*SOLD*
Henry Miller
Paris, 1934
 
Cavernously deep existential insights hidden throughout a wreckage of vulgarity that would make drunken sailors squeamish.
 
First edition. Original wrappers with front hinge split professionally closed. Slight age toning to covers and spine, small area of rubbing to upper left cover, else Near Fine. Housed in a custom case.Henry Miller, as the story goes, arrived in 1930 Paris with little money, unfinished manuscripts, and a copy of Whitman’s Leaves of Grass (another person that pushed the boundaries of acceptability in his time). Henry had essentially rage quit life in the U.S to embark upon the novel that would make him infamous. Thanks to the great Anais Nin - using both her editing skills and money borrowed from her psychoanalyst, lover, and friend of Freud, Dr. Otto Rank - he got 1000 copies of Tropic published in 1934. Banned in the U.S and U.K., it became an underground sensation to the point that people were essentially drug mule-ing copies back home. With people stuffing copies into their underwear and tearing the wrappers apart to hide it from the authorities, it’s a book that isn’t easy to find in this good condition.