GRAND CENTRAL
ANN

Mr. Ben Abramson
90 Argus Book Shop
16 North Michigan Avenue
Chicago, Ill.

9 April 1940

Dear Henry Miller:

The dread sum is $25.00, but don't worry about it. I
will soon be owing you a lot of money. The creditor shall
become the debtor and vice versa, as Dorothy Parker has
said on other and better subjects.

You probably know all the details of the transaction. I
hope to be able to send you some substantial checks dur-
ing the next three months.

The Testament was received, and I am grateful to you for
sending it to me. Of this, and of other matters, I hope
we shall soon have a chance to talk. When do you think
you will be able to get to Chicago?

I had hoped to go to New York this spring, but our change
of location buried me under a mountain of work from which
I am only slowly emerging. My trip is postponed, therefore,
until late summer or early fall, but I hope to see you long
before then.

Will it?

Mr Henry Miller
C/o Gotham Book Mart
51 West 47th Street
New York City

vhr

22 April 1940

My dear Henry Miller:

It is a strange thing that the day I received your picture, a friend
of Carl Van Vechten, named Tom Merbury, I believe --- although I am
not sure about his name --- called here at the store.

He said that Carl had heard I had some interesting material and had
delegated him to buy some from me for Carl. I showed him, very
proudly, Carl's picture of you.

By the way, we purchased, last winter, the library of Scott Cunning-
ham, who was Carl's bibliographer.

THE ENORMOUS WORLD is a swell title, although I am sorry to say I cannot
supply the Booster that contains it, nor any other Boosters, nor any
Delta Christmas numbers, as we are all sold out of them. I will watch
for them, however, and notify you if we locate any copies.

I saw James Laughlin IV when he stopped here on his way to Sun Valley.
At that time he told me of his new publishing arrangements. Some
day I will tell you a long and exciting story.

, about a lot of things.

If you want to come to Chicago and stay a little while, I will give
my apartment to you. Because I work five nights a week, I rented
a small apartment in a Class D hotel near the Loop. There's nothing
fancy about it, but the service is fairly good, it is clean, it in-
cludes a kitchenette with frigidaire, and a bath, and it is conven-
iently near the Loop. Robin Douglas, son of Norman, used it for
two or three weeks, last fall, when he first came to Chicago.

Since my wife and daughter are going to the country in June, and since
our big apartment will not be closed up, you can have my small one,
and I can go home. I have to pay rent for both places anyway, so you
are very welcome to its use.

H.M. - 2

Maybe somewhere we crossed in time and ran parallel, because my
mother is dying of diabetes and other things. She has been bed-
ridden for two years. She is ready to die, and there is no reason
why she shouldn't, but somehow she can't. She is over seventy-five,
and is very weary of the world. Since she has lost her eyesight and
can't read, she has nothing to live for, and she has lived a lustrum
beyond the three score years and ten that we all expect, but against
her will she lives.

Within a month I hope to have some money. If I could, right now, I
would send you money in advance of sales, but moving was expensive,
and a revealed duplicity on the part of my employees, and a finan-
cial situation of which I was not aware, make it impossible for me
to do so right now. Anyway, I am sending fifteen dollars to Conrad
Moricand, and writing him a letter of explanation.

With this letter come all my best wishes to you.

Mr Henry Miller
137 East 54th Street
New York City

vhr

7 May 1940

Dear Henry Miller:

When I went to the bank, they told me it would be much better to send
a draft in dollars and cents than in franes, so that is what I did, and
Moricand should have it in a few days.

Iastrum isn't the only one I can pull out of the hate. There's induc-
tion, for instance, meaning fifteen years.

The lists sent to people who are interested in your books say that
we get them in from time to time and will notify them as soon as
the ones in which they are interested are available. We do not
have all your books in stock at the present time; in fact, all we
have now is CANCER and THE COSMOLOGICAL EYE. Our last copies of
BLACK SPRING and MAX AND THE WHITE PHAGOCYTES were sold a few days
ago. We get copies of those all the time. Also, of CAPRICORN; if
you want a copy of that I will divert the next one to you. It retails
for $7.50. I have been charging that because I have been supplying copies
of the first edition. If the next package is the second edition, the
price would be $6.00.

We don't have any copies of ALLER RETOUR NEW YORK in stock, but I am
trying to get some.

I lose about one out of every two copies of CAPRICORN, so the profit
I make isn't as extollionate as it seems to be. Have your friends, who
want copies of your books, write to me and mention your name, and I
will notify them as the books become available and can be supplied.

I suppose you know that Brussels was here in Chicago, and that I made
a deal with him. I imagine your credit now is at least equal to
the small sum I advanced when I sent money to Moricand. I hope in
the next month or so to send at least a fairish amount on further
royalties.

