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Tropic of Cancer (novel)

Tropic of Cancer is an autobiographical novel by Henry Miller that is best known as "notorious for its candid sexuality", with the resulting social controversy considered responsible for the "free speech that we now take for granted in literature."[2][3] It was first published in 1934 by the Obelisk Press in Paris, France, but this edition was banned in the United States.[4] Its publication in 1961 in the United States by Grove Press led to obscenity trials that tested American laws on pornography in the early 1960s. In 1964, the U.S. Supreme Court declared the book non-obscene. It is regarded as an important work of 20th-century literature.

Tropic of Cancer
First edition
AuthorHenry Miller
Cover artistMaurice Girodias[1][failed verification]
CountryFrance
LanguageEnglish
GenreAutobiographical novel
PublisherObelisk Press
Publication date
1934
Media typePrint (Hardcover)
Pages318
Followed byBlack Spring 

Writing and publication edit

I am living at the Villa Borghese. There is not a crumb of dirt anywhere, nor a chair misplaced. We are all alone here and we are dead.

— First passage excerpt

Miller wrote the book between 1930 and 1934 during his "nomadic life" in Paris.[5]: 105–107  The fictional Villa Borghese was actually 18 Villa Seurat in Paris' 14th arrondissement.[6] As Miller discloses in the text of the book, he first intended to title it "Crazy Cock".[7] Miller gave the following explanation of why the book's title was Tropic of Cancer: "It was because to me cancer symbolizes the disease of civilization, the endpoint of the wrong path, the necessity to change course radically, to start completely over from scratch."[5]: 38 

Anaïs Nin helped to edit the book.[5]: 109  In 1934, Jack Kahane's Obelisk Press published the book with financial backing from Nin, who had borrowed the money from Otto Rank.[5]: 108 [8]: 116 

Emerson quotation, preface, and introduction edit

In the 1961 edition, opposite the novel's title page is a quotation from Ralph Waldo Emerson:[9]

These novels will give way, by and by, to diaries or autobiographies—captivating books, if only a man knew how to choose among what he calls his experiences that which is really his experience, and how to record truth truly.[10]

The 1961 edition includes an introduction by Karl Shapiro written in 1960 and titled "The Greatest Living Author". The first three sentences are:

I call Henry Miller the greatest living author because I think he is. I do not call him a poet because he has never written a poem; he even dislikes poetry, I think. But everything he has written is a poem in the best as well as in the broadest sense of the word.[10]: v–xxx 

Following the introduction is a preface written by Nin in 1934, which begins as follows:

Here is a book which, if such a thing were possible, might restore our appetite for the fundamental realities. The predominant note will seem one of bitterness, and bitterness there is, to the full. But there is also a wild extravagance, a mad gaiety, a verve, a gusto, at times almost a delirium.[10]: xxxi–xxxiii 

Summary edit

Set in France (primarily Paris) during the late 1920s and early 1930s, Tropic of Cancer centers on Miller's life as a struggling writer. Late in the novel, Miller explains his artistic approach to writing the book itself, stating:

Up to the present, my idea of collaborating with myself has been to get off the gold standard of literature. My idea briefly has been to present a resurrection of the emotions, to depict the conduct of a human being in the stratosphere of ideas, that is, in the grip of delirium.[10]: 243 

Combining autobiography and fiction, some chapters follow a narrative of some kind and refer to Miller's actual friends, colleagues, and workplaces; others are written as stream-of-consciousness reflections that are occasionally epiphanic. The novel is written in the first person, as are many of Miller's other novels, and does not have a linear organization, but rather fluctuates frequently between the past and present.

Themes edit

The book largely functions as an immersive meditation on the human condition. As a struggling writer, Miller describes his experience living among a community of bohemians in Paris, where he intermittently suffers from hunger, homelessness, squalor, loneliness, and despair over his recent separation from his wife. Describing his perception of Paris during this time, Miller wrote:

One can live in Paris—I discovered that!—on just grief and anguish. A bitter nourishment—perhaps the best there is for certain people. At any rate, I had not yet come to the end of my rope. I was only flirting with disaster. ... I understood then why it is that Paris attracts the tortured, the hallucinated, the great maniacs of love. I understood why it is that here, at the very hub of the wheel, one can embrace the most fantastic, the most impossible theories, without finding them in the least strange; it is here that one reads again the books of his youth and the enigmas take on new meanings, one for every white hair. One walks the streets knowing that he is mad, possessed, because it is only too obvious that these cold, indifferent faces are the visages of one's keepers. Here all boundaries fade away and the world reveals itself for the mad slaughterhouse that it is. The treadmill stretches away to infinitude, the hatches are closed down tight, logic runs rampant, with bloody cleaver flashing.[10]: 180–182 

There are many passages explicitly describing the narrator's sexual encounters. In 1978, literary scholar Donald Gutierrez argued that the sexual comedy in the book was "undeniably low... [but with] a stronger visceral appeal than high comedy".[11]: 22  The characters are caricatures, and the male characters "stumbl[e] through the mazes of their conceptions of woman".[11]: 24 

Music and dance are other recurrent themes in the book.[12] Music is used "as a sign of the flagging vitality Miller everywhere rejects".[12] References to dancing include a comparison of loving Mona to a "dance of death", and a call for the reader to join in "a last expiring dance" even though "we are doomed".[12]

Characters edit

Other than the first-person narrator "Henry Miller",[10]: 108  the major characters include:

Boris
A friend who rents rooms at the Villa Borghese.[10]: 22–23  The character was modeled after Michael Fraenkel, a writer who "had sheltered Miller during his hobo days" in 1930.[5]: 103, 176 
Carl
A writer friend who complains about optimistic people, about Paris, and about writing.[10]: 49–50  Miller helps Carl write love letters to "the rich cunt, Irene", and Carl relates his encounter with her to Miller.[10]: 107–117  Carl lives in squalor and rapes a minor. The inspiration for Carl was Miller's friend Alfred Perlès, a writer.[5]: 10 
Collins
A sailor who befriends Fillmore and Miller.[10]: 194–208  As Collins had fallen in love with a boy in the past, his undressing a sick Miller to put him to bed has been interpreted as evidence of a homoerotic desire for Miller.[13]
Fillmore
A "young man in the diplomatic service" who becomes friends with Miller.[10]: 193  He invites Miller to stay with him; later the Russian "princess" Macha with "the clap" joins them.[10]: 219–238  Fillmore and Miller disrupt a mass while hung over.[10]: 259–263  Toward the end of the book, Fillmore promises to marry a French woman named Ginette who is pregnant by him, but she is physically abusive and controlling, and Miller convinces Fillmore to leave Paris without her.[10]: 292–315  Fillmore's real-life counterpart was Richard Galen Osborn, a lawyer.[5]: 46 
Mona
A character corresponding to Miller's estranged second wife June Miller.[5]: 96–97  Miller remembers Mona, who is now in America, nostalgically.[10]: 17–21, 54, 152, 177–181, 184–185, 250–251 
Tania
A woman married to Sylvester.[10]: 56–57  The character was modeled after Bertha Schrank, who was married to Joseph Schrank.[14] It may also be noted that during the writing of the novel, Miller also had a passionate affair with Anais Nin; by changing the "T" to an "S", one can make out Anais from Tania by rearranging the letters. It may also be noted that in one of Nin's many passionate letters to Miller, she quotes his swoon found below. Tania has an affair with Miller, who fantasizes about her:

