Henry Valentine Miller December 26, β June 7, was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist. He broke with existing literary forms and developed a new type of semi-autobiographical novel that blended character study, social criticism, philosophical reflection, stream of consciousness , explicit language, sex, surrealist free association , and mysticism.
In , his family moved to Decatur Street in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn. Miller married his first wife, Beatrice Sylvas Wickens, in ; [ 11 ] their divorce was granted on December 21, In March , during a three-week vacation, he wrote his first novel, Clipped Wings. It has never been published, and only fragments remain, although parts of it were recycled in other works, such as Tropic of Capricorn.
She was 21 at the time. Miller's second novel, Moloch: or, This Gentile World , was written in β28, initially under the guise of a novel written by his wife Juliet June. Kronski lived with Miller and June from until , when June and Kronski went to Paris together, leaving Miller behind, which upset him greatly.
Miller suspected the pair of having a lesbian relationship. While in Paris, June and Kronski did not get along, and June returned to Miller several months later. In , Miller spent several months in Paris with June, a trip which was financed by Freedman. Service , who recalled the story in his autobiography: "Soon we got into conversation which turned to books. For a stripling he spoke with some authority, turning into ridicule the pretentious scribes of the Latin Quarter and their freak magazine.
Nin became his lover and financed the first printing of Tropic of Cancer in with money from Otto Rank. This period in Paris was highly creative for Miller, and during this time he also established a significant and influential network of authors circulating around the Villa Seurat. Miller's correspondence with Durrell was later published in two books. His works contain detailed accounts of sexual experiences.
