Talk:Henry Miller/Archive 1

Untitled
I deleted this. At best it has little to do with Henry Miller and at worst is a promo for Dan Bern, whoever that is:

Dan Bern wrote a song called Marilyn, where he hypothesizes that Marilyn Monroe would have been better off marrying Henry Miller, instead of Arthur Miller, because the sex life she would have had with Henry Miller would have been better for her self-esteem, and she might not have committed suicide. --Baruchespinoza 20:41, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

For what little it's worth, the following was placed in a page with this writer's name misspelled. It looks pretty useless, but might contain a stray fact not in the present article, if anyone wants to have a look at it. -- [[User:Jmabel|Jmabel]

I notice he's categorized as an anarchist, though the article doesn't say so. Is there more info on this? A-giau 08:41, 11 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Like many authors, Henry Miller can be categorized in several ways. Sure, he was an anarchist if you would follow a fairly limited definition of the term. It seems pointless to attach such broad titles to authors like Miller. It would be more productive to be more specific.

I deleted the section talking about his interest in astrology. I've read many books by and about Miller, and I find this connection to astrology to be foolish.


 * I don't know who deleted a section about astrology, and I haven't gone back to early versions of the article to read them, but Henry Miller was indeed very interested in astrology and wrote a whole book about it ("A Devil in Paradise", about an astrologer who influenced him) and used astrological symbols, so in a good article about Miller, this interest should be represented. We can't just take out things because we personally find them foolish.  Jeremy J. Shapiro 08:43, 15 December 2005 (UTC)

Angry email received from Tony Miller
In early June, the following email was received from someone announcing himself as Tony Miller, Henry Miller's son (lack of further correspondecne made it difficult to verify the emailer's identity). At his request, the correspondence is republished below.

Dear Tony Miller,

Thank you for your mail. I wonder where you got this email address; as it is used only for people looking for information about the Wikimania 2005 conference this summer.

Are you talking about the Henry Miller article on the English Wikipedia? I am Cc:ing this to info-en@wikimedia.org, where I am certain it will be responded to shortly. However, let me note briefly that: a) Wikipedia is a wiki; anyone can edit it. By following the "edit" link at the top of the page, you can update the article, or provide better references so that others may do so.   b) The article is short and a bit vague, but does list a few solid references from which the included information has come. Do you find similar fault with Wendy Moss's biography at http://www.levity.com/corduroy/millerh.htm ? c) Feedback about article content can be more publicly posted on the discussion page for each article; please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Henry_Miller (you are invited to add your passionate rhetoric to that page, where a broader audience may respond)  d) You may be interested in the six other languages in which Miller has a brief bio; see the language names in the sidebar on the left hand side of the screen. The Dutch article is my favorite of the lot. Sincerely, Samuel Klein Wikimedia Support Team > "Tony Miller" <[email removed]> wrote: > > > Sirs, > >    I have just finished reading your short Bio on Henry Miller. He was > > my father. > >    I am astounded that you allowed this Bio to be published. > >    You have not got one fact accurate in your summation of his life and > > where he lived and wrote, etc. > >    You don't seem to know the difference between Montparnass, on the > > left Bank of Paris, and where he actually wrote Tropic of Cancer, which > > was on the right Bank, at Clichy and at Villa Seurat. > >    You have every single date incorrect as to his whereabouts, and > > historically, you have misplaced him at every point of your Biography. > >    You are a disgrace to any one searching for information on Henry > > Miller, and you should be shut down for your total lack of knowledge and > > concern for facts. > >    It is clear that you represent the under 35 group of  people that > > think it is okay to publish whatever you want, regardless of the facts, > > as you know your basic clientel will just be copying this information in > > order to pass a simple Lit., test. > >    You are a disgraceful organization. If I had the money, I would sue > > you out of existence. > >    Assholes, Tony Miller > > PS:should you have the balls to respond, please make this available to > > all your readers. Again, you are a total disgrace. > > >

Unfortunately, it is unclear from this letter how we could improve the article.

Brief attempts to verify the emailer's identity turned up very little; hopefully he will respond.


 * I looked over the bio and compared to the Post and Times obituaries - there were a few mistakes. The obituaries did not confirm our account of his dire Paris experience nor the lawyer.  There is a son named Tony: "Mr. Miller is survived by his daughter from his first marriage, Barbara, who lives in Los Angeles; and a son and daughter from his third marriage, Tony and Valentine, who live in Big Sur."

lots of issues | leave me a message 01:13, 24 Jun 2005 (UTC)


 * For what it's worth, someone used to post on Amazon.com under the name "Tony Miller," claiming to be THE Tony Miller, son of Henry Miller. The reviews were so badly written (usually with several spelling errors), and apparently eventually revealed as frauds, so they were eventually deleted. These messages are most likely just from a fan posing as Henry Miller's son. -- Andrew Parodi 09:22, 14 July 2007 (UTC)

It is true that Henry Miller had a son born in the late 1940s -- i.e., his son could still be alive.--Jrm2007 (talk) 22:41, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