O Tania, where now is that warm cunt of yours, those fat, heavy garters, those soft, bulging thighs? There is a bone in my prick six inches long. I will ream out every wrinkle in your cunt, Tania, big with seed. I will send you home to your Sylvester with an ache in your belly and your womb turned inside out. Your Sylvester! Yes, he knows how to build a fire, but I know how to inflame a cunt. I shoot hot bolts into you, Tania, I make your ovaries incandescent.[10]: 5–6 

Van Norden
A friend of Miller's who is "probably the most sexually corrupt man" in the book, having a "total lack of empathy with women".[11]: 25–27  Van Norden refers to women using terms such as "my Georgia cunt", "fucking cunt", "rich cunt", "married cunts", "Danish cunt", and "foolish cunts".[10]: 100–107  Miller helps Van Norden move to a room in a hotel, where Van Norden brings women "day in and out".[10]: 117–146  The character was based on Wambly Bald, a gossip columnist.[15]

Legal issues edit

United States edit

Upon the book's publication in France in 1934, the United States Customs Service banned the book from being imported into the U.S.[16] Frances Steloff sold copies of the novel smuggled from Paris during the 1930s at her Gotham Book Mart, which led to lawsuits.[17] A copyright-infringing edition of the novel was published in New York City in 1940 by "Medusa" (Jacob Brussel); its last page claimed its place of publication to be Mexico.[18] Brussel was eventually sent to jail for three years for the edition.[19]

In 1950, Ernest Besig, the director of the American Civil Liberties Union in San Francisco, attempted to import Tropic of Cancer along with Miller's other novel, Tropic of Capricorn, to the United States. Customs detained the novels and Besig sued the government. Before the case went to trial, Besig requested a motion to admit 19 depositions from literary critics testifying to the "literary value of the novels and to Miller's stature as a serious writer".[20] The motion was denied by Judge Louis A. Goodman. The case went to trial with Goodman presiding. Goodman declared both novels obscene. Besig appealed the decision to the Ninth Circuit of Appeals, but the novels were once again declared "obscene" in a unanimous decision in Besig v. United States.

In 1961, when Grove Press legally published the book in the United States, over 60 obscenity lawsuits in over 21 states were brought against booksellers that sold it.[16][21] The opinions of courts varied; for example, in his dissent from the majority holding that the book was not obscene, Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Michael Musmanno wrote Cancer is "not a book. It is a cesspool, an open sewer, a pit of putrefaction, a slimy gathering of all that is rotten in the debris of human depravity."[22]

Publisher Barney Rosset hired lawyer Charles Rembar to help Rosset lead the "effort to assist every bookseller prosecuted, regardless of whether there was a legal obligation to do so".[23][24] Rembar successfully argued two appeals cases, in Massachusetts and New Jersey,[21][25] although the book continued to be judged obscene in New York and other states.[23]

In 1964, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Grove Press, Inc. v. Gerstein, cited Jacobellis v. Ohio (which was decided the same day) and overruled state court findings that Tropic of Cancer was obscene.[26][27]

Other countries edit

 
Copies of the Finnish translation (Kravun kääntöpiiri) are being confiscated in Helsinki, Finland, in May 1962. The Swedish translation and the English-language original could still be sold legally in this country.

The book was banned outside the U.S. as well:

  • In Canada, it was on the list of books banned by customs as of 1938.[28] The Royal Canadian Mounted Police seized copies of the book from bookstores and public libraries in the early 1960s.[28] By 1964, attitudes toward the book had "liberalized".[28]
  • Only smuggled copies of the book were available in the United Kingdom after its publication in 1934.[29] Scotland Yard contemplated banning its publication in Britain in the 1960s, but decided against the ban because literary figures such as T. S. Eliot were ready to defend the book publicly.[29]
  • In Australia the book was banned until the early 1970s when the Minister for Customs and Excise, Don Chipp, largely ended censorship of printed material in the country.[30]
  • In Finland all printed copies of the Finnish versions of the book were confiscated by the state before the books were to be published in 1962. The book was not published there in Finnish until 1970, however the book was available in Swedish and English.[31]

Critical reception edit

Individual reviewers edit

In 1935, H. L. Mencken read the 1934 Paris edition, and sent an encouraging note to Miller: "I read Tropic of Cancer a month ago. It seems to me to be a really excellent piece of work, and I so reported to the person who sent it to me. Of this, more when we meet."[32]

George Orwell reviewed Tropic of Cancer in The New English Weekly in 1935.[33] Orwell focused on Miller's descriptions of sexual encounters, which he deemed significant for their "attempt to get at real facts", and which he saw as a departure from dominant trends. Orwell argued that, although Miller concerns himself with uglier aspects of life, he is nonetheless not quite a pessimist, and seems to find that the contemplation of ugliness makes life more worthwhile rather than less.[34] Concluding, he described Tropic of Cancer as "a remarkable book" and recommended it to "anyone who can get hold of a copy".[35] Returning to the novel in the essay "Inside the Whale" (1940), George Orwell wrote the following:

I earnestly counsel anyone who has not done so to read at least Tropic of Cancer. With a little ingenuity, or by paying a little over the published price, you can get hold of it, and even if parts of it disgust you, it will stick in your memory. ... Here in my opinion is the only imaginative prose-writer of the slightest value who has appeared among the English-speaking races for some years past. Even if that is objected to as an overstatement, it will probably be admitted that Miller is a writer out of the ordinary, worth more than a single glance....[36]

Samuel Beckett hailed it as "a momentous event in the history of modern writing".[37] Norman Mailer, in his 1976 book on Miller entitled Genius and Lust, called it "one of the ten or twenty great novels of our century, a revolution in consciousness equal to The Sun Also Rises".[38]

Edmund Wilson said of the novel:

The tone of the book is undoubtedly low; The Tropic of Cancer, in fact, from the point of view both of its happenings and of the language in which they are conveyed, is the lowest book of any real literary merit that I ever remember to have read... there is a strange amenity of temper and style which bathes the whole composition even when it is disgusting or tiresome.[39]