As to the water colours, I am sure some of your admirers would want
to buy them, but I can't fix prices for them. I don't know anything

H.M. - 2

about art of prevailing values. I know that a Flint sells for $500 and a Lindsay for $150. Guys on Wacker Drive sell their immortal water colours for $3.98. So I suggest that you send two or three and fix at least a minimum price on them. If I think it is two low, I will raise the price. I am very good at doing that. You tell me what you want net per water colour, and then I will tell you about the interest my customers have in them.

Under separate cover I am sending you some of our lists and bulletins and I hope you will enjoy looking through these. Our lists are varied as to form and size and contents. The next one will be an eighteen page bulletin of half sheets, similar to the one I am sending. The top page will be an introduction by me, and then pieces by different writers will follow.

Louis Zara is doing a piece on Hewlitt's translation of the ILIAD, Vincent Starrett is doing one on an obscure novel by Littell, Christopher Morley and others are going to contribute. Will you?

I would like to have you write enough to fill a half sheet. I don't care what you write about, but I think it would be a good idea for you to do a piece on THE COSMOLOGICAL EYE. I think it's a good idea, and I think it would bring about sales, and consequently, royalties.

Jamie still slides down slopes in Idaho.

vhr

137 East 54th St. N.Y.
Wednesday A. M.

Dear Ben Abramson--

Have just had a cable from Athens, from Lawrence Durrell,
begging me to send him money by cable immediately. He must be
in a serious jam or he wouldn't call upon me, as he knows well
what my circumstances are. I can't imagine what has happened
to him, but I _must_ do something. So I am taking a long chance
to inquire if anything which may be accruing to me is now avail-
able, and if so, might I ask you to wire it to me, no _k_ matter
how large or small. I must cable him to-morrow. If it is im-
possible to get a sum to me by to-morrow night you could tele
graph me when I would receive it, assuming you can do something,
and then I can add a message to the money transfer telling him
how much and when to expect the additional sum.

I also enclose herewith a little piece for your review.
The events of the past ten days have been so harrowing I
couldn't think of doing it before. I am also writing two
books at once.

You never mentioned receipt of the water colors. Did
you get them?

-2-

much. They haven't come in yet. When they do, I'll have them matted, as you suggest.

I have no taste in pictures. I like nudes, especially nudes with big bosoms, and most especially nudes with big bosoms and beautiful faces. Zuolaga's THE BATHERS is my idea of something hot. The Spaniards seem to me to be the best painters of my idea of something hot. However, I don't split pubic hairs so far as nationality is concerned. I like Norman Lindsay - and so does Frances.

And speaking of Frances, I enclose a copy of a letter that I received from Tiffany Thayer. I thought it might amuse you. Please treat it confidentially, and destroy it when you have read it, because Frances loves Christopher, and so do I, and it would be terrible if there was a blot on the esoutcheon, a blemish on devotion, a pimple on love.

We don't have a copy of ZEN BUDDHISM in stock. I'm having it checked up, and will try to locate one for you.

I'm not sending DEATH ON THE INSTALLMENT PLAN because Celine is an anti-Semitic bastard. I read his novels and his essay on Semmelweis, and on Soviet Russia. Even if I agreed with him, I would still detect that lousy Fascist bastard. I feel about Celine as I do about Moseley. Though antipedal, both born under my scorn. John Strachey, the well known Communist, who said of Housman that he was the last ventricle of English poetry, was in the shop a few years ago. I talked to him about Moseley, and what he had to say about the British bastard seems equally applicable to the French one.

I enclose a half sheet, so that you can gauge the number of words.
I'll be most grateful for your piece on THE COSMOLOGICAL EYE.

Best regards,

Sincerely,

fh

GRAND CENTRAL
ANNEX

THIS SIDE OF CARD IS FOR ADDRESS

Mr. Bern Abramson
The Argus Book Shop
16 north Michigan Avenue
Chicago, Ill.

9 July 1940

Dear Henry Miller:

I'm enclosing a check for fifteen dollars and hope this will
be of a little help to you. It isn't very much to enclose, but
that is because your book hasn't yet started to sell.

You can, if you wish, cable Durrell that there will be more
money in a fortnight, because I will be sending it to you
then. The war has done things, not only to the map of Europe,
but to the book business. When salesmen from publishers stop
in here, they don't ask, "How is business?" — they ask, "How
bad is business." I remain, nevertheless, undaunted and ram-
pant.

I read your piece with a pleasure anticipatory of the pleasure
others will derive from it. For your kindness in writing it,
I am most grateful.

The watercolours were received. A list of commercial terms,
and a letter of molten, melting phrases is now being sent to
everyone who ever expressed interest in your work. I hope to
have results from this mailing within two weeks.

In the meantime, my hyacinth, I hope I shall receive from you
the reply to this letter for which my heart clamors.

vhr

PRESERVATION PHOTOCOPY: ORIGINAL MATERIAL RESTRICTED

23 July 1940

Sweet Henry, loveliest village of the plain, Greetings:

One approaches Michigan Avenue today with more trepidation than displayed by the three good saints before Moloch's furnace, and I have applied to the City Father's for a job posing as a cupid on Buckingham Fountain, which plays all day long in chaste whiteness, and by night, beneath wanton colorings of changing lights.

