I was just rearranging my bookshelves, mostly planning to trash decrepit mass-market paperbacks, but I'll keep this. It was, undoubtedly, bought by my parents and read — perhaps only up to page 163 — and then migrated to my house after my parents were both [word in the upper right hand corner, above].Here's the front cover, proving how old this thing is, and the back cover for good measure:
"Any public censor who touches this book will touch living tissue — much of it disgusting, much of it beautiful."
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The day began like any other, but before it was over Ann Althouse would realize to her horror and disgust that her father had a whole other life that she knew nothing about ...
I like henry miller. The good outweighs the bad in his two famous "tropic" novels. I like his non-fiction too, especially "Air Conditioned Nightmare" and "Big Sur".
For some reason he always reminds me of E.E. Cummings, but I can't say why.
Did your parents have "Lolita" or "Ulysses"?
In a bit a synchronicity I just read this last night:
"Trying to read Miller for the first time at sixty is like taking up squash. I should have started earlier, when I might have been susceptible to what he was up to and before the liberties he took with the novel form became universally available. But even that might not have been early enough; maybe I needed to have read him an entire generation or two earlier."
- Geoff Dyer, The Last Days of Roger Federer
Maybe that's the missing copy of the book that George Costanza checked out of the library.
The only blurber that a literate person today would recognize is Durrell.
"Little behind" my ass.
Too bad it didn't have a Roger Price Droodle cocktail napkin.
"The good outweighs the bad in his two famous "tropic" novels. "
You are never going to get a blurb published that way!
“ The day began like any other, but before it was over Ann Althouse would realize to her horror and disgust that her father had a whole other life that she knew nothing about ...”
Nope. I grew up in a house where Playboy was on the coffee table next to Life and Look … in the 1950s, before this edition came out.
I never did read it, I guess they felt at my college at that time that "Fear of Flying" was a more important novel for young men to read than this towering opus, and with only Moby Dick fit to share the plinth!
Now I do want to read it. Why not? I was looking for something. I bet it won't be as good as Portnoy's Complaint, though.
Collectable version listed at $64 on Amazon, not sure your copy qualifies though.
"For the articles, Ann, for the articles ..."
Nixon looks terrible in this
My parents always gave us cold medicine (Dimetapp, which I hated, and Robitussin, which I loved) in shotglasses. There were two; one had the face of a drunk man painted on the outside and his googly eyes painted on the inside so he looked more drunk and googly, and the other had the words "Down da hatch!" - possibly with an image; I don't recall.
Then there were the liquor decanters. My favorite, in which they kept creme de menthe (with which they would sometimes let us top our vanilla ice cream), was a tall leather-wrapped bottle shaped like a stylized dog, with emerald eyes.
Ah, the '60s and '70s...
I once wore a silver lamé jumpsuit of my mom's from that era in a high school play in 1983-1984. Gahrie may have a dim memory of that.
There is a decided air of nostalgia around the blog today!
What I know of Henry Miller is based almost entirely on the TV series The Durrells in Corfu. I do remember that book Tropic of Cancer sitting around in the 1970s, unread. It had an aura of forbidden mystery, but apparently not a very inviting one to those of us in the second cohort of the baby boom. Portnoy’s Complaint, mentioned above in the the comments, also went unheard.
I read a little of this book - because it was so notorious. Never really got into it and also stopped around page 163
Enh. I remember the Simpsons episode set in a hospital when Bart Magic-Markers up his backside and then waggles it before his audience: "Hi, I'm Doctor Cheeks! I'm making my rounds, but I'm a little behind."
I loved TROPIC OF CANCER when I read it nearly 45 years ago, just out of college. (I also read TROPIC OF CAPRICORN, the ROSY CRUCIFICION TRILOGY, (comprised of the books SEXUS, PLEXUS, NEXUSa), and a few other of his works, including THE AIR CONDITIONED NIGHTMARE, (Miller's view of America after returning from his time in Paris). I still have my Grove Press paperbacks of these books on my bookshelf.
In my boyhood, the most pornographic things I ever saw at home were the lingerie ads in the paper or the Sears catalog.