: 295–296  In 1980, Anatole Broyard described Tropic of Cancer as "Mr. Miller's first and best novel", showing "a flair for finding symbolism in unobtrusive places" and having "beautiful sentence[s]".[40] Julian Symons wrote in 1993 that "the shock effect [of the novel] has gone", although "it remains an extraordinary document".[41] A 2009 essay on the book by Ewan Morrison described it as a "life-saver" when he was "wandering from drink to drink and bed to bed, dangerously close to total collapse".[42]

Appearances in lists of best books edit

The book has been included in a number of lists of best books, such as the following:

Influences edit

Influences on Miller edit

Critics and Miller himself have claimed that Miller was influenced by the following in writing the novel:

Novel's influence on other writers edit

Tropic of Cancer "has had a huge and indelible impact on both the American literary tradition and American society as a whole".[55] The novel influenced many writers, as exemplified by the following:

Adaptation edit

The novel was adapted for a 1970 film Tropic of Cancer directed by Joseph Strick, and starring Rip Torn, James T. Callahan, and Ellen Burstyn.[2] Miller was a "technical consultant" during the production of the movie; although he had reservations about the adaptation of the book, he praised the final movie.[2]: 147  The film was rated X in the United States, which was later changed to an NC-17 rating.[59]

References or allusions in other works edit

Literature
  • In his 1948 autobiography, poet and writer Robert W. Service wrote a few comments about Tropic of Cancer, for example, "Of course the book shocked me but I could not deny a strange flicker of genius in its wildest fights."[60]
  • In chapter 2 of William Gaddis's 1955 novel The Recognitions, set in Paris in the 1930s, an artist complains "I've got to show these pictures, I've got to sell some of them, but how can I have people coming up there with him there? He's dying. I can't put him out on the street, dying like that . . . even in Paris" (63-64), which echoes the scene in Tropic of Cancer where the artist Kruger tries to get the sick Miller out of his studio so that he can exhibit his pictures. "People can't look at pictures and statues with enthusiasm when a man is dying before their eyes" (Grove ed., 195).[61]
  • In his 1960 short story "Entropy", Thomas Pynchon begins with a quote from this novel.
  • In the 1965 novel God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater by Kurt Vonnegut, Lila reads the book "as though... [it] were Heidi".[62]
  • In the 1969 novel The Seven Minutes by Irving Wallace, the book and the trial are mentioned.
  • In the 1994 play Pterodactyls by Nicky Silver, the novel is mentioned by the character Emma: "She reads poems by Emily Bronté and I read chapters from The Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller."[63]
  • In Carl Hiaasen's 1995 Stormy Weather a character quotes a line from the novel.[citation needed]
  • In the 1998 nonfiction book Rocket Boys, Quentin shows Sonny a copy of Tropic of Cancer and asks him "You want to know about girls?"[64]
Music
  • Satirical songwriter and mathematics instructor Tom Lehrer stated that he intended to write a million-selling math book which he would call Tropic of Calculus.
  • The 1980s British band The Weather Prophets was named after a line in the opening paragraph of the novel: "Boris has just given me a summary of his views. He is a weather prophet."[citation needed]
  • Frontman Henry Rollins of the hardcore punk band Black Flag was heavily affected by the book as well and frequently made references to it in his songs, often taking lyrics directly from Tropic of Cancer. He would also read passages of it to his audiences mid-show.
  • In the song "Delirium of Disorder" by punk band Bad Religion, the opening verse quotes the novel, "Life is a sieve through which my anarchy strains resolving itself into words. Chaos is the score on which reality is written...".
  • In the song "Protest Song 68" by Refused, the opening verse quotes the novel, "To sing you must first open your mouth. You must have a pair of lungs..."
  • In the song "Ashes of American Flags" by Wilco, one phrase from the lyrics is taken from the novel: "A hole without a key."
  • In 2012, the American grindcore band Pig Destroyer used a passage from the book on tape, read by Larry King, as the introduction to their song The Bug on their album entitled Book Burner.
Film and television
  • In a 1962 episode of the TV series Perry Mason ("The Case of the Bogus Books"), a character tells another that "Tropic of Cancer is not a medical book. Far from it."
  • In the 1963 film, Take Her, She's Mine, adapted from Phoebe and Henry Ephron's play of the same name, Jimmy Stewart, as Mr. Michaelson, reads the (soon to be banned by the mayor) book written by Henry Miller. Sandra Dee, Stewart's daughter in the film, has organized a sit-in style protest against banning the book.
  • In the 1985 film After Hours, the protagonist Paul is reading the book in a coffee shop when a Marcy comments on it from the table across, setting the events of the film in motion.
  • In the 1990 movie Henry & June, the first draft of the book is referenced and discussed by Henry and friends.
  • In the 1991 version of Cape Fear, the characters of Max Cady and Danielle Bowden discuss the book briefly.
  • In the 1991 Seinfeld episode "The Library", Jerry is accused of never returning a copy of the book to the public library after borrowing it many years before, during high school, in 1971. It is revealed that the book was stolen by the gym teacher while a gang of jocks were beating up on George. In the present day, the gym teacher still holds the library book, despite being homeless and insane.[4][65]
  • In the 2000 romantic comedy film 100 Girls, the characters Dora and Matthew read an excerpt from Tropic of Cancer together: "Your Sylvester! ... After me you can take on stallions, bulls, rams, drakes, St. Bernards."[66]
  • At the beginning of the 2000 movie Final Destination, Clear (Ali Larter) is reading Tropic of Cancer upon arrival at the airport.
  • In the 2010 telenovela ¿Dónde Está Elisa? a copy of the book is found in Elisa's locker at school.
  • In Season 2 of the television series Ozark Jonah reads an explicit excerpt of the book to Buddy.