In other words it is hot, and because it is hot, I like to speak of nudes, or even semi-nudes. And so I speak of the young ladies in England who were being trained for home defense duties by a green corporal. After putting them through their paces of squads right, squads left, present arms, etc., he cried, "Strip to the waist!"

The young Englishwomen were bewildered and astonished. Not one of them so much as removed a blouse. He repeated his command, and still they did nothing except to stare at him in bewilderment. The corporal thereupon gave them a talk about obeying orders immediately, whether they understood the reason for them, or not; he said that even the officers in the army didn't always understand why they were ordered to do certain things, that they were always part of a larger plan conceived by someone of higher intelligence, that if they were really sincere in doing their part for home defense, they must obey him, no matter what he told them to do.

He again ordered them to strip to the waist, and this time, although somewhat hesitantly, the young ladies began to remove their coats, their blouses, and those articles of intimate apparel that must be removed to comply with his orders. The corporal walked down the line, examining their not unpleasing mammalian protuberances, their provocative lacteal founts to which Mr Shakespeare so engagingly alludes in VENUS AND ADONIS.

While he was doing this, his lieutenant happened to come along, and when he saw the corporal and the semi-nude young ladies, he stopped and watched in amazement. Finally he exelaimed, "Corporal Higgins! I told you to examine their kits!"

Mr Henry Miller
vhr

5 August 1940

Dear Henry Miller:

A Southern philosopher, not from South Chicago, but from way down South
in New Orleans, wrote me as follows:

"So far as I am concerned, your advertisement of Miller is wrong. The
Tropic of Cancer is an unknown book by a strange and cancerous author.
Some twenty years after we all went to Paris to say, the hell with every-
thing but fun, Henry Miller makes the astonishing discovery that people
screw whores in Paris. So, if I may be so bold, what? It is only because
he thinks sex is something dirty, the last dregs of existence, but even
while the private presses in America are busy grinding out a few copies
of attractive though not deluxe format, the Nazis out Miller Miller. Why
should one who worships irrationality have so neglected the postulates of
the Nazis? We are at opposite poles."

Perhaps from the style you can discover who this is.

Have you read Langston Hughes' new book, THE BIG SEA? It's a swell book,
exciting, beautifully written. He talks about Van Vechten in it.

The volume in the WISDOM OF THE EAST series has come in and I will send
it along in a few days, but first I want to read anything you recommend
so highly.

The sale of TROPIC is slow, but I hope to send you some money soon.

bhr

Charleston, S. C.

Dec. 19th

Dear Ben Abramson,

Don't know whether you heard of it yet or
not but the man named B--- writes me saying he has been
apprehended and will plead guilty and take his medicine.
Says nobody but himself is involved. Thought you might
like to know.

Just got your letter of some weeks ago. Will
be some months till I reach Chicago. Meanwhile good
cheer for Xmas. Hope the rush continues. Watch your
step, that's all.

My address always the same-- as previously.

RETURN IN TEN DAYS TO
CALMEZ HOTEL
CLINTON, OKLA.

Hollywood, Cal.

May 17th, 1941

Dear Ben,

Yours of the 15th to hand. Do send that book to Dr. L.S. Peters, to the address I gave you in New Mexico. His secretary will take care of it.

I wouldn't suggest any reviewers for the book in question--I don't think it wise or necessary. Since I left you I find from talking to booksellers that there are clumps of people in the communities I passed through who are on the watch for anything of mine which is published-- buy everything I write. Do you have Larry Edmunds' name in mind here? He says he has quite a list among the movie pepopel. You know his shop. I can give you more names for your list, if you want them--just say so.

Sorry everything wasn't included at once-- thought it was going to be that way. Hate to see people soaked a big price for a thin volume. However, you know best. If, in a reasonable time, you don't publish the other two items I'll ask you for them. I've had a number of requests now, since I left you, for anything at all which might be published.

You mention "errors" in the text. I'm sorry you didn't advise me-- is it too late? I am always open to correction, but prefer to do the correcting myself, of course. It's possible that in proofing the retyped version I missed a few things.

While I'm at it, would you please send a copy of the Cosmological Eye to --Alberta Driesel, Bright Angel Lodge, Grand Canyon, Arizona and charge to my account.

The account.... how does it stand? You don't mention a thing about that. You were going to look it up before I left Chicago but never had time. Perhaps I owe you something?

I'll be here, c/o General Delivery, Hollywood--or c/o the Gilbert Hotel, Wilcox Avenue, Hollywood, for telegrams or phone calls-- until next Wednesday or Thursday surely. After that better write me care of N. Y. as usual.

