Renegade: Henry Miller and the Making of Tropic of Cancer

by Frederick Turner

  Atget, Eugene, 148-49

  Avant-garde artists, 130, 131-35, 149, 223n16

  Bald, Wambly, 161-62, 187, 191

  Baltard, Victor, 126

  Barr, Cecil, 180

  Baux, Jeanne-Pierre, 222n14

  Beat writers, 160

  Bigotry, 112. See also Prejudices

  Blavatsky, Helena, 82

  Blues, 14

  Boone, Daniel, 30

  Borowski, Stanley, 62

  Bradley, William A., 172,

  Brancusi, Constantin, 136

  Braque, Georges, 132

  Brassa’i (Gyula Halasz): detachment of, 153-54, 223n20; HM’s friendship with, 148-50; impression of June Miller, 224n24; and Klein, 160 A Man Dies in the Street, 153; in Tropic of Cancer, 192

  Breton, Andre, 134, 136

  Brooklyn, New York: HM’s adult life in, 75-76, 80, 89-90, 91, 92, 104-7, iii, 127, 136, 156; HM’s youth in, 6, 10, 58, 61-63 , 65-66, 68-72 , 221n10

  Buddhism, 225n28

  Buffalo Bill, 20

  Bunuel, Luis, 129-30, 132, 164-65, 172

  Burlesque, 10, 41-42, 62, 71-72

  Burr, Aaron, 22

  Burroughs, William, 184

  Calder, Alexander (Sandy), 151

  California, HM’s work as agricultural laborer, ii , 76-77, 78, 79-80, 81 , 221n12

  Capitalism: slaughterhouse of, 96, 97, 128; and World War I, 134. See also Economic advancement

  Carney, Eddie, 62

  Celine, Louis Ferdinand, 180

  Chicago Tribune, 128, 139-40, 161 , 167, 170-71

  Un Chien Andalou (film), 129-30, 131, 135

  Chighizola, Louis (Nez Coupe), 37, 220n7

  Chouteau, Pauline, 75-76, 87, 168

  Christmas, Annie, 36-37, 42

  Cirque Medrano, 140, 146

  La Closerie des Lilas, 126, 127, 128-29

  Coates, Robert M., 33-34

  Cocteau, Jean, 129-30, 132

  Columbus, Christopher, 17-19, 24, 219n1

  Conestoga Indians, massacre of, 219-20n3

  Conrad, Joseph, 147

  “Cosmodemonic Telephone Company”, 96-97, 139

  Crane, Stephen, 137

  Creativity, 14-15, 106, 114, 115, 141, 175

  Cresap, Michael, 32

  Crèvecoeur, J. Hector St. John, Letters from an American Farmer, 23-26, 43, 44, 51, 123, 219n2, 219-20n3

  Crockett, Davy, 30-32, 42

  Dada, 131, 133

  Dali, Salvador, 129, 132, 158

  Dekobra, Maurice, 129-30

  Democratic system, 21-25, 46, 48

  Depression, 123, 125, 170-71

  Derain, Andre, 158

  Dexter, Paul, 86

  Dilthey, Wilhelm, 59

  Documentaries, defining, 153, 223n20

  Doisneau, Robert, 223n20

  Le Dome, 126, 127

  Donleavy, J. P., 185

  Dorment, Richard, 222-23n16

  Dostoyevsky, Fyodor, 87, 147

  Draft Riots of July 1863, 39

  Duchamp, Marcel, 136

  Economic advancement, 82 , 128

  Eluard, Paul, 136

  Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 42, 43-44, 49, 55, 82, 187-88

  Ethnic slurs, 70, 211nii Evans, Walker, 223 n20

  Expatriation, 14, 123 , 126, 127, 136, 155, 171, 195-96

  Failure: HM’s confrontation of, 155; and HM’s employment, 122; HM’s failed novels, 6, 7, 98, 99, 104, 109-10, 121 , 131 , 155-56; HM’s sense of, 4, 107, 124

