Nin Anaïs - Mirages the unexpurgated diary of Anaïs Nin 1939-1947

Advance praise for

Mirages: The Unexpurgated Diary of Anas Nin, 1939 1947

Henry Miller called her a masterpiece. Leaning on his elbows across the dinner table one evening, he laughed as he told me, Anas was the greatest fabulist he had ever known and one possessed of the nine lives of the cat. Nin herself referred to her lies as mensonges vitals by which she meant the lies that give life. Her brother Joaquin Nin likened Anas to a steel hummingbird and Edmund Wilson said she was a practical little Franco-Spanish housewife who was, at the same time, a lovely little nymph who was not quite a human being.

As for myself, she was a myth in her own time, the Scheherazade of the diary genre, and epitomizes Harold Blooms observation in Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human, to wit, Romance, literary and human, depends on partial or imperfect knowledge. I leave it to readers of Mirages: The Unexpurgated Diary of Anas Nin, 19391947 to draw their own conclusions.

Barbara Kraft, author of Anas Nin: The Last Days and
The Restless Spirit: Journal of a Gemini, with a preface by Anas Nin

Mirages comprises... anything but. Instead, here, editor Paul Herron, like a spy in the great house of love, offers up the utterly unexpurgated Nin, and we have Salome, The Diarist, at last without her many veils. Till now, but for tantalizing glimpses, Anas the womancarnal, conflicted, endlessly seeking completion through flesh and hearthas appeared only in heavily redacted snippets. In Mirages, she stands before us, stripped bare, unmasked, triumphant, among her cast of sacred and noires btes (Gore Vidal, Henry Miller, et al.) now revealed, by name, as who and what they were to her. Mirages exposes, reveals and humanizes Nin as much more than the sum of heavily edited parts.

Elizabeth Boleman-Herring, author of The Visitors Book (or Silva Rerum): An Erotic Fable

Mirages provides a treasure of newly disclosed Nin sentiments. Nin transcends self-reflection and offers a glimpse into what women feel but are rarely able to articulate, whether about daily experiences, or love gained and lost. With intense passion, her powerfully seductive prose shares insights, observations, and confessions about the human psyche. Highly recommended.

Diana Raab, author of Dear Anas: My Life in Poems for You

MIRAGES

SWALLOW PRESS BOOKS BY ANAS NIN

FICTION

Children of the Albatross

Cities of the Interior

Collages

The Four-Chambered Heart

House of Incest

Ladders to Fire

Seduction of the Minotaur

A Spy in the House of Love

Under a Glass Bell

Waste of Timelessness and Other Early Stories

Winter of Artifice

NONFICTION

D. H. Lawrence: An Unprofessional Study

The Novel of the Future

A Woman Speaks: The Lectures, Seminars, and Interviews of Anas Nin,
edited by Evelyn J. Hinz

SWALLOW PRESS BOOKS ABOUT ANAS NIN

Arrows of Longing: The Correspondence between Anas Nin and
Felix Pollak, 19521976, edited by Gregory H. Mason

Recollections of Anas Nin by Her Contemporaries,
edited by Benjamin Franklin V

MIRAGES

The Unexpurgated Diary
of Anas Nin

19391947

Edited by Paul Herron
With an introduction by Kim Krizan

SWALLOW PRESS / OHIO UNIVERSITY PRESS
Athens, Ohio
PUBLISHED IN ASSOCIATION WITH SKY BLUE PRESS

Swallow Press
An imprint of Ohio University Press, Athens, Ohio 45701
www.ohioswallow.com

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under International and Federal copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, scanning, PDF download, recording, blogging, internet posting, content syndication, e-mail or by any information sharing, storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the publishers, except by a reviewer or scholar who may quote brief passages in a review or article.

Digital trade edition published by Sky Blue Press, San Antonio, Texas, USA. Inquiries about worldwide electronic sales from all digital trade vendors should be directed to Sky Blue Press (skybluepress.com).

Print edition and institutional digital edition published by Swallow Press/Ohio University Press, Athens, Ohio (www.ohioswallow.com). To obtain permission to quote, reprint, or otherwise reproduce or distribute material from Swallow Press / Ohio University Press publications, please contact our rights and permissions department at (740) 593-1154 or (740) 593-4536 (fax).

This book may not be circulated in any other binding or cover.

1st Edition. Unexpurgated.
All content unless otherwise stated, copyright 2013 The Anas Nin Trust (anaisnintrust.com)
This edition published by arrangement with Sky Blue Press.
Introduction copyright 2013 Kim Krizan
Preface copyright 2013 Paul Herron

Excerpts from The Diary of Anas Nin, Volume Three, 19391944 (copyright 1969 by Anas Nin and renewed by Rupert Pole and Gunther Stuhlmann) and The Diary of Anas Nin, Volume Four, 19441947 (copyright 1971 by Anas Nin and renewed by Rupert Pole and Gunther Stuhlmann) reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Typesetting and design: Sara A. Herron, Sky Blue Press
Cover photo: courtesy of The Anas Nin Trust; Deigh-Nevin
Cover design: Ohio University Press/Swallow Press

All photographs copyright The Anas Nin Trust, with the following exceptions:
Edward Graeffe: James Abresch, photographer
Valentina Orlikova: Soviet Russia Today (April 1943)
Anas Nin in Provincetown: Jos Alemany, photographer
Anas Nin in action coat: Soichi Sunami, photographer

Printed in the United States of America

Swallow Press/Ohio University Press books are printed on acid-free paper

23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Nin, Anas, 19031977.
Mirages : the Unexpurgated Diary of Anas Nin 19391947 / [Anas Nin] ; preface by Paul Herron ; introduction by Kim Krizan ; edited by Paul Herron.
pages cm
Includes index.
ISBN 978-0-8040-1146-4 (hc : alk. paper) ISBN 978-0-8040-4057-0 (electronic)
1. Nin, Anas, 19031977. 2. Authors, American20th centuryBiography. I. Herron, Paul, editor. II. Title.
PS3527.I865Z46 2013
818.5209dc23
[B]
2013026626

To Gunther and Barbara Stuhlmann

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The editor gratefully acknowledges The Anas Nin Trust, Sara Herron, John Ferrone,
and Kim Krizan for their guidance and dedication to this book.

Anas Nin at Provincetown

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PREFACE

Mirages