A Literate Passion

"For you and for me, the highest moment, the keenest moment is not when our minds dominate but when we lose our mind- and you and I both lose it the same way, by love"

-Anais Nin in a letter to Henry Miller. Feb. 22, 1932

 

  

  

 

I don't really know where to start here. I've been reading Anais Nin since I was in high school (dare I say 15 years ago?!) I don't  remember how I came to hear of her since I have a notoriously bad memory. It may have been after seeing "Henry & June." What I do remember is scouring used book stores in attempt to collect everything I could by her. I have most, but not all of her 7 volumes of diaries, not to mention the "A Journal of Love" series from her diary, and finally "A Literate Passion: the Letters of Anais Nin & Henry Miller, 1932-1953," which have all become obsessively underlined. I don't think I can really express how influential she was to me- then and now, so much so that I know I can't properly describe it right here. But, perhaps she is the reason why I have a closet full of journals, which reminds me...I should really start writing more.

If you aren't familiar with Henry & Anais, the 1990 film, "Henry & June" is a great introduction. Set in Paris in the 1930's, depicting the intertwined lives of Anais Nin, Henry Miller, and his wife, June. The photos above are from the film, starring Maria de Medeiros, Fred Ward, and Uma Thurman. And the costumes are to die for. Here is the trailer...

- "A Literate Passion" by Every Little Counts, inspired by Henry & Anais.

more links:

-The Official Anais Nin Blog 

-The Anais Nin website

-The Henry Miller Library

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August 14, 1932

Anais, I only thought I loved you before; it was nothing compared to this certainty that's in me now. Was all this so wonderful only because it was brief and stolen? Were we acting for each other, to each other? Was I less I, or more I, and you less or more you? Is it madness to believe that this could on? When and where would the drab moments begin? I study you so much to discover the possible flaws, the weak points, the danger zones. I don't find them- not any. That means I am in love, blind, blind. To be blind forever!

...I say this is a wild dream- but it is this dream I want to realize. Life and literature combined, love the dynamo, you with your chameleon's soul giving me a thousand loves, being anchored always in no matter what storm, home wherever we are. In the mornings continuing where we left off; resurrection after resurrection. You asserting yourself, getting the rich, varied life you desire; and the more you assert yourself the more you want me, need me. Your voice getting hoarser, deeper, your eyes blacker, your blood thicker, your body fuller. A voluptuous servility, willfully cruel. The insatiable delight of experience.

-Henry Miller in a letter to Anais Nin

an excerpt- june 7, 1932

Tuesday Night. June 7, 1932.

"Anais, you have become so vital a part of me that I'm completely upside down, if this means anything. I don't know what I write- only that I love you, that I must have you exclusively, fiercely, possessively. I don't know what I want. I've got too much, I guess. You've overwhelmed me and you've spoiled me. I keep asking harder and harder things of you. I expect you to accomplish miracles. You don't know how I miss those nights we spent together- how much they meant to me. Other times you are just a phantom, a wrath. You come and you make me sick with desire, with a desire to possess you, to have you around me always, talking to me naturally, moving about as if you were a part of me."

-Henry

(reading A Literate Passion- letters of Anais Nin and Henry Miller)

March 21, 1932

March 21, 1932
excerpt from a letter by Henry Miller to Anais Nin:
Anais, I don't know how to tell you what I feel. I live in a perpetual expectancy.You come and time slips away in a dream. It is only when you go that I realize completely your presence. And then it is too late. You numb me.