Pages liberated from friends' fathers' old Playboys were golden . . .
I've not read Miller.
Sticking little postcards, notes and photos and things like this in books is something my wife started doing in her 20s.
Tropic of Cancer is at the feature of one of my favorite Seinfeld episodes: "The Library"
I've more enjoyed reading about Henry Miller than reading him.
What’s the word for her pose? Demure, apologetic, flirtatious, impatient,…?
Tom T.
Jerry checked it out, George lost it.
I vaguely remember watching a movie based on the writer, and the time the writer was writing this book.
As a Woody Allen connoisseur I had to watch those kinds of films.
Quote from White Lotus I believe.
The perennial question with Henry Miller books:
what do they smell like?
Well, that's pretty pathetic.
Did they also subscribe to Hustler, or did they fancy themselves snobs?
Fast-forward... she's not so innocent.
I love the little red tag telling you that you're (1) getting all the "Dirty stuff" and (2) saving a ton of money.
The blurbs on the back represent the time when authors and critics wanted freedom of speech and the freedom to read about anything - as opposed to today. The old time censors were quite stupid. They should have said that "Tropic of Cancer makes me feel unsafe, is antisemitic, and is harmful to women".
Mentioned above, but here is one of the funniest scenes ever filmed for American television with the recently deceased Philip Baker Hall.
The Library Policeman
That appears to be the same edition my parents had in a drawer in the bedroom that held the banned in Boston books. Also present were Tropic of Capricorn, Fannie Hill, Moll Flanders and Lolita. I read the latter three eventually but not the Henry Miller.
Bottoms up?
Vintage peer pressure cocktail coaster. Cool.
Little snippets of your parents to keep are always great, especially since this one takes you no room at all. Ha!
That's a fantastic cocktail napkin bookmark, and a not unknown female pose. I've a cocktail recipe book (in all its 288 glorious pages) entitled "Ted Saucier's / Bottoms Up". My edition is from 1962 - it was first published in 1951. It has a dozen or so full plate 'nose art' style NSFW full colour illustrations of fetching ladies, and line drawings of scantily-clad women throughout. Don't tell me those WW2 vets didn't know what they wanted upon arriving home.
I should also note that the author dedicated the book to his wife, so the ladies might also have known what they wanted as well.
Still, it allows me to mix up a 'Mimi', a 'Room and Board', a 'Mac Special', or a 'Charles Coburn' cocktail according to the listed recipes, with the accompanying naked ladies. Win-Win.
I read the page which says Miller went to the public library and there after "bathing in the Ganges" and "pondering" over the signs of the zodiac, he began to "reflect" on Strindberg, his pilgrimage and how the poet seemed to be "ordained to re-enact a lost drama" and so he.... Honestly, I read one of the Tropics in college and I remember nothing about literary musing, I simply remember being confused about his economic circumstances as depicted between the porno bits. When I got tired of that combo, I was through with Miller. It was the start of franchise sex, the same wherever he was.
I remember seeing that exact coaster in my youth! Not sure why I would file that trivia away, but the picture of it bubbled it back to the surface. Weird how our memories work.
“ Did they also subscribe to Hustler, or did they fancy themselves snobs?”
Hustler didn’t exist until 1974, so no.
I do remember Swank and Escapade.
In high school in the early 1960s — in my high school, anyway — sex education consisted of reading Roth, Miller, and.Mary McCarthy’s The Group. Suboptimal.
Can some other geezer help me out here? Those little innocent, carefully posed, line drawings of nudes. Didn’t you see them all over the place way back in the day? Sort of like Margaret Keane’s big-eyed children before Margaret Keane?
Every generation believes they invented sex and drugs.
mcculloug;
Absolutely. My mom and I had that talk, when she was in her 80's and me 50 something. Some one on the radio opining about something and so self important about their erudite sexual expertise.
Mom was a WWII nurse serving in Europe. I can only imagine how the troops must have lusted after women during wartime.
Hustler. The year after graduation my best female friend, purely platonic for some reason, sex was only talked about endlessly, but never considered between the two of us. Anyway she showed up in the Hustler Beaver Hunt.