Removed sentence

 * Sleeping in a different place each night, scrounging free meals whenever possible, he chanced upon Richard Osborn, an American lawyer, who gave him a free room in his apartment. Each morning, Osborn left ten francs on the kitchen table. -- reference it if you want to restore this to the article... +sj  +

Was he or was he not an anarchist?
He's in - can someone give some solid, irrefutable proof? Thanks. :) --Tothebarricades 02:52, Jun 21, 2005 (UTC)

Anarchism is a term that can refer to a set of ideas about freedom (personal and societal) and to a political movement based on those ideas. H.Miller lived, in many ways, as an anarchist. He was very concerned with personal liberty, refusing to bend to the status quo and viewing the majority of people's lives/motivations with something like contempt. He even perhaps subscribed to the idea of voluntary collaboration as a fundamental characteristic of healthy and lively human interaction, a core idea of anarchism. However, as far as I know, Miller never associated himself with any political movement, preferring to focus on living his life. He was primarily concerned with what Terence McKenna called the "felt presence of immediate experience." Therefore, I think it is somewhat inappropriate to label him as "an anarchist."

The above statements are opinions based on my interpretations of Miller's work. Psora 01:18, 27 Jun 2005 (UTC) 99.250.46.168 (talk) 05:18, 25 January 2011 (UTC) Henry Miller was apolitical, so in the sense of him being politically and socially an anarchist, he certainly is not. In his own words..." I know little about history, politics, literature, art, science, philosophy, religion, etc. I know only what I have seized through experience. I put no trust in the men who explain life to us in terms of history, economics, art, etc. They are the fellows who bugger us up, juggling their abstract ideas. I think it is a piece of cruel deception to urge men to place their hopes of justice in some external order, some form of government, some social order, some system of ideal rights... Fuck your capitalist society! Fuck your Communistic society and your Fascist society and all your other societies! Society is made up of individuals. It is the individual who interests me - not the society." Miller, The Cosmological Eye.

henry miller the artist
i don't think the fact that miller was a painter should be featured in the first part of the entry. it makes it sound as though his artistic putput was of equal stature and weight to his literary output. which is definitly not the case. i'm not an expert [just a lover of miller], but i thought his painting was more of a hobby / way of making some cash and have fun. miller has gone down in history not for his painting, but for his writing. the painting should be listed under a seperate heading.

Believe it or not, Henry Miller was considered a respected painter. He took his painting almost as seriously as his writing. If you have any doubts of this, take a look at "Henry Miller On Writing" where it lists his "program." Or even better, try to find a copy of "Henry Miller: My Life and Times" or "To Paint Is To Love Again." It would be a grave understatement to refer to it as a "hobby." (Deepcloud 08:59, 12 January 2006 (UTC))

Moved Joe Gray here
The following factoid was sticking out like a sore thumb in the article, interrupting the flow, without a rationale, given hundreds of other facts about Miller, friends of his, and so on, that are not in the article. If the biography is ever expanded to cover this period of his life more fully, perhaps it could be expanded. There were a number of other relationships of Henry Miller from this period that are not mentioned in the article:

" One of his friends from the Pacific Palisades years was Joe Gray, a former boxer and veteran actor whom Miller referred to as "my guide in the jungle of Hollywood."

Is there a rationale for this? Jeremy J. Shapiro 08:43, 15 December 2005 (UTC)

Kate Millet
In Sexual Politics she mentioned Henry Miller, beside other luminary men. Shouldn't her book be mentioned here, too?
 * Austerlitz -- 88.72.15.170 09:40, 8 July 2007 (UTC)

Henry Miller in Big Sur
I have been told that Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch was written while Miller was living at a location in Big Sur called Anderson Canyon (or Anderson Landing), which had a few small cabins on it at the time. Does anyone have any information about either the location of the writing of this book or Miller's stay at Anderson Canyon? Any help or point in the right direction would be helpful. Thanks. Wattssw 05:32, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

Kate Miller paragraph is out of place
I really don't see why the reference to Kate Miller is placed in the middle of his biography it is really quite tangential. I am going to remove it. If it belongs in this article it belongs in another section. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.120.253.87 (talk) 19:36, August 26, 2007 (UTC)

Resting place
A link from Colma, California indicates he was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery, yet this article states he was cremated and his ashes scattered in Big Sur. Could someone provide reference for the cremation statement or remove it if proven to be unsubstantiated/incorrect? 24.5.141.174 19:29, 30 November 2007 (UTC)

Bisexual category?
I'm not saying he should have the LGBT category given to him. But in his "Book of Friends" Henry Miller writes that during childhood he and his friends had acquired the habit of "buggering" one another. It seems that on Wikipedia there are many people who are quite vigilant about slapping the LGBT label on anyone who has made any such disclosure. I wonder why this hasn't occurred in this situation. Neither advocating nor arguing against the LGBT label for this article. Simply pondering the question. Thanks.

