Lot 134

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Description:

Miller Henry 1891 - 1980

Henry Miller TLS to "Playboy" editor Ray Russell the year before publication of "Nexus".

1pp TLS signed by American author Henry Miller as "Henry Miller" at bottom, and inscribed with a 51-word postscript along the margin of the left page, in black felt tip pen. In very good condition, with mat burn overall, expected paper folds, and minor damage from a removed staple in the upper left corner. Two words have been circled in pencil. Page measures 8.5" x 11". Accompanied by a December 4, 1958 1pp typed letter on newsprint from Ray Russell, with faint impression of "Playboy" bunny stamp at the masthead. In good condition, with moderate browning, a few smudges, and staple holes in upper left corner, page measuring 8.5" x 11".

Henry Miller wrote this November 30, 1958 letter to "Editor, Playboy", Ray Russell from his home in Big Sur, California. Miller explained that he had been previously contacted by "Playboy" staff to contribute to their magazine, and he wondered if they were still looking for content. "Are you of the same mind? I am now obliged to raise a sum of money quickly and cannot wait until I receive my regular royalties [sic] payments", Miller wrote. "Nor can I, because I am struggling to finish the first volume of a new book (Nexus), sit down and write something expressly for Playboy. But I could send you a fragment or two (of about 20 typed pages) from this new, unpublished book, which will have to be published abroad, not here. Or/and I could send you a few selections from works already published, none of which have enjoyed a huge sale - nothing of mine has in America! Or/and I could submit the original story, about 12 pages, which I later rewrote, expanded, and wove into the section of 'Quiet Days in Clichy' - about a whore named Berthe. (In the book this part was called 'Mara-Marignan'. Not more than fifty copies, if that much, have yet come into this country, I believe".

Henry Miller (1891-1980) joked about his lack of American readers. Between 1938 and 1961, the U.S. government banned Miller's controversial works from the country, and Great Britain and Japan followed suit. Even after the ban was lifted by U.S. Supreme Court decision, publishing houses, book stores, and consumers faced harassment by morality-minded organizations, lawsuit plaintiffs, and even police intimidation. Miller's works inspired Beatniks like Jack Kerouac, who wanted to throw off the middle-class conventions of postwar America. The "fifty copies" of "Quiet Days in Clichy" that Miller mentions in his letter were probably black-market copies.

Miller's "new, unpublished book" would become "Nexus", published the next year in 1959. Along with "Sexus" (1949) and "Plexus" (1953), "Nexus" formed "The Rosy Crucifixion" trilogy. This series was partly autobiographical, and explored Miller's work and romantic relationships in the 1920s. "Quiet Days in Clichy", also mentioned in the letter as something for sale, had been previously published in 1956. As Miller bluntly put it, the second part of this novel set in Paris concerned "a whore named Berthe".

Miller was blacklisted because of his frank treatment of sex in "Tropic of Cancer" (1934), "Black Spring" (1936), and "Tropic of Capricorn" (1939). In this way, the uninhibited "Playboy" seemed the ideal literary vehicle for publishing his work: "I am not writing to any other American periodical; I selected yours because I understand you pay well, and also because you are probably less inhibited about the use of certain words or phrases than the editors say of Life or Atlantic Monthly. Nothing I would offer you is pornographic or obscene in intent or substance. On the other hand, I cannot agree to the elimination or modification of supposedly offensive words or phrases".

In closing, Miller also recommended his writer friends George Dibbern (1889-1962), Alfred Perles (1897-1990), and Claude Houghton (1889-1961). Russell promised to consider the German-born Dibbern's work for "possible use in our chatty, informal After Hours Department" in his response to Miller dated December 4, 1958.

Ray Russell (1924-1999) was a writer of the Southern Gothic tradition and horror sub-genre in addition to serving as "Playboy"'s executive editor. Russell's most famous short story "Sardonicus", was published in "Playboy" in 1961. "Playboy" Magazine, co-founded by Hugh Heffner (born 1926) in 1953, was a lifestyle magazine geared towards the modern American man. Besides offering erotic literature and nude photographs to its consumers, Playboy also featured short stories, cartoons, and interviews with some of the most notable literary and entertainment figures of its day.

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