Henry Miller
The Paris Years
Brassaï, Timothy Bent
- 240 Pages
- May 15, 2011
- ISBN: 9781611450286
- Trim Size: 5.5in x 8.25in x 5.6in
Description
“A wonderful portrait of Miller in his heyday: full of beans and braggadocio, overflowing with the lust to live and write.”—Erica Jong
His years in Paris were the making of Henry Miller. He arrived with no money, no fixed address, and no prospects. He left as the renowned if not notorious author of Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn. Miller didn’t just live in Paris—he devoured it. It was a world he shared with Brassaï, whose work, first collected in Paris by Night, established him as one of the greatest photographers of the twentieth century and the most exquisite and perceptive chronicler of Parisian vice.
In Miller, Brassaï found his most compelling subject. Henry Miller: The Paris Years is an intimate account of a writer’s self-discovery, seen through the unblinking eye of a master photographer. Brassaï delves into Miller’s relationships with Anaïs Nin and Lawrence Durrell, as well as his hopelessly tangled though wildly inspiring marriage to June. He uncovers a side of the man scarcely known to the public, and through this careful portrait recreates a bright and swift-moving era. Most of all, Brassaï evokes their shared passion for the street life of the City of Light, captured in a dazzling moment of illumination.
His years in Paris were the making of Henry Miller. He arrived with no money, no fixed address, and no prospects. He left as the renowned if not notorious author of Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn. Miller didn’t just live in Paris—he devoured it. It was a world he shared with Brassaï, whose work, first collected in Paris by Night, established him as one of the greatest photographers of the twentieth century and the most exquisite and perceptive chronicler of Parisian vice.
In Miller, Brassaï found his most compelling subject. Henry Miller: The Paris Years is an intimate account of a writer’s self-discovery, seen through the unblinking eye of a master photographer. Brassaï delves into Miller’s relationships with Anaïs Nin and Lawrence Durrell, as well as his hopelessly tangled though wildly inspiring marriage to June. He uncovers a side of the man scarcely known to the public, and through this careful portrait recreates a bright and swift-moving era. Most of all, Brassaï evokes their shared passion for the street life of the City of Light, captured in a dazzling moment of illumination.
Authors
Brassaï (Gyula Halász) was a Hungarian photographer, sculptor, and filmmaker who rose to international fame in France in the twentieth century. One of the numerous Hungarian artists who flourished in Paris during the tumultuous gap between World Wars, he was an intimate friend of Henry Miller. In the early twenty-first century, the discovery of more than 200 letters and hundreds of drawings and other items from 1940–1984 has provided scholars with material for understanding his later life and career. He died in 1984.
Reviews
“A wonderful portrait of Miller in his heyday: full of beans and braggadocio, overflowing with the lust to live and write.”—Erica Jong