  Farrell, James T., 183, 184

  Faulkner, William, 182-83

  Feminist movement, 174

  Fink, Mike, 31-33 , 37, 39, 42 , 51 , 64, 201

  Fitzgerald, F. Scott: The Great Gatsby, 24; Tender Is the Night, 182

  Flynn, Elizabeth Gurley, 80

  Folklore. See American folklore

  Les Forts, 126, 127, 138

  Foster, Stephen, 179

  Foujita, Tsuguharu, 158

  Fraenkel, Michael, 154, 157-59, 179, 191

  Franklin, Benjamin, 219-20n3 , 220n4

  Freedman, Roland (Pop), 108-9, iii

  French language, 121, 123, 148 , 223 n17

  Freud, Sigmund, 87, 93 , 225 n28

  Frontier experience: and justice, 34; and national character, 26-27, 29, 72 , 220n6; and renegades, 14, 208; and Twain, 47. See also Wilderness

  Genet, Jean, 184

  Ginsberg, Allen, 184

  Girty, Simon, 208

  Goldman, Emma, 80, 81 , 155

  Gran Torino (film), 221n11

  Grosz, George, 134

  Grove Press, American edition of Tropic of Cancer, 5 , 184, 221 n9

  Guiler, Hugh (Hugo), 164

  Haeckel, Ernst, 59

  Haggard, H. Rider, 65

  Hall, Aaron, 20

  Hamilton, Alexander, 23

  Hamsun, Knut, Hunger, 141

  Happenings, 133

  Harpe brothers, 34-35, 42

  Harris, Frank, 89

  Harris, George Washington, 49

  Harvard Classics, 71

  Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 43 , 49

  Haywood, Big Bill, 80, 81 , 155

  Hemingway, Ernest, 126, 181-82

  Hemmings, Sally, 219n2

  Henty, G. A., 65

  Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 55

  Hooper, Johnson J., 49

  Howells, William Dean, 46, 222 n13

  Humor: and American folklore, 28, 33, 41, 42, 47; and cheap comedy, 113; cruelty in, 5, 13, 15, 41, 44, 64, 72, 109, 191-92, 198-201; and HM’s talk, 92; and Twain, 47, 48, 53 , 54

  Improvisation, 13-14, 152

  Jackson, Andrew, 37

  James, Henry, ii Jarry, Alfred, 133, 134

  Jazz, 14, 38, 189

  Jefferson, Thomas, 21 , 24, 219n2

  Jews, 69-70, 85, 109, 112

  Joyce, James, 147

  Kahane, Jack: and HM’s essay on Lawrence, 176-77, 178; as publisher for Tropic of Cancer, 5, 173, 176, 178, 179-80, 215; as publisher of Tropic of Capricorn, 215-16

  Kann, Fred, 151

  Kant, Immanuel, 59

  Kerouac, Jack, 160

  Kertesz, Andre, 148-49

  Kessel, Joseph, 168

  Kiowa Dutch, 208-9

  Klein, Roger, 160

  Kronski, Jean, 107-8, 112-13 , 116 , 224n23

  Lafitte, Jean, 37

  Lange, Dorothea, 223 n20

  Lawlessness, 4, 5, 12-13, 26-27, 176, 179. See also Outlaws

  Lawrence, D. H.: and American folklore, 170; HM’s essay on, 176-77, 178; HM’s opinion of, 147