Typescript edit

The typescript of the book was auctioned for $165,000 in 1986.[67] Yale University now owns the typescript, which was displayed to the public in 2001.[68]

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ Motion, Andrew (September 18, 1994). "Book: The Man Who Succeeded Too Well at Sex". The Observer.
  2. ^ a b c Decker, James M. (Summer 2007). "Literary Text, Cinematic "Edition": Adaptation, Textual Authority, and the Filming of "Tropic of Cancer"". College Literature. 34 (3): 140–160. doi:10.1353/lit.2007.0029. S2CID 143315037.
  3. ^ Meisel, Perry (June 23, 1991). "Book Review: A Dirty Young Man And How He Grew". The New York Times. Retrieved October 25, 2011.
  4. ^ a b Baron, Dennis (October 1, 2009). . Web of Language. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Archived from the original on May 11, 2020. Retrieved September 25, 2011.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Miller, Henry (1995). Henry Miller, the Paris Years. New York: Arcade. ISBN 1-55970-287-7.
  6. ^ D'Abate, Matthew. Paris: Street by Street. CouCou, Feb. 8, 2018,
  7. ^ McCrum, Robert (29 April 2012). "Renegade: Henry Miller and the Making of Tropic of Cancer by Frederick Turner". The Guardian.
  8. ^ a b Jong, Erica (1994). The Devil at Large: Erica Jong on Henry Miller. New York: Grove Press. ISBN 0-8021-3391-6.
  9. ^ a b Atkinson, Brooks (June 30, 1961). "Critic at Large: Henry Miller's Use of an Emerson Quotation in 'Tropic of Cancer' is Discussed". The New York Times. Section food fashions family furnishings, page 24.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Miller, Henry (1961). Tropic of Cancer. New York: Grove Press. ISBN 0-8021-3178-6. p. 1
  11. ^ a b c Gutierrez, Donald (Winter 1978). ""Hypocrite Lecteur": Tropic of Cancer as Sexual Comedy". Mosaic. 11 (2): 21–33.
  12. ^ a b c Jackson, Paul R. (1979). "Caterwauling and Harmony: Music in Tropic of Cancer". Critique. 20 (3): 40–50. doi:10.1080/00111619.1979.10690198.
  13. ^ Hardin, Michael (2002). "Fighting Desires: Henry Miller's Queer Tropic". Journal of Homosexuality. 42 (3): 129–150. doi:10.1300/J082v42n03_08. PMID 12066987. S2CID 41169915.
  14. ^ O'Joyce, Guillermo (2011). "Miller Time: On Henry Miller". Miller, Bukowski and their enemies (2nd ed.). London: Pinter & Martin. ISBN 978-1-905177-27-1.[permanent dead link]
  15. ^ Pizer, Donald (1996). American Expatriate Writing and the Paris Moment: Modernism and Place. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. p. 133. ISBN 0-8071-2026-X.
  16. ^ a b c Anonymous (June 9, 1961). "Books: Greatest Living Patagonian". Time. Archived from the original on February 4, 2013. Retrieved September 25, 2011.
  17. ^ Mitgang, Herbert (April 16, 1989). "Frances Steloff is Dead at 101; Founded the Gotham Book Mart". The New York Times. Retrieved September 22, 2011.
  18. ^ Miller, Henry (1940). Tropic of Cancer. New York: Medusa. OCLC 9798986.
  19. ^ Brottman, Mikita (2004). Funny Peculiar: Gershon Legman and the Psychopathology of Humor. Hillsdale, N.J.: Analytic Press. p. 6. ISBN 0-88163-404-2.
  20. ^ "Tropic of Cancer (1934): History of the Ban". Banned Books.
  21. ^ a b Holland, Steve (October 28, 2000). "Charles Rembar: anti-censorship lawyer who won freedom for Lady Chatterley and Fanny Hill in America". The Guardian. London. Retrieved September 22, 2011.
  22. ^ Commonwealth v. Robin, 218 A.2d 546, 561 (Pa. 1966).
  23. ^ a b Woo, Elaine (October 28, 2000). "Charles Rembar; Lawyer Won Key Obscenity Cases". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved September 22, 2011.
  24. ^ Jordan, Ken (Winter 1997). "Barney Rosset, The Art of Publishing No. 2". The Paris Review. Winter 1997 (145).
  25. ^ Attorney General Vs. The Book Named "Tropic Of Cancer", 345 Mass. 11 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court July 17, 1962).
  26. ^ Grove Press, Inc., v. Gerstein, 378 U.S. 577 (U.S. Supreme Court June 22, 1964).
  27. ^ Hubbard, Melissa A. Southern Illinois University School of Law Library. Archived from the original on March 25, 2012. Retrieved September 22, 2011.
  28. ^ a b c d Caldwell, Rebecca (February 14, 2004). . The Globe and Mail. Canada. Archived from the original on April 4, 2012. Retrieved October 24, 2011.
  29. ^ a b Travis, Alan (May 4, 1998). "The Miller's Tale That Beat a Ban: Literary Experts Scared". The Guardian.
  30. ^ CHIPP, Donald Leslie (1925–2006), senate.gov.au. Retrieved 7 June 2021.
  31. ^ "HY:n helka-palvelun tiedoissa Henry Millerin Kravun kääntöpiirin ensimmäinen suomennos (Saarikoski) olisi ilmestynyt jo 1960, ja Karl Shapiron introlla…" [In the data of the University of Helsinki's Helka service, the first Finnish translation of Henry Miller's Kravun kääntöpiiri (Saarikoski) would have appeared already in 1960, and with Karl Shapiro's intro…]. www2.kirjastot.fi (in Finnish). 11 October 2012.
  32. ^ Mencken, H. L. (1977). Bode, Carl (ed.). New Mencken Letters. New York: Dial Press. pp. 372–373. ISBN 0-8037-1379-7.