My parents also had a copy of this book, along with a lot of other 20th century existential stuff (The Tin Drum, Remembrance of Things Past, etc.) which I generally ignored pre-college. Then I became an English major and read all of them.
mccullough,
No, I think that was my wife and me. I mean we have 2 kids...
My father had "Autobiography of a Flea" in his"private" top drawer of his dresser. Way before that I had shoplifted paperback copies of "A Man and his Maid" and "My Secret Life" Lots of dog-eared pages in those two.
MarcusB. THEOLDMAN
Yes, Althouse, you have frequently mentioned growing up with copies of Playboy on the coffee table. So did you grow up hoping to find a wealthy, handsome, sophisticated, jazz-loving man who would move you into his deluxe New York apartment overlooking Central Park?
At least you were never motivated to pose, right?
Swank! Oh Lordy, Ann! You are hilarious at times. I didn't know about Swank until I was in my 30s.
My mother-n-father were pharmacists. The business model included selling magazines, and cigarettes.
One day in 1972 there was a new Playboy magazine called "Gallery". Some black rocket scientist decided that the virgin, the initial addition of Gallery magazine would by worth way more money someday......in the future. He dropped $30, and picked up 30 copies of printing press alchemy.
Today, I'm sure that guy is still riding the rail at the horse races.
FTX anyone??
I do remember Swank
I like women. I thought Swank was demeaning.
Cookie, you are not married................are you.
Rollo said, "Ann Althouse would realize to her horror and disgust that her father had a whole other life that she knew nothing about."
Why are you so sure the book belonged to her father, Rollo?
As a contemporary of the prof (born 1952), I can assure you that in the 1960s, the moms of Malibu, Topanga, Pacific Palisades, Brentwood, Westwood and Santa Monica also had some transgressive, voracious literary (and physical) appetites...
There is a small bookstore in Orange County CA called, The Bookman. Every once in a while the owner puts up a video on their facebook page called, "Things found in old books."
That cocktail napkin is dripping with early '60s suburban hipdom. This is exactly the market that Hefner was exploiting. Your parents, like mine and all their friends, had grown up in the Great Depression, served in WWII, built careers and raised families in the Age of Conformity in the '50s. They were ready to break out. They were ready to be cute and a little sassy.
A naughty cocktail napkin in a copy of Tropic of Cancer! I love it! It makes me want to look at those old "Playboy after Dark" shows on YouTube. For instance:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JcRigcJgBk
Portnoy's Complaint can't touch Tropic of Cancer.
The coaster reminds me of the ‘Love Is’ cartoons.
Some black rocket scientist decided that the virgin, the initial addition of Gallery magazine would by worth way more money someday.
Pres. Carter in the news lately. That brings up his Brother Billy. Billy ventured into 'Billy Beer". One of the 5 O'clock happy regulars at the local tap, took 2 6paks, full and still in the rings, to a beer can show. He came back with them, saying he turned down $100 for the pair. I told him he saved they guy from living the "a fool and his money is soon parted" parable.
@stlcdr, yes! You answered the question I posed at 7:37 last night. I was thinking of the “Love Is” cartoons.
My favorite was CAVALIER. My dad once knocked on my bed room door to tell me the TV was fuzzy and I needed to get up on the roof to adjust the TV antenna before "Mannix" started, in 15 minutes or so. "I'd do it my self, but the bathroom window seems to have shrunk. Ha ha." I crawled out on the roof (I was maybe 14). It started to rain. Every time I let go of the antenna the picture went to hell, so I was out there for an hour. Whenever my grip loosened, everybody in the living room would scream and dad would yell, "Hold tight! Peggy's been kidnapped by a gang of HOP HEADS!" or something. When I came down, there was a five dollar bill paperclipped to my open copy of CAVALIER and he'd written 'you earned this' across a photo of Yvette Mimieux in an unbuttoned men's dress shirt. It was a very classy magazine.
"Portnoy's Complaint can't touch Tropic of Cancer."
High praise indeed, I ordered it through the portal. We'll see.
"Cookie, you are not married................are you."
Yes..............I am.
Why do you suppose at all, much less incorrectly?
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