I'm glad you're in good health, safe and sound. I began to think something happened to you. Business will continue to be bad, don't worry. The war will kill everything except the munitions industries. After the war we will have no need for money--money will be worthless. There will be no more business of any kind--just a pleasant, general chaos.

22 May 1941

Dear Henry:

Thank you for your letter of 17 May.

Since you feel that reviews are unnecessary, no review copies will
be sent out. I thought perhaps one review, just one sympathetic
one, might beneficial, but since you think differently, I readily
agree with you.

I don't know Larry Edmunds nor his shop, and I should like to have
his address. I should also like to have as many more names as you
can supply.

I still think it best that the three should be issued separately
and, from letters I have received from people who have been ad-
vised of the impending publication of the first, I am convinced
that I am right in this.

The portion with the errors is being done over, that is, those er-
rors which are the printer's fault. Errors in the manuscript are
not being corrected, they are unimportant, although I might tell
you that you did, in proofing, miss about fourteen or fifteen very
obvious errors in spelling and punctuation. George Howard missed
them, too, and I am sorry I did not read the proofs because if I
had done so, I would not have bothered to write to you, but would
have made the corrections, and I am sure you would have approved.

The books have been sent to Dr Peters and to Miss Driesel, as you
directed, but I can't send you a statement just now. We have been
having a great deal of difficulty with the boys in the shipping
room, as I believe I told you in my last letter. Just when a boy
has been trained and appears to be satisfactory - he leaves. That
happened again last week and I have been packing and shipping books
myself. Just as soon as things are set back there, I will see that
a complete accounting is rendered.

"IN THE HEART OF HOLLYWOOD"

F. C. BOASEN
C. W. BOASEN
MANAGING OWNERS

Hotel Wilcox

FIREPROOF
EVERY ROOM WITH BATH

6504 SELMA AVENUE

HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA

June 27th

Dear Ben-

Just borrowed a copy of the latest (wofs) from Satyr Shop and checked against the ms. Found the following errata:

p/8. 3rd line from bottom--should be "in" rather than "of".

p.11--4th line: should be "last" not best.

p.12--3rd line: omitted "the" before first rank

p.14-- 7th line: should be _chose_ and not choose.

p.15-17th line: should be _where_ and not _there_.

p.18- 4th line: no comma after "character".

p.32, 5th line from bottom: after show "me" was omitted

p.35--18th line: should be _men_ and not _man_.

p.55--¼ 7th line from bottom: should be "and" after speed.

Otherwise everything jake--looks good, whoever printer and publisher was. Are mine on the way? I hope so. Do you know the Stonehill shop in New Haven and the Chaucer Head in N. YL? Has the London book shop here ordered? Gordon of Satyr here is a fine fellow--has integrity.

Please see if you have a copy of Balzac's _Sera-phita_ (Clara Bell translation, I believe I want) and _if_ so send it please to me c/o Neiman, as usual. If you haven't a copy how soon could you dig up one?

Hastily,

hoolywood Sunday

Dear Ben,

Please send at my expense a copy of Cosmological
Eye to Gilbert Neiman, and a copy of Hamsun's "Victoria"
and Hamsun's "Mysteries" to Mrs. Margaret Neiman, btoh living
at 237 South Bunker Hill, Los Angeles, Cal. Doesn't mtter if
the Hamsun books are new or second hand--important thing is
to get them. Should you not be able to please let me know,
so that I can try elsewhere.

If there are several copies of "W. of S." coming
to me, as author, then send one of them by express to Gilbert
Neiman, of above address, will you please-- at my expense again.

I leave here with regret. It's a great world. Met
wonderful folks here and had wonderful times. Saw a different
Hollywood than people think it to be.

Je t'embrasse.

2 September 1941

My dear Henry:

What do you think I am -- a Christian Scientist operating by remote control?
I know Gordon Kahn. Give him my regards next time you see him.

Because of a shortage of girls, due to vacations, your letters have piled up,
and I won't try to answer them in order, but as they come to hand.

I have sent the books to Perles, but don't know whether they will get through
the censors. By the way, I have had a letter from Thomas Gilbert, ordering
a copy of your new book, and ending, "If you ever see Henry Miller, tell
him I haven't forgotten Donne or Sarlat in 1959, and our recontre." If and
when Gilbert acknowledges receipt of the books, I will send THE WORLD OF SEX
to Gilbert, but until I hear that they reached Perles safely, I see no point
in sending off another copy.

A new novel by Perles has recently been announced for publication.

I would like to have the ALLER RETOUR NEW YORK and Perles' ALLER SANS RETOUR LONDRES. If I could see them, perhaps I could arrange publication.

I've read REUNION IN BROOKLYN, and don't see that it is at all libelous or
actionable. I think Laughlin is nuts to have reached that conclusion.
I think you are right about a Time review and will let it go. I'd rather
take a year to sell the whole edition without any trouble or difficulty than
to try to crowd things.

