Anaïs Nin(1903-1977)
- Writer
- Actress
Anaïs Nin was born February 21, 1903 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, a suburb of
Paris, France. She moved to the United States in 1914 with her mother,
singer Rosa Culmell and two brothers, Thorvald and Joaquin. Her father
was Joaquin Nin, a Spanish pianist and composer, who abandoned the
family after leaving his family at various intervals in his career to
tour Europe and Cuba, when Nin was eleven. Shortly afterward, on the
boat Monserrat, Nin began her childhood diary, "Linotte", written as an
extended letter to her papa.
Anaïs wanted to be an artist from the very moment she could speak. She
loved books, stories, artists, musicians, fine music, good food, and
grew accustomed to being surrounded by the sounds of late night
bohemian laughter from her parents dinner parties heard from the
downstairs parlor before the two were separated. Anaïs was a model for
her father's early photographs at this time and used to steal into his
study when he was away and read all his books voraciously. She was
seriously ill as a child and nearly died twice from various internal
organ afflictions. If not for a kind Belgian couple and the care of
three Belgian nurses, Anaïs Nin might never have made the impact on
literature and the feminist movement that she did later on in life,
from her work spanning her Diaries written in the the tumultuous 30's
to her eventual critical success in the socially aware 60s and 70s.
In New York, Anaïs loved writing in her diary, dreaming,
philosophizing, and recording her thoughts and reflections as she grew
into a beautiful young woman with grand dreams and a host of
insecurities. She had an active imagination and preferred rainy days of
reading curled up with a wonderful book or her diary at the little
windowsill seat - and she loved to dance and had a connection to nature
heavily influenced by poets like Byron, Blake and the New England
Transcendentalists. Her Catholic faith wavered in and out due to
philosophical doubts about the meaning of life and suffering, caused by
her anguish over her beloved war torn France and the deep rift felt
inside her since being uprooted.
After living in New York for nine years, at twenty Anaïs married Hugh
Guiler (later known as engravist and filmmaker of "Bells of Atlantis"
and "Jazz of lights" Ian Hugo), a banker in the twenties and thirties,
and moved back to Paris with him. Nin began writing short stories
(later published as Waste of Timelessness) with publication in mind,
but felt torn between her duties as a conservative banker's wife and
her desire for artistic expression. Nevertheless, it was around this
time that Nin published her first work, D. H. Lawrence: An
Unprofessional Study (1932), which was well-received.
Then she met self proclaimed gangster-poet 'Henry Miller'(I), a
struggling Brooklyn writer in Paris, through her lawyer. Miller and
especially his wife, the mythic June Mansfield Miller, enchanted Anaïs
by their 'hard' bohemian living and their associations with the crème
de la crème of Paris' underbelly (including actor and creator of
theatre de cruelte, Antonin Artaud).
She became deeply influenced by writers like Lawrence, Proust, and in
particular Djuna Barnes' novel Nightwood. Nin channeled her evolving
psycho-sexual impressions of the vicious circle/love triangle between
her, Henry and June into the surrealistic prose-poem House of Incest
and in her Diaries. She also worked along her compatriots on a dollar a
page erotica, later the poetic, emotive bestselling Delta of Venus and
Little Birds.
In the mid-to-late 1930s, Nin, Miller, Lawrence Durell and other
writers in the Villa Seurat circle who experienced difficulty finding
publishers founded Siana Editions (Anais spelled backwards!) to publish
their own works. Nin in particular could find no one to publish House
of Incest (1936) or Winter of Artifice. In 1939 these books were
well-received in Europe. However, when Anaïs eventually moved back to
New York City in 1939 with her husband, she found American publishers
and the average reading public closed off to her work. Miller achieved
critical and commercial success decades before Nin, despite her initial
efforts to edit, support and publish him along with her own work. After
several years of trying to place her works with American publishers,
Nin bought a second-hand printing press with a loan from Bookseller and
founder of New York's famed Gotham Book Mart and with the help of
Anaïs' latest paramour, Peruvian political activist Gonzalo More, she
began to typeset and print her own books. Nin's work eventually caught
the attention of critic Edmund Wilson, who praised her writing and
helped her on the road to obtaining an American publisher.
It was Nin's Diary, however, that brought her the greatest success and
critical acceptance that she was to receive. Nin never intended the two
hundred manuscript volumes for publication, and many, including Miller,
Rank, Alfred Perles, Durrel and Allendy, tried to convince Anaïs that
her obsessive diary writing was destroying her chance at writing the
great American novel. However Nin decided she had to "go her own way,
the woman's way" and continue her lifelong odyssey of self exploration
and reflection through the Diaries. To reconcile fiction and fact Nin
eventually began rewriting diary entries into her fiction and vice
versa, protecting those who wanted to maintain their privacy (usually
lovers) while still writing in her preferred medium.
Nin was involved in the some of the most interesting literary and
artistic movements of the 20th century including the outskirts of
Paris' 1920's Lost Generation, the psychoanalytic and surrealist
movements of the 30s and 40s, the Beat movement of the 50s in Greenwich
Village, the avant garde crowd in 60s California and the women's
movement of the 70's. She maintained relationships (and kept two
bi-coastal "husbands" in the later part of her life) with many vital
artists and writers over her lifespan and was in great demand as a
lecturer at universities across the United States until she died of
cancer in 1977.