Bisexual category
I'm going to insert the bisexual category. I base this on the fact that he wrote about having anal sex ("buggering") with his friends. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Brazilfantoo (talk • contribs) 06:52, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

Kate Millett again
I have added a couple of lines on Millett's criticism of Miller. She makes a convincing case as anyone has read her work will know. Please discus if you feel strongly that this should be deleted. Thanks.  SmokeyTheCat   •TALK•  09:38, 22 March 2009 (UTC)


 * if there is to be a criticism of henry miller as being sexist, then it should appear in the article in some appropriate context, presumably under a new subheading. right now it shows up at the tale end of a paragraph about the supreme court ruling regarding the obscenity of "tropic of cancer," which is a non sequitor -- whether or not henry miller's work is sexist has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not "tropic" is obscene.  if you're aware of a significant debate in the literary/political world about how feminists should relate to the work of henry miller, by all means bring it in. my only objection to the current couple sentences is their context.  if the context isn't changed, i strongly support deletion of the reference.Meddlecascade (talk) 23:04, 1 April 2009 (UTC)


 * i've seen no response from SmokeytheCat, so i'm removing the Millett reference pending further discussion -- it seems like a possible remedy would be a link to a good reference under "external links" that talks about millett's book "sexual politics," the wikipedia article on that particular tome is basically a stub, without any specific information on miller's writings Meddlecascade (talk) 19:49, 3 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Not looked at this article for a few weeks. I have re-added the Kate Millet bit lower in the article in a subsection. Is this okay?  SmokeyTheCat    •TALK•  08:30, 24 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Anyone who has read Sexual Politics will know that Millett makes her case convincingly.  SmokeyTheCat    •TALK•  10:23, 3 May 2009 (UTC)
 * I added that Norman Mailer defended Miller. He thought Miller was talking about the Twenties, which Millett skipped, and that her quotes left out the sense of Miller's writing. -SusanLesch (talk) 16:42, 13 September 2009 (UTC)
 * Mailer has it in the right context, Millett does not. Another thing, there is no Miller Playboy interview for 1970. There is a pictorial essay by and about Henry Miller in the Playboy issue of November 1971, prior to the release by Playboy Press of Henry Miller's My Life and Times. There is an interview of Henry Miller by Playboy in the September issue, 1964. However, that is a long way off from Millett's critique, published in 1970.JDPhD (talk) 00:35, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

Marriages and children.
He had a daughter by his first wife and at least one child by a third or 4th wife, Eve I think, in Big Sur. Anais aborted a child (The description of the still birth was perhaps her first successful work.) that she believed to be Miller's, though she cannot have been sure of that. (From books by and about Anais Nin and an autobiographical work by Miller.) David R. Ingham (talk) 02:04, 26 March 2011 (UTC)

Why remove a book?
By Twinka Thiebaud, half of which is Henry's own writing (or talking) found no where else, and written by someone who actually knew him well? There are books here whose author's did not know him at all and have no wiki articles. This one does. Makes no sense to me. Stellabystarlight (talk) 16:33, 29 September 2011 (UTC)


 * Please see WP:FURTHER. What Doncha Know? is already in the References, and since the "Further reading" section "should normally not duplicate the content of the References section," it should not also be in the "Further reading" section. SunnyDisp (talk) 10:32, 1 October 2011 (UTC)

Neglect of personal relationships
I can't believe Miller's correspondence with a Playboy Playmate merits coverage in this Wikipedia article but not his divorce from June Miller or his three other marriages, to Janina Martha Lepska, Eve McClure and Hiroko Tokuda. If they weren't listed in the infobox, you'd never know he had three other significant relationships in his middle- and later-life. What about these years of his life? Did he have any additional children by his other wives? What he estranged from Barbara, his daughter, and any other children he had? For part of his life or did it last until his death?

This is a Wikipedia biography and while it doesn't need to be totally comprehensive, it should touch on important aspect's of an individual's life. I think being married five times, had an effect on the man and his art.

Could this deficiency in his profile be remedied by those more familiar with his life? 63.143.234.56 (talk) 20:12, 22 July 2013 (UTC)


 * I agree with you. I have started to add more info about his other relationships.--Bernie44 (talk) 14:29, 2 October 2013 (UTC)

Henry Miller portraits by Hades
Hi! This is not vandalism I think, the author of portraits is famous and these portraits are excellent! I'm sure they are masterpices of drawing. And worthy of attention to Wikipedia readers. Sasha-Shen15:21, 31 August 2014 (UTC)

Celine
It blows my mind that there's no mention of Celine in here.131.123.176.49 (talk) 19:13, 2 October 2014 (UTC)
 * Good point. There should probably be a section on Miller's influences. I'll add this soon. --Bernie44 (talk) 22:53, 2 October 2014 (UTC)

If I remember correctly
If I remember correctly wasn´t The PEN club also inviting Miller as first secretary/chairman ? Anybody... ¨^^^^^^^ — Preceding unsigned comment added by 46.230.188.146 (talk) 19:56, 11 August 2015 (UTC)