St. Paul recorder., 1961-08-18
"Tropic Of concer"
BY Henry Miller Grove
Press, $3.50


(Again we call on printer
editor. Eddie Schwartz, president
Of the Henry Miller Literary
Society, to review-in his own
fashion - ''The Tropic Of Can
cer", Miller's first published
book which was banned In the
USA for 28 years until its Amer
lean publication in June, 1861.
BY EDWARD p. SCHWARTZ
Headline in the Minneapolis
Tribune June 25, 1861 topping
critic John K. Sherman's excellent
review HENRY MILLER'S
NOVEL NOW LEGAL BUT
STILL NOT TENDER"
No, it isn't tender but it is
truthful, lusty, uninhibited song of
man entirely happy without illus
ions. 1t has gusts of laughing
out-loud humor, raving anger, ex-
plainable art land loads of sex)
to a saturation point. Miller has
said my aim in writing is to
establish a greater reality" And
he constantly does - in liberal
doses!
Ben Ray Redman, able literary
critic of many years standing who
died few weeks ago just after
he reviewed The Tropic of Can
Ger" in The Saturday Review, was
blunt and honest when he said
Miller is one of the most remark
able, most truly original authors
of this or any age. He is a word
master range, so far as know, is
unique in breath and depth
any public censor who touches
this book will touch living tissue"
1t seems almost anticlimactic
that the Justice Department rep
resenting the Federal Government
is withdrawing all complaints
against Miller's novels (they in
cluded "Tropic of Capricorn" as
welD after Barney Rosset, presi-
dent of Grove Press, had released
the first book to emerge from
Americas literary underground in
its prim blue dust wrapper. The
decision was based on a Supreme
Court definition OF obscenity. This
changes with the times somewhat
akin to the hemline on ladies ap-
parel.
To understand Miller on his own
home grounds he states his case
very clearly in The World Of
Sex" as follows: ". life moves
on, whether we act as towards or
heroes. Life has no other discipline
to impose, If we would but realize
it, than to accept life unquestion-
ably. Everything we shut our eyes
to, everything we run away from,
everything we deny, deprecate or
despise, serves to defeat us in the
end. What seems nasty, painful,
evil, can become a source of beau
ty, Joy and strength, If faced with
an open mind. Every moment Is
golden one for him who has the
vision to recognize it as such. Life
is now, every moment, no matter
if the world be full Of death. Death
triumphs only in the service of
life"
To further evaluate the import
ance of the Tropic of Cancer" you
can turn to George Orwell las
quoted by John Elliott) who said:
There is a very good reason why
the professors Of the leading
American colleges should urge
their students to read Miller. The
purity, the lyricism, the force of
his voice, are impelling as well as
compelling. They give you an idea
of what can still be done, even at
this late date, with English prose
the adjective has come back.
It is flowing, swelling prose, a
prose with rhythms in it, some
thing quite different from the flat
cautious statements and snack-bar
dialects that are now in fashion -.
This from the man who wrote
amazing, realistic literature him
self.
When the American Academy Of
Arts and Letters named him a
member they reported: Henry
Miller, born in New York City in
1891, is a veteran author on many
books whose originality and rich
ness of technique are matched by
the variety and daring Of their
subject matter. His boldness of
approach and intense curiosity
concerning man and nature are un-
equaled in the prose literature OF
our time"
So that brings us down to little
OIL me. Many of my friends have
looked at me as If I were a leper
when Henry Miller is mentioned.
Touch me-, I say, you won't
catch anything that isn't already
in your mind but left unsaid."
This review Of "Tropic Of Can
Ger" gives me the chance to ex-
plain a vital point on which we all
should find common ground and
that's the threat Of complete GEN.
sorship. Color, religion, worldly