I still have not read the other two stories, and still for the same reason --
that I am afraid that after reading them I might want to rush into print
with them. If they are what John Howard tells me they are, I know that
I would want to do that. The late fall or early winter would be a swell
time.

I don't know how they would fit in with REUNION IN BROOKLYN. Since you have
promised to send the manuscript to Lowry, I will send it to him saying things

WESTERN
UNION

R. B. WHITE
PRESIDENT

NEWCOMB CARLTON
CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD

1201

**SYMBOLS**

DL=Day Letter

NT=Overnight Telegram

LC=Deferred Cable

NLT=Cable Night Letter

Ship Radiogram

The filing time shown in the date line on telegrams and day letters is STANDARD TIME at point of origin.

Time of receipt is STANDARD TIME at point of destination

SB33 15 NT=SANTAMONICA CALIF 2

BEN ABRAHSOM

1941 SEP 3 AM 6 22

ARGUS BOOK SHOP=16 NORTH MICHIGAN AVE CHGO=

CAN YOU WIRE ME TWENTY FIVE DOLLARS EXPECT TO BE IN CHICAGO
IN TEN DAYS=

HENRY MILLER.

ABRAHSOM.

BQB33

THE COMPANY WILL APPRECIATE SUGGESTIONS FROM ITS PATRONS CONCERNING ITS SERVICE

10 September 1941

Dear Henry,

Thanks for your letter.

The Santa Monica address is easy; you sent it to me.

The Howard's have dusted and cleaned a room, and it's waiting for you, as a bridge to come -- you know, THE BRIDEGROOM COMETH, by Waldo Frank.

Dahlberg was here - Edward Dahlberg, I mean. Do you know his name? I have much to talk of with you, and I look forward to seeing you. Before you arrive, I will have read the two stories.

I have known the name of Marsden Hartley for years. Liveright sent me a copy of a book by him when they published it. I am not returning this letter now, because I don't know if this letter will reach you. You may have left California by the time it gets there, and so I'll hold the Hartley letter until I see you.

I am grateful to you for annotating Irma Stein's letter. She didn't say she was a virgin; all she said was that she was an adolescent. You'll discover all of this when you see her, and you will see her, as you must.

There is much more to say, but I won't say it until I see you, because this morning I woke up at 6 A. M. and played an old record - Alma Gluck and Louise Homer singing WHISPERING HOPE. Do you know it? "Whispering hope, o how gentile thy voice is, making my heart with its sorrows rejoice . . . "

Dear Henry - I'll see you soon, I hope.

Sincerely,

Mr Henry Miller

fh

THE LITTLE MAN PRESS
3747 Hutton St., Cincinnati

17 September 1941

Dear Henry Miller:

Ben Abramson sent me your story REUNION IN BROOKLYN & it's a good story, ideal most of all for a collection of your work where the narrator's identity & importance is more clearly established by other stuff.

I don't think it comes up to some of the writing (really great writing!) in TROPIC OF CANCER, not the vivid tight powerful writing that's there. But it's good & should be published, only not all by itself in a book.

I'd really like to bring out a little book (or a bound book) of your work, Mr. Henry Miller! A bunch of little stories, particularly, a group that would fit well into a little book. & it wouldn't have to be very many, or very long. I'd rather they weren't published anywhere else.

So--if you have anything, now or this fall, please think of us first, will you? (Or do you have to think of Laughlin first? Dear pussyfoot Laughlin, the RAF-for-literchoor man).

All of my best wishes to you.

c/o R. & V. N. Y. C.
Columbus Day

Dear Ben Benito Benissimo!

Upon returning to my native city which I detest with all
my heart I find everything unlovely and unprofitable. Winter
is acumen in. My resources are shut off. I must sharpen my
wits. I am. I am thinking of ways and means. Of solutions.
A good friend here has suggested an expedient pro tem.

A good friend here has suggested an expedient pro tem.
Pro tem means of indefinite duration, or until the situation
is visibly and tangibly improved. Here it is. To find a num-
ber of devoted admirers who have sufficient faith in me to
donate a small monthly sum, of say ten dollars--more, if they
can afford it. A dozen such would solve the problem. My
friend here in N. Y. guarantees to find three or four right
here. I am writing my friend in Hollywood, Mr. Gordon, in
the same vein, to see what can be done for me out there among
the blessed rich. What can you do from Chicago out? Anything?

I was very much impressed by what you told me the last
day--of your plan to aid me when in Paris, which fell through
because of Laughlin. I have credited you with the deed in
my private ledger. I thank you now as warmly as if it had
materialized.

Writing you now, I wish to make use of you merely as an
instrument. I don't expect you to fork up out of your own
impoverished well. But I think you might be able to inter-
cede for me. If you could find three or four out there I
would be within reach of the Promised Land.

