Henry Miller:
(New York, 26 December 1891 – Los Angeles, 7 June 1980).
American writer. His best-known work is 1934‘s “Tropic of Cancer” (’Tropic of Cancer’).
Henry Miller’s childhood is set in Brooklyn. He breaks off his studies after two months and takes various jobs. In 1917, he marries Beatrice Sylvas Wickens. They have a daughter.
In 1920, Miller joins the Western Union Telegraph Service, as staff manager for the delivery service. He makes attempts at writing but finds himself a great failure in this field (and the world in general), except for art. In a relationship with June Edith Smith Mansfield, he gets enough money together to travel to Paris in 1930, to the ‘civilised world’.
In Paris, he does not have it easy. Jobs as a ‘proof-reader’ and the kindness of his friends keep him alive. In 1931, at the Villa Seurat in Montparnasse, he writes his first novel, ‘Tropic of Cancer’, published in 1934. This was followed by ‘Black Spring’ (‘Black Spring’) and the sister novel to ‘Tropic of Cancer’; ‘Tropic of Capricorn’ (‘Tropic of Capricorn’). During the Paris period, he also had a relationship with Anaïs Nin.
In 1940, he returns to the United States. He then lives mainly in Big Sur (California), where he dies in 1980.
Next to love friendship, in my opinion, is the most valuable thing life has to offer.
Music is the can opener of your soul.
Chaos is the word we coined for an order we don’t understand.
Every man, when he gets quiet, when he becomes deperately honest with himself, is capable of uttering profound truths. We all derive from the same source. There is no mystery about the origin of things. We are all part of creation, all kings, all poets, all musicians; we have only to open up, to discover what is already there.