Paris, France. She moved to the United States in 1914 with her mother,
singer Rosa Culmell and two brothers, Thorvald and Joaquin. Her father
was Joaquin Nin, a Spanish pianist and composer, who abandoned the
family after leaving his family at various intervals in his career to
tour Europe and Cuba, when Nin was eleven. Shortly afterward, on the
boat Monserrat, Nin began her childhood diary, "Linotte", written as an
extended letter to her papa.
Anaïs wanted to be an artist from the very moment she could speak. She
loved books, stories, artists, musicians, fine music, good food, and
grew accustomed to being surrounded by the sounds of late night
bohemian laughter from her parents dinner parties heard from the
downstairs parlor before the two were separated. Anaïs was a model for
her father's early photographs at this time and used to steal into his
study when he was away and read all his books voraciously. She was
seriously ill as a child and nearly died twice from various internal
organ afflictions. If not for a kind Belgian couple and the care of
three Belgian nurses, Anaïs Nin might never have made the impact on
literature and the feminist movement that she did later on in life,
from her work spanning her Diaries written in the the tumultuous 30's
to her eventual critical success in the socially aware 60s and 70s.
In New York, Anaïs loved writing in her diary, dreaming,
philosophizing, and recording her thoughts and reflections as she grew
into a beautiful young woman with grand dreams and a host of
insecurities. She had an active imagination and preferred rainy days of
reading curled up with a wonderful book or her diary at the little
windowsill seat - and she loved to dance and had a connection to nature
heavily influenced by poets like Byron, Blake and the New England
Transcendentalists. Her Catholic faith wavered in and out due to
philosophical doubts about the meaning of life and suffering, caused by
her anguish over her beloved war torn France and the deep rift felt
inside her since being uprooted.
After living in New York for nine years, at twenty Anaïs married Hugh
Guiler (later known as engravist and filmmaker of "Bells of Atlantis"
and "Jazz of lights" Ian Hugo), a banker in the twenties and thirties,
and moved back to Paris with him. Nin began writing short stories
(later published as Waste of Timelessness) with publication in mind,
but felt torn between her duties as a conservative banker's wife and
her desire for artistic expression. Nevertheless, it was around this
time that Nin published her first work, D. H. Lawrence: An
Unprofessional Study (1932), which was well-received.
Then she met self proclaimed gangster-poet 'Henry Miller'(I), a
struggling Brooklyn writer in Paris, through her lawyer. Miller and
especially his wife, the mythic June Mansfield Miller, enchanted Anaïs
by their 'hard' bohemian living and their associations with the crème
de la crème of Paris' underbelly (including actor and creator of
theatre de cruelte, Antonin Artaud).
She became deeply influenced by writers like Lawrence, Proust, and in
particular Djuna Barnes' novel Nightwood. Nin channeled her evolving
psycho-sexual impressions of the vicious circle/love triangle between
her, Henry and June into the surrealistic prose-poem House of Incest
and in her Diaries. She also worked along her compatriots on a dollar a
page erotica, later the poetic, emotive bestselling Delta of Venus and
Little Birds.
In the mid-to-late 1930s, Nin, Miller, Lawrence Durell and other
writers in the Villa Seurat circle who experienced difficulty finding
publishers founded Siana Editions (Anais spelled backwards!) to publish
their own works. Nin in particular could find no one to publish House
of Incest (1936) or Winter of Artifice. In 1939 these books were
well-received in Europe. However, when Anaïs eventually moved back to
New York City in 1939 with her husband, she found American publishers
and the average reading public closed off to her work. Miller achieved
critical and commercial success decades before Nin, despite her initial
efforts to edit, support and publish him along with her own work. After
several years of trying to place her works with American publishers,
Nin bought a second-hand printing press with a loan from Bookseller and
founder of New York's famed Gotham Book Mart and with the help of
Anaïs' latest paramour, Peruvian political activist Gonzalo More, she
began to typeset and print her own books. Nin's work eventually caught
the attention of critic Edmund Wilson, who praised her writing and
helped her on the road to obtaining an American publisher.
It was Nin's Diary, however, that brought her the greatest success and
critical acceptance that she was to receive. Nin never intended the two
hundred manuscript volumes for publication, and many, including Miller,
Rank, Alfred Perles, Durrel and Allendy, tried to convince Anaïs that
her obsessive diary writing was destroying her chance at writing the
great American novel. However Nin decided she had to "go her own way,
the woman's way" and continue her lifelong odyssey of self exploration
and reflection through the Diaries. To reconcile fiction and fact Nin
eventually began rewriting diary entries into her fiction and vice
versa, protecting those who wanted to maintain their privacy (usually
lovers) while still writing in her preferred medium.
Nin was involved in the some of the most interesting literary and
artistic movements of the 20th century including the outskirts of
Paris' 1920's Lost Generation, the psychoanalytic and surrealist
movements of the 30s and 40s, the Beat movement of the 50s in Greenwich
Village, the avant garde crowd in 60s California and the women's
movement of the 70's. She maintained relationships (and kept two
bi-coastal "husbands" in the later part of her life) with many vital
artists and writers over her lifespan and was in great demand as a
lecturer at universities across the United States until she died of
cancer in 1977.