How long I shall have to go on this way I can't say.
I look forward to a break before too long. I have faith.
I am not at all depressed. Nor will I starve in the gutter
if all falls through. But if I don't create a fund of this
kind then I will have to put on my hat and coat and look
for a job. Then I will stop writing. I can do thattoo, if
it be God's will. I can shine shoes with alacrity and per-
fect amenity, if it must be that. But I should think I
would be of more use writing books--or am I only a nuis-
ance writing books?

I don't think I am dramatizing the situation. I think
it is just as I describe it. This is the ebb-tide, that's
all. Think it over, dear Ben-Ben, and let me know what
promise there is in the idea. If you have a better idea
why send it forth. (And incidentally, when you write, give
me the exact title of Perles' new book. I am in the act of
writing a preface for it now, at his request. As I don't
know what the book is about I am writing about him. That
always makes a good preface.)

I just wrote Mangan, who seems to be a close rival of
yours in the open world of letter-writing. I think if you
and he were to write a book of letters to each other, it
would go. You needn't answer each other--just write each
other. In the meantime I will think of a good title for
you. For a preface I will write another letter-- an open
letter to all and sundry, to letter-writers everywhere.
Am adding to the note-book. Just got installed in a

letter to all and sundry, to letter-writers everywhere.
Am adding to the note-book. Just got installed in a
room. Just read my obituary on Sherwood Anderson in "Story"
magazine. Have you seen that special number? Show it to
Mangan, if you think of it, will you? And when theColossus
comes out (which should be the end of this week, I am in-
formed) why please give Irma a copy for me which I will
autograph on my next visit to Chicago. Next time I come
by plane with the royal seal--stopping at the St. Clair.

Books by Henry Miller

Previously printed:

- Tropic of Cancer

Aller Retour New York

Black Spring

Max & the White Phagocytes

Money and how it Gets that Way

- Tropic of Capricorn

- The Cosmological Eye

- The Colossus of Maroussi

The World of Sex

The Wisdom of the Heart (to appear in November)

Hamlet (Vols. 1 & 2) with Michael Fraenkel

Titles to follow--in preparation

The Air-conditioned Nightmare

The Rosy Crucifixion (Vo. 2. Tropic of Capricorn)

Letters to Emil

The Sleeping Sleeper Asleep (Scenario)

The World of Lawrence

Astrological Portraits

Draco and the Ecliptic

Note: Four of the above list are either finished or almost finished. The last named and "The Sleeping Sleeper" I expect to do in 1942, as well as to finish The Rosy Crucifixion. As you see, I haven't listed "Quiet Days in Clichy", which may appear privately any time.

I began writing the above works in 1930 or '31.
Not bad for ten years, considering the quality, what?

## Names & Addresses of prospective Blood Donors

John Steinbeck--Pacific Biological Laboratories--Pacific Grove, Cal.

Aben Kandel--Marsden Hotel --1745 N. Gramercy Place, Hollywood

James K. Feibleman--12 Nassau Drive, Metairie, New Orleans, La.

Huntington Cairns-- 2219 California St., N. W., Washington, D. C.

Prof. Herbert F. West--Box 82, Hanover, N. H.

Louis Bromfield--Malabar Farm, Lucas, Ohio

Ben Hecht--22238 Roosevelt Drive, Malibu Beach, Cal.

Carl Weeks--Salisbury House, Des Moines, Iowa

Dr. Henry J. Lund-- 478 30th Avenue, Oakland, Cal.

John Dos Passos--Provincetown, Mass.

Walter C. Arensberg--7065 Hillside Avenue, Hollywood

Gordon Kahn--1685 Sunset Plaza Drive, Los Angeles, Cal.

Joseph von Sternberg--Chatsworth, Cal.

John Barrymore--6 Tower Grove Road, Beverly Hills, Cal.

Aldous Huxley--701 South Amalfi Drive, Pacific Palisades, Cal.

John Fante--c/o R. K. O. Studios, Culver City, Cal.

Richard Baer--c/o R. K. O. Studios, Gower & Melrose, Hollywood

William Saroyan--348 Carl St., San Francisco, Cal.

Henry L. Mencken--1524 Hollins St.7 Baltimore, Md.

Edmund Wilson--Truro, Mass.

Ambrose Cramer 3rd--8627 Skyline Drive, Hollywood

Mrs. Helen McKinley, Jr.--148 Georgina Avenue, Santa Monica, Cal.

Marie Graham-- 947 Ocean Avenue, Santa Monica, Cal.

Richard Thoma-- 9046 Norma Place, West Hollywood, Cal.

Blance Knopf--501 Madison Avenue, N. Y. C.

William Spratling--Taxco, Guerrero, Mexico

Dr. William Carlos Williams-- 9 Ridge Road, Rutherford, N. J.

Meredith Weatherby, American Club, Havana, Cuba

Blood Donors (continued)

✓ Miss Peggy Guggenheim--c/o Man Ray, St. George Apts.
Vine Street, Hollywood, Cal.
Jake Zeitlin--624 South Carondelet St., Los Angeles, Cal.

and

of course any others you may have on your own lists!

