The Unknown Henry Miller

Henry Miller was one of the most distinctive voices in twentieth-century literature. Better known in Europe than in his native America for most of this career, he achieved international success and celebrity during the 1960s when his banned Paris books—beginning with Tropic of Cancer—were published here and judged by the Supreme Court not to be obscene. Until then he had toiled in relative obscurity and poverty.

The Unknown Henry Miller recounts Miller's career from its beginnings in Paris in the 1930s but focuses on his years living in Big Sur, California, from 1944 to 1961. During this time, he wrote many of his most important books, including The Rosy Crucifixion trilogy. He married and divorced twice, raised two children, painted watercolours, and tried to live out an aesthetic and personal credo of self-realisation.