  Nin’s study of, 164, 165

  Studies in Classic American Literature, 165

  Lawson, Jack, 63

  Lee, Light Horse Harry, 22-23

  Lincoln, Abraham, 46-47

  Logan (Mingo chief), 32

  Lomax, Alan, 38, 43

  Longfellow, Henry Wads-worth, 55

  Lowenfels, Walter, 157, 159, 179, 191

  McCormick, Robert, 128

  MacLeish, Archibald, 219ni Madison, James, 22

  Mailer, Norman, 56, 100

  Male superiority, 13 , 75

  Mann, Thomas, 147

  Marlowe, Christopher, 56

  Marx, Karl, 59

  Mason, Samuel, 34, 35-36

  Masters, Edgar Lee, 97

  Matisse, Henri, 132 , 136

  Melville, Herman, 49, 50, 117, 220n4

  Miller, Barbara (daughter), 88, 99, 104

  Miller, Beatrice Wickens (wife), 87, 88, 95, 99, 104

  Miller, Henry: and American nationality, 4, 8, 9, 12, 13-15, 91, 136, 156, 210; artistic audacity of, 56; attitude toward America culture, 8-9, 12, 17, 80-81 , 91 , 96-97, 101 , 117, 124, 180, 224n26; autobiographical nature of, 57-58; avoiding responsibility, 67-68; childhood and youth of, 58-66 , 67 , 68-72 , 221 n10; education of, 69, 70-73 , 75; as expatriate, 14, 126, 136, 171; fame in 1960s, 104, 217-18; and foul language, 66, 221n10; as freelance journalist, 12; German ethnicity of, 9, 57 , 58-61 , 65 , 66 , 221 n9; as huckster, 9, 30; literary reputation of, 5-6; as mythologizer, 57-58; as novelist,
12; occupations of, 11-12, 72-73, 76-81, 83 , 84-87, 89, 90, 95-96, 122 , 139-40, 158, 161, 221n12; and quotidian life, 9; reading of, 65, 69, 80, 85, 87, 89, 91, 105-6, 147, 177; rebellious nature of, 61, 88, 130, 131, 169; and remembering, 9-11 , 114; as renegade, 14-15, 56, 165, 208, 224-25n26; reputation as “gangster author”, 5, 176, 179; as tale spinner, 15, 77, 78-79, 92; temperament of, 13; treatment of women, 61; watercolors, 176, 179, 216-17. See also Failure; Paris, France; Sexuality; Talk; Writing —works of: The Air-Conditioned Nightmare, 8; Black Spring, ii , 64, 100, 176, 216; The Books in My Life, 187, 223n16; Clipped Wings, 97-98, 109-10, 112; Crazy Cock, 131, 135, 140, 144, 146, 156, 158, 159, 163-64, 166, 170, 172-73, 223n22; The Last Book, 171, 172, 173, 188; Lovely Lesbians, 112-14, 115; Moloch, or This Gentile World, 70, 109, 110, 112, 113, 114, 131, 140, 156, 170; Remember to Remember, 8; The Rosy Crucifixion, 100; The Time of Assassins, 128, 143; Tropic of Capricorn, 59, 96-97, 100, 101-3, 173, 176, 215, 216, 217, 224n25. See also Tropic of Cancer (Miller)

  Miller, Henry (father): background of, 58; customers of, 86-87; HM’s observations of, 81 , 89, 222 n13; HM working with, 83 , 84-87, 89; and Old World culture, 65

  Miller, June Mansfield (wife): belief in HM’s talent, 6, 104-5, 106, iii-12 , 115; drug use of, iii , 115; European trip of 1928, 109, 110; fantasies of, 143, 163; financing HM’s Paris; trip, 116, 122, 123, 138, 142; “gold-digging” of, 106, 107, 108-9, iii, 112, 123; HM meeting, 99-100, 103-4; HM’s correspondence from Paris, 123; as HM’s metaphor for America, 101; as HM’s muse, 100-104, 175, 215; HM’s relationship with, 7, 12, 100, 104, 106-7, 108, 115-16, 142-44, 164, 166, 175, 216, 223-24n23; and HM’s writing as he talks, 154; jobs of, 105, iii, 112, 123; and Kronski, 107-8, 112-13 , 224n23; Nin’s relationship with, 164, 166-67, 224n23 , 224n24; Paris visits to HM, 142-44, 163-64, 166, 175, 177, 224n23 , 224n24; physical appearance of, 100, 102-3 , 166, 224n24; running speakeasy, 12, 106; separations from; HM, 107

