HENRY MILLER was born on December 26, 1891, in Manhattan and grew up in Brooklyn. After a string of dreary jobs and a disastrous first marriage, Miller left for Paris in 1930. Tropic of Cancer, published when he was forty-three and immediately banned in all English-speaking countries, is considered his most important book. Miller's works include Black Spring (1936), Tropic of Capricorn (1939), The Cosmological Eye (1939), The Colossus of Maroussi (1941), The Time of the Assassins (1946), The Air-Conditioned Nightmare (1945), and his autobiographical trilogy, The Rosy Crucifixion, comprised of Sexus (1949), Plexus (1953), and Nexus (1960). In 1940, Miller returned to America and settled in Big Sur, California. A lusty romantic. Miller married five times, the last to Japanese singer Hoki Tokuda. His courageous legal battle against the censorship of Tropic of Cancer ended with a landmark 1964 Supreme Court decision, which guaranteed a new freedom of expression to all American writers. Generous and supportive of other artists throughout his life.
Henry Miller in his final years was surrounded by young admirers and old friends. Writing, painting, and carrying on a voluminous correspondence until the very end. Henry Miller died in June, 1980, in the arms of his housekeeper.
HENRY MILLER