  33. ^ Orwell, George (1968) [1935]. "Review". In Orwell, Sonia; Angus, Ian (eds.). The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell, Volume 1: An Age Like This 1920–1940. Penguin. pp. 178–180.
  34. ^ Orwell 1968, pp. 179–80.
  35. ^ Orwell 1968, p. 180.
  36. ^ a b c d Orwell, George. "Inside the Whale (1940)" (PDF). Inside The Whale and Other Essays. Distributed Proofreaders Canada. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
  37. ^ Cited in: Henry Miller, Tropic of Cancer, (Harper Perennial, UK, 2005)
  38. ^ Mailer, Norman; Miller, Henry (1976). Genius and Lust: a Journey Through the Major Writings of Henry Miller. New York: Grove Press. p. 8. ISBN 0-8021-0127-5.
  39. ^ Wilson, Edmund (2017). "Twilight of the Expatriates". In Wickes, George (ed.). Henry Miller and the Critics. Forgotten Books. p. 26. ISBN 978-0-243-46156-1. OCLC 1002879700. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
  40. ^ a b c d e f Broyard, Anatole (June 9, 1980). "Miller: An Observer With Infallible Ear; An Appreciation". The New York Times.
  41. ^ Symons, Julian (March 7, 1993). "Quiet Days in Cliches - Biography". The Sunday Times. London.
  42. ^ Morrison, Ewan (June 26, 2009). "Book Of A Lifetime: Tropic of Cancer, By Henry Miller". The Independent. London. Retrieved October 22, 2011.
  43. ^ Lewis, Paul (July 20, 1998). "'Ulysses' on Top Among 100 Best Novels". The New York Times. Retrieved September 22, 2011.
  44. ^ a b "100 Best Novels". Modern Library. July 20, 1998.
  45. ^ . Modern Library. July 20, 1998. Archived from the original on November 20, 2016.
  46. ^ Anonymous (November 15, 1998). "Librarians Choose a Century of Good Books". Library Journal: 34–36. Retrieved September 25, 2011.
  47. ^ Lacayo, Richard (October 16, 2005). . Time Magazine. Archived from the original on April 16, 2010. Retrieved September 23, 2011.
  48. ^ Boxall, Peter (2006). 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. London: Cassell. ISBN 978-1-84403-417-8.
  49. ^ "1000 Novels Everyone Must Read: The Definitive List". The Guardian. London. January 23, 2009. Retrieved October 12, 2011.
  50. ^ "The 75 Books Every Man Should Read". Esquire Magazine. May 26, 2011. Retrieved October 5, 2011.
  51. ^ Collins, Tom (December 10, 2004). "'Haiku Paintings' Reveal Essence of Jorge Fick's Artistic, Intellectual Life". Albuquerque Journal. Retrieved October 12, 2011.
  52. ^ Iyer, Pico (July 22, 1991). . Time Magazine. Archived from the original on November 22, 2010. Retrieved October 12, 2011.
  53. ^ Featherstone, Joseph L. (September 27, 1961). "Critics Testify for 'Tropic of Cancer'". The Harvard Crimson. Retrieved October 12, 2011.
  54. ^ a b Shifreen, Lawrence J (Winter 1979). "Henry Miller's 'Mezzotints': The Undiscovered Roots of 'Tropic of Cancer'". Studies in Short Fiction. 16 (1): 11–17. Miller's transcendental stance as a follower of Whitman and Thoreau becomes apparent in his essays 'Walt Whitman' and 'Henry David Thoreau'
  55. ^ Orend, Karl (January 9, 2004). "Making a Place for Henry Miller in the American Classroom". Chronicle of Higher Education. 20 (18). Retrieved October 25, 2011.
  56. ^ Ingersoll, Earl G, ed. (1998). Lawrence Durrell: Conversations. Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. p. 12. ISBN 0-8386-3723-X.
  57. ^ Oriard, Michael (1991). Sporting with the Gods: the Rhetoric of Play and Game in American Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 450. ISBN 0-521-39113-X.
  58. ^ Kendrick, Walter (February 14, 1993). "Her Master's Voice". New York Times. Retrieved October 10, 2011.
  59. ^ Fox, Margalit (June 7, 2010). "Joseph Strick, Who Filmed the Unfilmable, Dies at 86". The New York Times. Retrieved October 5, 2011.
  60. ^ Service-Longepe, Charlotte (25 May 2015). "Henry Miller 1891–1980". Robert W. Service.
  61. ^ Moore, Steven (1982). A Reader's Guide to William Gaddis's 'The Recognitions'. Univ. of Nebraska Press. p. 95. ISBN 978-0-8032-3072-9.
  62. ^ Vonnegut, Kurt (1998). "Chapter 9". God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater: Or, Pearls Before Swine. New York: Dell Publications. pp. 156–159. ISBN 0-385-33347-1.
  63. ^ Silver, Nicky (1994). Pterodactyls. New York: Dramatists Play Service. p. 66. ISBN 0-8222-1375-3.
  64. ^ Hickam, Homer H. Jr (2000). Rocket Boys: a Memoir. New York: Delta. p. 64. ISBN 0-385-33321-8.
  65. ^ Andriatch, Bruce (20 January 2016). "10 times Seinfeld showed his love for newspapers". Buffalo News. Retrieved 2022-09-05.
  66. ^ 100 Girls Full Movie. 2000. Event occurs at 50:10. ISBN 1-58817-264-3. Retrieved October 25, 2011.
  67. ^ "Typescript of 'Cancer' Auctioned for $165,000". New York Times. February 15, 1986. Retrieved October 3, 2011.
  68. ^ "From Heinrich Schuetz to Henry Miller: Selections from the Frederick R. Koch Collection at the Beinecke Library 20 April, 2001 to 14 July, 2001". Yale University. Retrieved October 3, 2011.