  Miller, Lauretta (sister), 58, 60, 63-64, 67 , 76

  Miller, Lee, 174

  Miller, Louise Nieting (mother): background of, 58; demands of, 60-61 , 63-64, 76, 81, 83, 84; and HM’s spirit of rebellion, 61, 88, 130; and Old World culture, 65; shame of, 107

  Mills, Benjamin Fay, 82

  Miro, Joan, 132-33

  Modernism, 46, 129, 132, 135-36, 157, 182

  Modern world, rottenness of, 134

  Mommsen, Theodor, 59

  Morton, Jelly Roll, 38, 43

  Mose, the Bowery B’hoy, 39-40, 170

  Murrel, John, 34

  Nanavati, N. P., 192

  Natchez Trace, 34

  New World: and discovery, 15 , 17-18; and frontier, 29; and lawlessness, 26-27; and new man, 24-25; obliteration of native cultures, 19-20, 209; Old World as HM’s new world, 117, 213; replica of Old World in, 19, 25

  Nichols, John, 151 , 191 , 223n19

  Nietzsche, Friedrich, 87

  Nin, Anais: diary of, 164, 166, 175; HM’s correspondence with, 167; and HM’s Lawrence essay, 176, 177; as HM’s muse, 175, 215; HM’s relationship with, 164-71, 173, 174-75, 215-16, 217, 224n23; and HM’s relationship with June, 164, 166, 223-24n23; on HM without writing, 169-70; impression of June Miller, 166, 224n24; literary talent of, 174; June Miller’s relationship with, 164, 166-67, 224n23, 224n24; opinion of HM’s writing, 164-65, 175, 177, 178; writing of, 216

  Noailles, Marie-Laure de, 125, 132

  Obelisk Press, 5, 173, 180

  Occult, 10, 130

  Ojeda, Alonso de, 18

  Old World: and burlesque, 71; culture of, 7, 8-9, 65, 72; and discovery, 15; and HM’s German ethnicity, 57; as HM’s new world, 117, 213; and HM’s wilderness, 128; and HM’s writing, 156; and law, 26; New World as replica of, 19, 25; Twain on, 47-48

  Osborn, Richard, 145-47, 150, 158, 161 , 164, 165, 191 , 211

  Outlaws: and American folklore, 15, 28, 29, 34-35, 36, 38-39; HM’s self-characterization as, 9, 12, 79, 128, 221 n12; Twain as, 55

  Owen, Matt, 62

  Pachoutinksy, Eugene, 192

  Paris, France: avant-garde of, 130, 131-35, 149, 223 n16; and European trip of 1928, 110, 121; and film, 129-30, 131 , 136; HM’s attraction to, 91-92; HM’s choice of comrades in, 136; HM’s correspondence with June, 123; HM’s desperate circumstances in, 6-8, 137-41, 143, 151, 152, 156, 157, 162-63; HM’s exile in, 7-9, 14, 17, 59; HM’s interaction with streetwalkers, 137-38, 140, 146, 190-91; HM’s lack of artistic contacts, 135-36, 137; HM’s solitude in, 123-24; June Miller and Kronski in, 107-8, 112-13, 224n23; June Miller’s financing of, 116, 122, 123, 138, 142; June Miller’s visits, 142-44, 163-64, 166, 175, 177, 224n23, 224n24; recovery from World War I, 125-26

  Paul, Johnny, 63

  Peche Merle cave, 222n14

  Penn, William, 220n3

  Perkins, Maxwell, 182

  Perlés, Alfred: HM living with, 139-40, 145, 160-61, 163, 171; and HM’s work at Chicago Tribune, 161, 162, 167 and remembering, 9; in Tropic of Cancer, 191

