Henry Miller Follow

Henry Miller (1891-1980) was an American writer and painter famous for breaking with existing literary forms and developing a new sort of "novel" that is a mixture of novel, autobiography, social criticism, philosophical reflection, surrealist free association and mysticism, one that is distinctly always about and expressive of the real-life Henry Miller and yet is also fictional. His most characteristic works of this kind were Tropic of Cancer, Tropic of Capricorn and Black Spring. His books were banned in the United States for their lewd content until 1964 when a court ruling overturned this order, acknowledging Miller's work as literature in what became one of the most celebrated victories of the sexual revolution. He died in 1980 at his home in Pacific Palisades, Calif., at age 88. 

Cover photo by Charles Patrick Ewing (CC BY)