Further reading edit

  • Fraenkel, Michael (1947). Défense du Tropique du Cancer: avec des inédits de Miller (in French). Paris: Variété. OCLC 1837523.
  • Nin, Anaïs (1947). Preface to Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer. New York: L.R. Maxwell. OCLC 4490763.
  • Hutchison, Earl R (1968). Tropic of Cancer on trial; a case history of censorship. New York: Grove Press. OCLC 440116.
  • Rembar, Charles (1968). The end of obscenity: the trials of Lady Chatterley, Tropic of Cancer, and Fanny Hill. New York: Random House. OCLC 232256.
  • Fraenkel, Michael (1998) [First published in 1946 by B. Porter, Berkeley]. The genesis of the Tropic of Cancer. Paris and London: Alyscamps Press. ISBN 1-897722-81-8.
  • Miller, Henry (1999). From Tropic of Cancer: previously unpublished sections. Ann Arbor, MI: Roger Jackson. ISBN 1-893918-00-9.
  • Turner, Frederick (2011). Renegade: Henry Miller and the Making of Tropic of Cancer. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-14949-4.

tropic, cancer, novel, tropic, cancer, autobiographical, novel, henry, miller, that, best, known, notorious, candid, sexuality, with, resulting, social, controversy, considered, responsible, free, speech, that, take, granted, literature, first, published, 1934. Tropic of Cancer is an autobiographical novel by Henry Miller that is best known as notorious for its candid sexuality with the resulting social controversy considered responsible for the free speech that we now take for granted in literature 2 3 It was first published in 1934 by the Obelisk Press in Paris France but this edition was banned in the United States 4 Its publication in 1961 in the United States by Grove Press led to obscenity trials that tested American laws on pornography in the early 1960s In 1964 the U S Supreme Court declared the book non obscene It is regarded as an important work of 20th century literature Tropic of CancerFirst editionAuthorHenry MillerCover artistMaurice Girodias 1 failed verification CountryFranceLanguageEnglishGenreAutobiographical novelPublisherObelisk PressPublication date1934Media typePrint Hardcover Pages318Followed byBlack Spring Contents 1 Writing and publication 2 Emerson quotation preface and introduction 3 Summary 4 Themes 5 Characters 6 Legal issues 6 1 United States 6 2 Other countries 7 Critical reception 7 1 Individual reviewers 7 2 Appearances in lists of best books 8 Influences 8 1 Influences on Miller 8 2 Novel s influence on other writers 9 Adaptation 10 References or allusions in other works 11 Typescript 12 See also 13 References 14 Further readingWriting and publication editI am living at the Villa Borghese There is not a crumb of dirt anywhere nor a chair misplaced We are all alone here and we are dead First passage excerpt Miller wrote the book between 1930 and 1934 during his nomadic life in Paris 5 105 107 The fictional Villa Borghese was actually 18 Villa Seurat in Paris 14th arrondissement 6 As Miller discloses in the text of the book he first intended to title it Crazy Cock 7 Miller gave the following explanation of why the book s title was Tropic of Cancer It was because to me cancer symbolizes the disease of civilization the endpoint of the wrong path the necessity to change course radically to start completely over from scratch 5 38 Anais Nin helped to edit the book 5 109 In 1934 Jack Kahane s Obelisk Press published the book with financial backing from Nin who had borrowed the money from Otto Rank 5 108 8 116 Emerson quotation preface and introduction editIn the 1961 edition opposite the novel s title page is a quotation from Ralph Waldo Emerson 9 These novels will give way by and by to diaries or autobiographies captivating books if only a man knew how to choose among what he calls his experiences that which is really his experience and how to record truth truly 10 The 1961 edition includes an introduction by Karl Shapiro written in 1960 and titled The Greatest Living Author The first three sentences are I call Henry Miller the greatest living author because I think he is I do not call him a poet because he has never written a poem he even dislikes poetry I think But everything he has written is a poem in the best as well as in the broadest sense of the word 10 v xxx Following the introduction is a preface written by Nin in 1934 which begins as follows Here is a book which if such a thing were possible might restore our appetite for the fundamental realities The predominant note will seem one of bitterness and bitterness there is to the full But there is also a wild extravagance a mad gaiety a verve a gusto at times almost a delirium 10 xxxi xxxiii Summary editSet in France primarily Paris during the late 1920s and early 1930s Tropic of Cancer centers on Miller s life as a struggling writer Late in the novel Miller explains his artistic approach to writing the book itself stating Up to the present my idea of collaborating with myself has been to get off the gold standard of literature My idea briefly has been to present a resurrection of the emotions to depict the conduct of a human being in the stratosphere of ideas that is in the grip of delirium 10 243 Combining autobiography and fiction some chapters follow a narrative of some kind and refer to Miller s actual friends colleagues and workplaces others are written as stream of consciousness reflections that are occasionally epiphanic The novel is written in the first person as are many of Miller s other novels and does not have a linear organization but rather fluctuates frequently between the past and present Themes editThe book largely functions as an immersive meditation on the human condition As a struggling writer Miller describes his experience living among a community of bohemians in Paris where he intermittently suffers from hunger homelessness squalor loneliness and despair over his recent separation from his wife Describing his perception of Paris during this time Miller wrote One can live in Paris I discovered that on just grief and anguish A bitter nourishment perhaps the best there is for certain people At any rate I had not yet come to the end of my rope I was only flirting with disaster I understood then why it is that Paris attracts the tortured the hallucinated the great maniacs of love I understood why it is that here at the very hub of the wheel one can embrace the most fantastic the most impossible theories without finding them in the least strange it is here that one reads again the books of his youth and the enigmas take on new meanings one for every white hair One walks the streets knowing that he is mad possessed because it is only too obvious that these cold indifferent faces are the visages of one s keepers Here all boundaries fade away and the world reveals itself for the mad slaughterhouse that it is The treadmill stretches away to infinitude the hatches are closed down tight logic runs rampant with bloody cleaver flashing 10 180 182 There are many passages explicitly describing the narrator s sexual encounters In 1978 literary scholar Donald Gutierrez argued that the sexual comedy in the book was undeniably low but with a stronger visceral appeal than high comedy 11 22 The characters are caricatures and the male characters stumbl e through the mazes of their conceptions of woman 11 24 Music and dance are other recurrent themes in the book 12 Music is used as a sign of the flagging vitality Miller everywhere rejects 12 References to dancing include a comparison of loving Mona to a dance of death and a call for the reader to join in a last expiring dance even though we are doomed 12 Characters editThis section does not cite any sources Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources Tropic of Cancer novel news newspapers books scholar JSTOR June 2022 Learn how and when to remove this template message Other than the first person narrator Henry Miller 10 108 the major characters include Boris A friend who rents rooms at the Villa Borghese 10 22 23 The character was modeled after Michael Fraenkel a writer who had sheltered Miller during his hobo days in 1930 5 103 176 Carl A writer friend who complains about optimistic people about Paris and about writing 10 49 50 Miller helps Carl write love letters to the rich cunt Irene and Carl relates his encounter with her to Miller 10 107 117 Carl lives in squalor and rapes a minor The inspiration for Carl was Miller s friend Alfred Perles a writer 5 10 Collins A sailor who befriends Fillmore and Miller 10 194 208 As Collins had fallen in love with a boy in the past his undressing a sick Miller to put him to bed has been interpreted as evidence of a homoerotic desire for Miller 13 Fillmore A young man in the diplomatic service who becomes friends with Miller 10 193 He invites Miller to stay with him later the Russian princess