip to Florida in 1927–28 with Joe O’Regan and Emil Schnellock.

Love Between the Sexes.
Greenwich Books, New York, 1978.

Miller pamphlet in which this stunning line appears: “At the root of all evil … is the innate Puritanism of the Americans. Though they boast of sexual freedom, they do not mature as other peoples….”

My Bike & Other Friends.
Volume II of
Book of Friends.
Capra Press, California, 1978.

More recollections of Henry’s Brooklyn childhood, from the vantage point of his eighties.

Notes on
Aaron’s Rod
and Other Notes on Lawrence from the Paris Notebooks.
Edited by Seamus Cooney. Black Sparrow Press, California, 1980.

“Lawrence is writing
my
story here,” says Henry of
Aaron’s Rod.

O Lake of Light.
Capra Press, California, 1981.

Sent as a Christmas card by the Capra Press, this is Miller’s only published poem.

Nothing but the Marvelous: The Wisdoms of Henry Miller.
Edited by Blair Fielding. Capra Press, California, 1990.

Miscellany of inspiring Miller quotes.

The Paintings: A Centennial Retrospective.
Coast Publishing, Carmel, California, 1991.

Catalogue of posthumous watercolor exhibition. The owners of the paintings recall Henry and how and where the watercolors were made. Some of them are of his third wife, Lepska.

The Red Notebook
. JONATHAN
Williams, Highlands, North Carolina, 1958.

A reproduction of one of Henry Miller’s notebooks, including random notes and drawings. Shows the play of Miller’s mind.

The Story of George Dibbern’s
Quest. Privately printed, Big Sur, 1958.

A broadside reprint review of
Quest
and an appeal for money to support the aging Dibbern.

Defence of the Freedom to Read.
J.W. Cappelens Forlag, Oslo, 1959.