N. B. How about Christopher Morley?

List of typescripts of various pieces by Henry Miller

Reunion in Brooklyn--last 8 pages-- to be printed in toto by "Horizon" (London)

The Rise of Schizophrenia--4 pages--printed in New English Weekly, London

Night walk in Paris street--8 pages--fragment from original version of "Black Spring"

Epilogue to "Black Spring"--6 pages--only partially used in printed book

Berthe-Marignan (short story)--13 pages--never published

Portrait of General Grant--5 pages--published in some now defunct English comic magazine

The Alcoholic Veteran with the Wash-board Cranium--(carbon copy with revisions)--44 pages--appearing in "The Wisdom of the Heart" (New Directions) this November.

Katsimbalis --(carbon with revisions)--5 pages--done in Corfu: the genesis of book, Colossus of Maroussi.

Murder in the Suburbs--(short story)--11 pages--never published

The Cirque Medrano--5 pages--published in Paris "N. Y. Herald"

Into the Future--15 pages--fragment from "The World of Lawrence" (published in "Purpose", London, and "Creative Writing", Chicago)

Creative Death--13 pages--fragment from "The World of Lawrence"--(published in Purpose, London.)

The Absolute Collective--17 pages--published in The Criterion, London

Mademoiselle Claude--short story--12 pages--published in "The New Review, Paris, and in the Anthology, Americans Abroad)

Tribute to Blaise Cendrars-- 9 pages-- published in T'ien Hsia Monthly, Shanghai.

The Enormous Womb-- (carbon copy with revisions)--published in The Booster, Paris--8 pages

Hermann Keyserling, The Philosopher who Philospophizes--(carbon copy with revisions- 7 pages)-- to appear in "The Wisdom of the Heart" (NewDirections) in November. written in Corfu.

An Open Letter to Private Alfred Perles--43 pages-- carbon copy with revisions-- never published and never mailed to Perles. The unfinished answer to his Open Letter to me in 1940 Horizon.

The Writers' Emergency Fund

Dear......:

I have been asked to lend my name to a nation-
wide appeal for aid to writers who are in distress. Having
been obliged to beg ever since I began my career the task
is one which I accept with pleasure. As I sit here com-
posing this appeal for a Writers' Emergency Fund a man in
Chicago is struggling to compose a similar special plea for
me. The situation is not only ironical, therefore, but
illustrative and very significant.

It is the intention of the committee which has volun-
terred to inaugurate this work to concentrate upon those
in need of immediate relief. If there is an intelligent,
warm response upon the part of the public steps will be
taken to give more substantial and protracted support to
creative writers who are of necessity ignored by editors,
publishers, critics and public alike.

It seems self-evident that the worse the world con-
dition becomes the worse the plight of the artist. In the
present frantic last minute effort to establish national
security the plight of the artist, which even in times of
peace is always desperate, tends to be completely ignored.
And yet it goes without saying that the only dependable
security of a nation is the integrity of the artist. In
short, there never was a more urgent need to protect the
artist in our midst than at this moment. If we need
battleships and tanks and bombers we need writers and
painters and musicians even more.

2.

In normal times only one out of ten writers, to put it conservatively, ever sees any of his work in print. Sporadic publications in magazines offer the writer no solution to the problem of how to keep alive. The more creative the writer the less chance he has of being accepted by an editor or publisher. There will probably be no solution to this problem until we have a new order of society. But that is no reason for withholding aid now. Something positive and ameliorating can be done even in the midst of corruption and decay. One doesn't turn away from a beggar in the street with the excuse that begging will be eliminated and should be if.... or when.... Some people do, of course, but thenormal human impulse is to give without question.

Writers are no less human than refugees or other victims of the prevailing chaos. They need to eat and drink, pay rent, clothe themselves, etc. They don't live by divine grace. Usually they are miserable, hunted down like prey, rejected by the very ones who should appreciate their efforts, with the result that all too frequently they give the impression of suffering from a persecution mania.

In asking for aid for my fellow-writers in America I should like to make it clear that the donation of a sum of money is the very least that one can offer. A writer needs much more than money. In this country particularly he needs above all to be recognized as a human being; he needs to be shown in divers ways that he is of real value to the community. The fact that he is a failure in the worldly sense is a healthy sign; it means that he is a

3.

misfit in a world which is going to the dogs because it
worships false gods. A writer who is "incompetent", as
we say, may be an artist of great value. It may mean
simply that it takes his fellow-men fifty or a hundred
years to wake up to the fact. Most writers cannot af-
ford the luxury of waiting until they are dead to be
recognized; that is a gesture which only the very pure,
the very great, can make. How long it will take the
world to realize that it is unfair, not to say unnatural,
to exact such a penalty of the man of genius, how long it
will take the world to realize that it is not only the
artist who suffers but the community at large, is a mat-
ter of conjecture. We know of one country at least where
this injustice to artist and community alike has been
eliminated.