Macha with the clap joins them 10 219 238 Fillmore and Miller disrupt a mass while hung over 10 259 263 Toward the end of the book Fillmore promises to marry a French woman named Ginette who is pregnant by him but she is physically abusive and controlling and Miller convinces Fillmore to leave Paris without her 10 292 315 Fillmore s real life counterpart was Richard Galen Osborn a lawyer 5 46 Mona A character corresponding to Miller s estranged second wife June Miller 5 96 97 Miller remembers Mona who is now in America nostalgically 10 17 21 54 152 177 181 184 185 250 251 Tania A woman married to Sylvester 10 56 57 The character was modeled after Bertha Schrank who was married to Joseph Schrank 14 It may also be noted that during the writing of the novel Miller also had a passionate affair with Anais Nin by changing the T to an S one can make out Anais from Tania by rearranging the letters It may also be noted that in one of Nin s many passionate letters to Miller she quotes his swoon found below Tania has an affair with Miller who fantasizes about her O Tania where now is that warm cunt of yours those fat heavy garters those soft bulging thighs There is a bone in my prick six inches long I will ream out every wrinkle in your cunt Tania big with seed I will send you home to your Sylvester with an ache in your belly and your womb turned inside out Your Sylvester Yes he knows how to build a fire but I know how to inflame a cunt I shoot hot bolts into you Tania I make your ovaries incandescent 10 5 6 Van Norden A friend of Miller s who is probably the most sexually corrupt man in the book having a total lack of empathy with women 11 25 27 Van Norden refers to women using terms such as my Georgia cunt fucking cunt rich cunt married cunts Danish cunt and foolish cunts 10 100 107 Miller helps Van Norden move to a room in a hotel where Van Norden brings women day in and out 10 117 146 The character was based on Wambly Bald a gossip columnist 15 Legal issues editUnited States edit Upon the book s publication in France in 1934 the United States Customs Service banned the book from being imported into the U S 16 Frances Steloff sold copies of the novel smuggled from Paris during the 1930s at her Gotham Book Mart which led to lawsuits 17 A copyright infringing edition of the novel was published in New York City in 1940 by Medusa Jacob Brussel its last page claimed its place of publication to be Mexico 18 Brussel was eventually sent to jail for three years for the edition 19 In 1950 Ernest Besig the director of the American Civil Liberties Union in San Francisco attempted to import Tropic of Cancer along with Miller s other novel Tropic of Capricorn to the United States Customs detained the novels and Besig sued the government Before the case went to trial Besig requested a motion to admit 19 depositions from literary critics testifying to the literary value of the novels and to Miller s stature as a serious writer 20 The motion was denied by Judge Louis A Goodman The case went to trial with Goodman presiding Goodman declared both novels obscene Besig appealed the decision to the Ninth Circuit of Appeals but the novels were once again declared obscene in a unanimous decision in Besig v United States In 1961 when Grove Press legally published the book in the United States over 60 obscenity lawsuits in over 21 states were brought against booksellers that sold it 16 21 The opinions of courts varied for example in his dissent from the majority holding that the book was not obscene Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Michael Musmanno wrote Cancer is not a book It is a cesspool an open sewer a pit of putrefaction a slimy gathering of all that is rotten in the debris of human depravity 22 Publisher Barney Rosset hired lawyer Charles Rembar to help Rosset lead the effort to assist every bookseller prosecuted regardless of whether there was a legal obligation to do so 23 24 Rembar successfully argued two appeals cases in Massachusetts and New Jersey 21 25 although the book continued to be judged obscene in New York and other states 23 In 1964 the U S Supreme Court in Grove Press Inc v Gerstein cited Jacobellis v Ohio which was decided the same day and overruled state court findings that Tropic of Cancer was obscene 26 27 Other countries edit nbsp Copies of the Finnish translation Kravun kaantopiiri are being confiscated in Helsinki Finland in May 1962 The Swedish translation and the English language original could still be sold legally in this country The book was banned outside the U S as well In Canada it was on the list of books banned by customs as of 1938 28 The Royal Canadian Mounted Police seized copies of the book from bookstores and public libraries in the early 1960s 28 By 1964 attitudes toward the book had liberalized 28 Only smuggled copies of the book were available in the United Kingdom after its publication in 1934 29 Scotland Yard contemplated banning its publication in Britain in the 1960s but decided against the ban because literary figures such as T S Eliot were ready to defend the book publicly 29 In Australia the book was banned until the early 1970s when the Minister for Customs and Excise Don Chipp largely ended censorship of printed material in the country 30 In Finland all printed copies of the Finnish versions of the book were confiscated by the state before the books were to be published in 1962 The book was not published there in Finnish until 1970 however the book was available in Swedish and English 31 Critical reception editIndividual reviewers edit In 1935 H L Mencken read the 1934 Paris edition and sent an encouraging note to Miller I read Tropic of Cancer a month ago It seems to me to be a really excellent piece of work and I so reported to the person who sent it to me Of this more when we meet 32 George Orwell reviewed Tropic of Cancer in The New English Weekly in 1935 33 Orwell focused on Miller s descriptions of sexual encounters which he deemed significant for their attempt to get at real facts and which he saw as a departure from dominant trends Orwell argued that although Miller concerns himself with uglier aspects of life he is nonetheless not quite a pessimist and seems to find that the contemplation of ugliness makes life more worthwhile rather than less 34 Concluding he described Tropic of Cancer as a remarkable book and recommended it to anyone who can get hold of a copy 35 Returning to the novel in the essay Inside the Whale 1940 George Orwell wrote the following I earnestly counsel anyone who has not done so to read at least Tropic of Cancer With a little ingenuity or by paying a little over the published price you can get hold of it and even if parts of it disgust you it will stick in your memory Here in my opinion is the only imaginative prose writer of the slightest value who has appeared among the English speaking races for some years past Even if that is objected to as an overstatement it will probably be admitted that Miller is a writer out of the ordinary worth more than a single glance 36 Samuel Beckett hailed it as a momentous event in the history of modern writing 37 Norman Mailer in his 1976 book on Miller entitled Genius and Lust called it one of the ten or twenty great novels of our century a revolution in consciousness equal to The Sun Also Rises 38 Edmund Wilson said of the novel The tone of the book is undoubtedly low The Tropic of Cancer in fact from the point of view both of its happenings and of the language in which they are conveyed is the lowest book of any real literary merit that I ever remember to have read there is a strange amenity of temper and style which bathes the whole composition even when it is disgusting or tiresome 39 295 296 In 1980 Anatole Broyard described Tropic of Cancer as Mr Miller s first and best novel showing a flair for finding symbolism in unobtrusive places and having beautiful sentence s 40 Julian Symons wrote in 1993 that the shock effect of the novel has gone although it remains an extraordinary document 41 A 2009 essay on the book by Ewan Morrison described it as a life saver when he was wandering from drink to drink and bed to bed dangerously close to total collapse 42 Appearances in lists of best books edit The book has been included in a number of lists of best books such as the following In July 1998 the Board of the Modern Library ranked Tropic of Cancer 50th on its list of the 100 best English language novels of the 20th century 43 44 In July 1998 students of the Radcliffe Publishing Course at the request of the Modern Library editorial board compiled their own list of the 100 best English language novels of the 20th century and the book was ranked 84th 45 Between July 1998 and October 1998 an online reader poll by the Modern Library placed the novel 68th among the 100 