  Picasso, Pablo, 132, 136

  Polis, Joe, 44

  Post-Naturalism, 183

  Pound, Ezra, 225n27

  Powys, John Cowper, 82

  Prejudices, 6, 9, 13, 69-70, 72, 109, 112

  Progress, 14, 81, 82, 91, 201-2 . See also Economic advancement

  Proust, Marcel, 9, 136, 148

  Purdy, James, 185

  Putnam, Samuel, 191

  Quick, Tom, 32, 33, 220n6

  Radicalism, 10, 80, 82, 130, 133

  Ramsay, Rob, 63

  Rank, Otto, 178

  Ray, Man, 136

  Reardon, Lester, 63

  Reed, John, 80

  Rimbaud, Arthur, 128

  Roche, Charlotte, 185

  Root, Waverly, 127-28, 187, 222n15

  Rosset, Barney, 5, 184, 224-25 n26

  Rousseau, Henri, 133-34

  Rush, Benjamin, 23

  Satie, Erik, 133, 134, 136

  Schnellock, Emil: education of, 70-71; European travel experience of, 6-7, 91-92; HM’s correspondence with, 3 , 8, 14, 122-23, 129-30, 135, 138, 142-43, 147-48, 151-56, 160-61, 171, 177-78, 186; as HM’s friend, 3, 6, 69, 91; and HM’s talk, 92-93, 97, 154; and HM’s trip to Paris, 6-7, 117

  Schnellock, Ned, 123 , 124

  Schopenhauer, Arthur, 73 , 87

  Schrank, Bertha, 191

  Sedley, Bill, 36-37

  Selby, Hubert, Jr., 184

  Sexuality: and American literature, 41; of burlesque, 42, 71-72; cultural shifts in treatment of, 184; HM’s relationship with Chouteau, 75, 168; HM’s relationship with June Miller, 100; HM’s relationship with Nin, 167-69, 174, 217; HM’s relationship with Wickens, 87-88; HM as sexual adventurer, 73, 130, 167-68, 190, 217; and whorehouses, 4-5, 74-75, 79, 80, 190-91

  Shakespeare, William, 56

  Shapiro, Karl, 221 n9

  Six-day bike races, 10, 140, 146

  Slaughterhouse: America as, 14, 17; of capitalism, 96, 97, 128

  Slavery, 25, 219n2

  Smith, Seba, 49

  Sorgh, Hendrick Martensz, 133

  Spengler, Oswald, 59, 73 , 87, 148, 177

  Steen, Jan Havicksz, 133

  Stevens, Wallace, 209

  Surrealism, 131, 133, 134, 140, 153, 174, 182

  Talk: and American folklore, 28, 31, 46, 52-53, 78-79, 155, 220n5; and HM’s inspiration, 94, 222n14; and HM’s sexuality, 168; and HM’s tale spinning, 15, 77, 78-80, 92; and HM’s writing aspirations, 90, 94, 104, 105, 106, 147, 154-55; and monologists, 28, 46, 56, 78-79, 86, 92, 93 , 136, 155; and Schnel-lock’s friendship with HM, 92-93, 97, 154; tall-talkers, 9, 12-13, 31, 40, 220n5; and Twain, 46, 50, 52-54, 55, 56, 222n13; and unpredictability of HM’s talent, 93-94