It was my intention at first to address this appeal
exclusively to writers; on second thought it seems to me
that those who enjoy andprofit by the labor of the liter-
ary artist should not be denied the opportunity of con-
tributing also. Those of you who are writers and who are
no longer desperately struggling to be heard and read will
be quick to realize that there is nothing chimerical about
the idea of mutual aid. The number of writers who have
attained prominence by their own single efforts is small
indeed. Every writer worth the name can remember some
one who gave him, as we say, his chance. It may have
been a friend, it may have been a sympathetic and under-
standing editor, it may have been another older or more
successful writer who believed in him; it may have been
a wife or a devoted mistress--- but no man who succeeded

4.

in getting to the top ever got there alone and unaided.

In Paris, where I finally got my chance, I often received small sums of money from friends and admirers, even from people wholly unknown to me. Sometimes it was nothing more than a dollar bill which I found enclosed in the envelope. It wasn't the money which kept me alive (because it was never enough) but the hope and the faith which these gestures inspired. A dollar given gratuitously has more value than twenty dollars given grudgingly or out of a bleak sense of duty.

Naturally the great problem is whom to aid first and to what degree. For the moment we are thinking of the help which we might possibly give to a few hundred writers who are in dire need; we are not thinking of the 35,000 American writers who sometime or other in the course of their life have had or will have something published somewhere somehow. Above all, we are thinking of the creative writers-- since the others will inevitably make the usual compromises and adjustments which lead to material rewards and success.

It goes without saying that questions of race, religion, nationality, political beliefs, etc. are of no import. There will of necessity be a certain amount of red tape involved-- the least possible, we hope. The applicants' case will have to be investigated, for the usual reason--to avoid fraud. But he will be spared the terror and humiliation inflicted upon him by social service agencies and charity bureaus. The whole purpose is to establish a clearing house whereby those in need

Dear Mr

Henry Miller, as you probably know, returned to America a short time ago.

Now, in his fiftieth year, after having written TROPIC OF CANCER, TROPIC OF CAPRICORN, THE COSMOLOGICAL EYE, WORLD OF SEX, and many other books, Miller is penniless. He is at present at work on several other books, scheduled for publication during 1942.

Miller needs help, so that he can continue to write books. Do you want to help him? Can you help him by sending him, each month, a specified sum?

For the present, any money that you send will be considered a donation, and not a loan. But a record will be kept, and if Miller gets the break that he so richly deserves, he will repay your kindness in full. If he does not, then your reward will be knowing that you helped a fellow human being to live and die with a book to be written. If Miller is unable to repay you with money, he will undoubtedly find another way to repay your good kindness; possibly by writing a little book, a book for the generous.

Writing is Miller's life. He does not want a job. He wants to continue to write books.

His appeal for help is sincere, and his need is urgent.

Do you want to help him? Can you help him? Will you help him?

CLASS OF SERVICE

This is a full-rate Telegram or Cablegram unless its deferred character is indicated by a suitable symbol above or preceding the address.

R. B. WHITE
PRESIDENT

J. C. WILL LEVER
FIRST VICE-PRESIDENT

WESTERN
UNION

(13)

(0)

SYMBOLS

DL=Day Letter

NT=Overnight Telegram

LC=Deferred Cable

NLT=Cable Night Letter

Ship Radiogram

The filing time shown

The date line on telegrams and day letters is STANDARD TIME at point of origin. Time of receipt is STANDARD TIME at point of destination

NA664 24=NUJ NEWYORK NY 6 1245P

BEN ABRAMSON, ARGUS BOOK SHOP=

1941 DEC 6 PM 12 16

16 NORTH MICHIGAN AVE CHGO=

IF YOU'RE AIMING TO GIVE ME A XMAS PRESENT SEND IT
MONDAY BY TELEGRAPH I MAY DIE BEFORE SANTA CLAUS COMES
DOWN MY CHIMNEY=

HENRY MILLER.

==BQA 664

30 December 1941

Dear Henry Miller:

I am sending you, under other cover, twelve copies of THE WISDOM OF THE HEART. Will you be good enough to sign four of them and to inscribe the remaining eight to the persons whose names are listed below?

Dr Morris Fishbein
Paul Frumkin
George Lucas
Dr Henry J. Lund
Michael Miner
Clifford H. Osborne
Dr George Patterson
Bruce F. Teets

Also included in the package are three copies of THE COLOSSUS OF MAROUSSI.

Will you sign two of these and inscribe the third to Dr Morris Fishbein?

A return label and postage have been provided on the reverse of the paper, for your convenience in returning the books to us when you will have finished with them.

Henry Miller, Esq
c/o Russell and Volkening
522 Fifth Avenue
New York, N. Y.

mha