New Delhi: Henry Valentine Miller is unarguably one of the greatest authors the United States has ever produced. He was a novelist who also dabbled in short stories and essays and excelled in all of them. He broke the literary forms which existed at that time and led to the development of a new genre of novel which was semi-autobiographical and was a confluence of social criticism, character study, stream of consciousness, philosophical reflection, sex, explicit language and mysticism.
Henry Miller’s early life and literary influences
Born on December 26, 1891, in the New York City, Henry Miller was brought up in Brooklyn and in Black Spring (1936), he has penned down his childhood experiences. He took a job in New York’s Western Union which he left in 1924 to spend the entirety of his time in writing. In 1930, he visited France and his ‘Tropic of Cancer’ was based on his experience in Paris which was in a dilapidated condition at that time. On the other hand, his famous ‘Tropic of Capricorn’ was based on his experience in New York.
The success of Henry Miller and major works
In 1939, Miller went to Greece and the visit led him to write ‘The Colossus of Maroussi’ which was published in 1941. It is a meditation on the country’s significance. In 1940-41, he embarked on an extensive tour of the US and was critical about his experiences, which he penned down in The Air-Conditioned Nightmare (1945). It deals with how commercialisation and mechanisation has impacted human lives.
Miller eventually settled in Big Sur on the California coast and attracted numerous admirers. Many of them were writers who belonged to the Beat generation and found their beliefs reflected in the works of Miller. It was during his stay in Big Sur that Miller produced his Rosy Crucifixion trilogy, made up of Sexus, Plexus, and Nexus.
The most famous works of Miller are the Black Spring, Tropic of Cancer, Tropic of Capricorn, and the trilogy The Rosy Crucifixion. He also wrote literary criticism and travel memoirs. Miller’s books were considered obscene and his major works were banned in the US and the UK until the 1960s. However, his works became popular from copies smuggled from France. Other major works of Miller are the collection of essays ‘The Wisdom of the Heart’ and ‘The Cosmological Eye’.
Henry Miller, born in 1891, was a pivotal American author whose semi-autobiographical novels blended social criticism, stream-of-consciousness, and explicit content. His works, initially banned for obscenity, gained popularity through smuggled copies. knowledge Knowledge News, Photos and Videos on General Knowledge