  Tanner, John, 208

  Tell, William, 33

  Thoreau, Henry David, 44-46, 49

  Thorpe, Thomas Bangs, 32

  Trade unionism, 10, 80

  Tresca, Carlo, 80 Tropic of Cancer (Miller): American publication of, 5, 184, 217, 221n9; and anarchism, 172; challenging nature of, 189; and conditions of earthly existence, 201-5,
208, 210, 212, 225n28; cover of, 179-80; daring nature of, 184-85, 197; and essence of living, 186-87; as event, 197-98; and expatriate vignette, 195-96; and Fraenkel’s death philosophy, 158; HM finding voice in, 15-16; HM looking back on writing of, 175-76; and HM’s bravado, 3-4; and HM’s literary reputation, 5-6; HM’s reaction to publishing of, 178-79, 215; and HM’s relationship with Nin, 173, 175, 178, 179-80, 191, 215; and HM’s renegade status, 198, 208, 224-25n26; HM’s revisions of, 176, 178, 179, 197; humor in, 15, 191-92, 198-201; and June-Henry-Anais menage, 175, 224n23; legacy of, 216; June Miller as muse, 100, 175; and missed opportunity of America, 17, 213; and narrator’s journey, 206-9, 210, 211-13; outlawed status of, 198, 210, 224-25 n26; and Parisian demimonde, 4-5, 190-91 , 198, 207-8; Paris street scenes in, 194-95, 207; philosophical excursions in, 192-94; portraits of HM’s companions in, 191-92 , 211; Pound on, 225n27; rawness of, 15, 224n25; singularity of voice, 223n16; success of, 155; and teaching in; Dijon, 195; tone of, 198; vibrancy of, 188

  Twain, Mark: literary impact of, 41, 46-47; Mississippi River as subject of, 49, 54, 206; occupations of, 50; and profanity, 53-54; and talk, 46, 50, 52-54, 55, 56, 222n13; white suits of, iii —works of: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, 49, 50-53; The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, 49, 50; The Innocents Abroad, 47-49, 110-11 ; Life on the Mississippi, 49, 51; “ 1601”, 55-56

  Van Gogh, Vincent, 222-23 n16

  Venereal disease, 74, 86, 150, 183 , 207

  Wall Street crash, 116

  War of 1812, 22, 37

  Warren, Robert Penn, 220-21 n8

  Washington, George, 22 , 23

  Watercolors, 176, 179, 216-17

  Western Union, HM as employment manager, 12, 95-97, 104

  Whitman, Walt: HM taking Leaves of Grass to Paris, 7, 15-16, 121; as influence on HM, 46, 135, 153, 186-87, 197; Leaves of Grass, 7, 15-16, 46, 49-50, 121; on objects, 10; and Thoreau, 44-46

  Whittier, John Greenleaf, 55

  Wilderness: of America, 25-26, 33-34, 44, 201, 208; Old World as HM’s wilderness, 128. See also Frontier experience

  Wilderness Road, 34

  Wolcott Hotel, 86

  Wolfe, Thomas, 183

  Women: HM’s attitude toward, 60-61 , 74-75, 88, 137-38. See also Sexuality

  World War I, 81, 125-26, 134

  World War II, 216

  Writing: and HM’s advice from Fraenkel, 159; HM’s artistic integrity, 127, 128-29, 145, 147; HM’s aspirations, 6, 12 , 89-90, 94, 95, 97-98, 99, 103, 104, 105, 106, 147, 154-55, 156; and HM’s creativity, 106, 114; and HM’s disparate images, 152; HM’s exploration of unconventional methods, 130; HM’s identity as writer, 216; and HM’s improvisation, 152-53; HM’s literary pretensions, 121, 126-27, 156; and HM’s notes, 15, 112, 122, 126, 127, 137, 140, 159, 190; and HM’s plain language, 144; and HM’s realistic literature, 135, 143; and HM’s remembering, 9-11 , 114; HM’s reproduction of art in, 72; HM’s revisions, 160, 176, 178, 179, 197; and HM’s self-pity, 113; and HM’s solitude, 123-24, 136; HM’s stories, 140-41; HM’s talent and, 114, 144, 162; HM’s work as screenwriter, 217; Nin on HM without writing, 169-70; Nin’s opinion of HM’s writing, 164-65, 175, 177, 178; and Nin’s relationship with HM, 173; at typewriter, 107, 112, 147, 159-60, 223 n22