Beschreibung:

Title: Archive of approximately 40 letters and postcards from Henry Miller to Robert [Bob] Young, with photocopies of Young’s letters to Miller, plus a few other items Author: Miller, Henry Place: Various places Publisher: Date: c.1950-1978 Description: With 19 autograph letters signed by Miller, 3 typed letters signed, 18 autograph postcards signed, 2 typed postcards signed, etc.; there are approximately 44 photocopies of letters from Young to Miller. Most of Miller’s one page or shorterr, many of the letters with the original mailing envelopes, with a few stray envelopes added along with several notes or postcards to Young from Miller’s secretaries. Significant archive of letters from Henry Miller to friend and fellow writer Robert Young beginning In 1950 and lasting nearly fifty years. In the first letter, written from Big Sur, 2/20/50, Miller can’t “recall your other letter with script. I get such a flood of letters you can understand why. Every day I spend from two to three hours answering my mail. Is that enough? When you get to Paris you should be able to get a copy of ‘Sexus’, out about four months now. Prohibitive here. Am sending publisher book ‘2’ – Plexus – in a few days…” On 8/17/50, Miller writes to Young, now in Paris, asking him to pick up some of Miller’s banned books, “please send them, one package each, to these friends… Don’t send any to Emil or me! You know why. Let me know what you shelled out for them and I’ll mail you an international money order… “ A month later he renews his warning, “Want to caution you against mailing any of the banned books either to me or to Emil – too dangerous right now – for us, I mean. By the time you get back to Paris I may be able to give you the name of someone returning to America who would try to bring them in…” On March 17, 1951, Bob Young is back in Sacramento, with some of the forbidden books in hand, “Dear Bob Young, If I should ask you to mail a copy of Sexus to a friend in next few days, would you? (I’d send it under another name, if I were you). Which edition is it – the first, in 2-vols.? When you answer don’t write by post-card.” On April 23, 1954, Eve Miller, writing at the behest of her husband Henry, advises Young that “there are a few copies available in Holland of the pocket book edition of Sexus which was banned in the English and French editions in Paris… It can be mailed to you direct from Holland, if you wish, and you can pay us for it when you receive it. The price is ten dollars, as for Plexus. Packages coming from Holland are less likely, we imagine, to be opened for inspection than those coming from France. But should the book be seized, please to not protest it…” On October 4, 1955, Henry Miller writes, “Sorry to hear of your reverses. What are you asking for the following: Cancer, Capricorn, Max, Happy Rock? Perhaps I can buy them of you…. Enclose check for four dollars which you sent me when I needed help. Is that right – or was it more?” Most of the letters and postcards are in a similar vein, about books and book projects, though the threat or prosecution grows less as progressive forces prevail, and inquires about and comments on health grow more frequent as the two correspondents age. In the final letter by Miller in the group, February 28th, 1979, he writes “Ordinarily I would day, ‘Yes, send me your script,’ but now reading is torture for me. I am blind in one eye and the other is very weak. But maybe Tony, my son, would read it. He is helping me no end…” Provenance: The Robert [Bob] Young collection of Henry Miller deaccessioned from a California institution. Lot Amendments Condition: Very good or better condition. Item number: 239932