Henry Valentine Miller was a gifted raconteur, writer, painter, and fixed gear bike rider. He also invented Tumblr in his bathroom.
Without knowing or planning it, Henry Miller set the gold-standard for the genuinely subversive and underground weirdo — excuse me — I mean, individual: He wrote sensitive novels so idiosyncratically human that they were banned for decades; lived the better part of his 30s in complete self-imposed poverty and reveled in it; worked his fair share of miserable dead-end jobs; enjoyed painting watercolors so much he gave them away; despised authority; embraced madness; celebrated good food, fine wine, fixed gears, ping-pong with naked women; poked more ass than he could remember and had five wives — all them smoking hot. To paraphrase his words: He had no time for moralities, ethics, laws, customs, beliefs, and doctrines — he only had time for the miraculous.
At some point in his travel memoir The Air-Conditioned Nightmare, he criticized Americans for collectively celebrating death over birth: We remember the days our heroes and artists died before we can recall the days they were born.
Is that so? Well then Happy Birthday Henry Miller, you articulately depraved, crazy-cock sweetheart. Thank you for putting it into words — from the stars, to the abyss, and everything in between.
“Develop an interest in life as you see it; the people, things, literature, music – the world is so rich, simply throbbing with rich treasures, beautiful souls and interesting people. Forget yourself.”
Henry Valentine Miller (December 26, 1891 – June 7, 1980)
662 Driggs Avenue, where Miller lived as a kid.
Here’s the film in its entirety for those who are interested. You get to see his wife naked in it.
Leave a Reply
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
I love this man as much as I love my own father. The Rosy Crucifixion taught me a lot about how to live, how to sponge off my friends, how to look for and find the beautiful, the holy, the weird, in all things, how to have sex, how to find joy. He’s a freak, and I hope to live as well as he did.
12.26.09 at 5:18 pm
This guy may have led an interesting life, but he is one of the most overrated novelists to ever exist.
Also, despite that unfortunate fact, I’m sure he was a great guy, and doubt he would ever use a word like “raconteur” (douche)
12.26.09 at 6:55 pm
^^^
“The good fortune I have had to know a few remarkable story tellers is due, I suppose, to the fact that I am what is called “the perfect listener.”…Had I become better acquainted with Anderson there is no telling where I might place him in the rank of fascinating raconteurs.”
Henry Miller
-Stand Still Like a Hummingbird: Essays
12.26.09 at 9:03 pm
He was a better painter than artist and apparently a better cocksman than either. Could definitely write one hell of a screw scene.
12.26.09 at 9:32 pm
Tropic of Capricorn saved my sanity.
12.26.09 at 10:32 pm
“writer,” i meant to say “writer”
12.26.09 at 10:38 pm
Dude, art fags/scenesters/hipsters and such have been around long before even this guy… And where can I fast forward to the parts of the documentary where I can see titty?
12.27.09 at 1:15 am
calling him the first hipster is like calling Gil Scott Heron the first rapper.
12.27.09 at 2:34 am
titties around 27:05
12.27.09 at 7:40 am
Everyone knows that Brooklyn’s First Hipster was Dash Stuyvesant, who invented the “pheasant party” at an aviary back in the mid-1700s in what is modern-day Canarsie.
12.27.09 at 8:40 am
i remember the day i discovered miller in my small town library. introduced me to a world i didn’t know existed.
12.27.09 at 9:36 am
I met a man who said Miller took him up the ass at a Bicentennial Party. He said that it ruined his life, but that he was okay with that becuase he felt that it would eventually be ruined one way or another regardless. Truly an inspiration.
12.27.09 at 4:01 pm
@ bolo- How so, in that it’s a completely appropriate comparison? This piece rules.
12.27.09 at 4:39 pm
Hey Mike. I know all Asian chicks look alike but that is not his wife who left him in 1970.
12.27.09 at 8:49 pm
Yeah, I guess Lambert Hendrix and Ross are the original Manhattan Transfer and Coltrane was the Original Kenny G.
12.27.09 at 8:51 pm
That’s not a fixed gear, it’s got a coaster brake… just sayin’
12.28.09 at 12:20 am
dash stuyvesant is the funniest fucking thing in the world
12.30.09 at 12:04 am
This piece does rule. Just purchased Tropic of Cancer.
12.30.09 at 9:26 pm