best English language novels of the 20th century 44 In a survey of librarians published in November 1998 the book was ranked 132nd in a list of 150 fiction books from the 20th century 46 Time magazine included the novel in its list of the 100 best English language novels from 1923 to 2005 47 The novel was listed in the 2006 book 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die 48 It was one of the 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read in The Guardian in 2009 49 It was included in the list The 75 Books Every Man Should Read 2011 in Esquire 50 Influences editInfluences on Miller edit Critics and Miller himself have claimed that Miller was influenced by the following in writing the novel Louis Ferdinand Celine especially Journey to the End of the Night 1932 his semi autobiographical first novel featuring a comic antiheroic character 5 109 110 40 51 Nevertheless George Orwell wrote Both books use unprintable words both are in some sense autobiographical but that is all 36 Fyodor Dostoyevsky especially his Notes from Underground 1864 40 James Joyce 40 Nevertheless Orwell felt that the novel did not resemble Joyce s Ulysses 36 Francois Rabelais 40 52 Henry David Thoreau 53 54 Walt Whitman who wrote in a similar style about common people 9 36 40 54 The poet is mentioned favorably in the novel several times for example In Whitman the whole American scene comes to life her past and her future her birth and her death Whatever there is of value in America Whitman has expressed and there is nothing more to be said 10 239 240 Novel s influence on other writers edit Tropic of Cancer has had a huge and indelible impact on both the American literary tradition and American society as a whole 55 The novel influenced many writers as exemplified by the following Lawrence Durrell s 1938 novel The Black Book was described as celebrat ing the Henry Miller of Tropic of Cancer as his Durrell s literary father 56 It has been claimed that the novel impressed the Beat Generation writers in the 1960s such as Jack Kerouac and William S Burroughs 16 28 57 Erica Jong wrote when I was searching for the freedom to write the 1973 novel Fear of Flying I picked up Tropic of Cancer and the sheer exuberance of the prose unlocked something in me 8 14 In turn Miller praised Fear of Flying in 1974 comparing it to Tropic of Cancer 58 Adaptation editThe novel was adapted for a 1970 film Tropic of Cancer directed by Joseph Strick and starring Rip Torn James T Callahan and Ellen Burstyn 2 Miller was a technical consultant during the production of the movie although he had reservations about the adaptation of the book he praised the final movie 2 147 The film was rated X in the United States which was later changed to an NC 17 rating 59 References or allusions in other works editLiteratureIn his 1948 autobiography poet and writer Robert W Service wrote a few comments about Tropic of Cancer for example Of course the book shocked me but I could not deny a strange flicker of genius in its wildest fights 60 In chapter 2 of William Gaddis s 1955 novel The Recognitions set in Paris in the 1930s an artist complains I ve got to show these pictures I ve got to sell some of them but how can I have people coming up there with him there He s dying I can t put him out on the street dying like that even in Paris 63 64 which echoes the scene in Tropic of Cancer where the artist Kruger tries to get the sick Miller out of his studio so that he can exhibit his pictures People can t look at pictures and statues with enthusiasm when a man is dying before their eyes Grove ed 195 61 In his 1960 short story Entropy Thomas Pynchon begins with a quote from this novel In the 1965 novel God Bless You Mr Rosewater by Kurt Vonnegut Lila reads the book as though it were Heidi 62 In the 1969 novel The Seven Minutes by Irving Wallace the book and the trial are mentioned In the 1994 play Pterodactyls by Nicky Silver the novel is mentioned by the character Emma She reads poems by Emily Bronte and I read chapters from The Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller 63 In Carl Hiaasen s 1995 Stormy Weather a character quotes a line from the novel citation needed In the 1998 nonfiction book Rocket Boys Quentin shows Sonny a copy of Tropic of Cancer and asks him You want to know about girls 64 MusicSatirical songwriter and mathematics instructor Tom Lehrer stated that he intended to write a million selling math book which he would call Tropic of Calculus The 1980s British band The Weather Prophets was named after a line in the opening paragraph of the novel Boris has just given me a summary of his views He is a weather prophet citation needed Frontman Henry Rollins of the hardcore punk band Black Flag was heavily affected by the book as well and frequently made references to it in his songs often taking lyrics directly from Tropic of Cancer He would also read passages of it to his audiences mid show In the song Delirium of Disorder by punk band Bad Religion the opening verse quotes the novel Life is a sieve through which my anarchy strains resolving itself into words Chaos is the score on which reality is written In the song Protest Song 68 by Refused the opening verse quotes the novel To sing you must first open your mouth You must have a pair of lungs In the song Ashes of American Flags by Wilco one phrase from the lyrics is taken from the novel A hole without a key In 2012 the American grindcore band Pig Destroyer used a passage from the book on tape read by Larry King as the introduction to their song The Bug on their album entitled Book Burner Film and televisionIn a 1962 episode of the TV series Perry Mason The Case of the Bogus Books a character tells another that Tropic of Cancer is not a medical book Far from it In the 1963 film Take Her She s Mine adapted from Phoebe and Henry Ephron s play of the same name Jimmy Stewart as Mr Michaelson reads the soon to be banned by the mayor book written by Henry Miller Sandra Dee Stewart s daughter in the film has organized a sit in style protest against banning the book In the 1985 film After Hours the protagonist Paul is reading the book in a coffee shop when a Marcy comments on it from the table across setting the events of the film in motion In the 1990 movie Henry amp June the first draft of the book is referenced and discussed by Henry and friends In the 1991 version of Cape Fear the characters of Max Cady and Danielle Bowden discuss the book briefly In the 1991 Seinfeld episode The Library Jerry is accused of never returning a copy of the book to the public library after borrowing it many years before during high school in 1971 It is revealed that the book was stolen by the gym teacher while a gang of jocks were beating up on George In the present day the gym teacher still holds the library book despite being homeless and insane 4 65 In the 2000 romantic comedy film 100 Girls the characters Dora and Matthew read an excerpt from Tropic of Cancer together Your Sylvester After me you can take on stallions bulls rams drakes St Bernards 66 At the beginning of the 2000 movie Final Destination Clear Ali Larter is reading Tropic of Cancer upon arrival at the airport In the 2010 telenovela Donde Esta Elisa a copy of the book is found in Elisa s locker at school In Season 2 of the television series Ozark Jonah reads an explicit excerpt of the book to Buddy Typescript editThe typescript of the book was auctioned for 165 000 in 1986 67 Yale University now owns the typescript which was displayed to the public in 2001 68 See also edit nbsp Novels portalCensorship Henry and June 1986 book Henry amp June 1990 film References edit Motion Andrew September 18 1994 Book The Man Who Succeeded Too Well at Sex The Observer a b c Decker James M Summer 2007 Literary Text Cinematic Edition Adaptation Textual Authority and the Filming of Tropic of Cancer College Literature 34 3 140 160 doi 10 1353 lit 2007 0029 S2CID 143315037 Meisel Perry June 23 1991 Book Review A Dirty Young Man And How He Grew The New York Times Retrieved October 25 2011 a b Baron Dennis October 1 2009 Celebrate Banned Books Week Read Now Before It s Too Late Web of Language University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign Archived from the original on May 11 2020 Retrieved September 25 2011 a b c d e f g h i Miller Henry 1995 Henry Miller the Paris Years New York Arcade ISBN 1 55970 287 7 D Abate Matthew Paris Street by Street CouCou Feb 8 2018 McCrum Robert 29 April 2012 Renegade Henry Miller and the Making of Tropic of Cancer by Frederick Turner The Guardian a b Jong Erica 1994 The Devil at Large Erica Jong on Henry Miller New York Grove Press ISBN 0 8021 3391 6 a b Atkinson Brooks June 30 1961 Critic at Large Henry Miller s Use of an Emerson Quotation in Tropic of Cancer is Discussed The New York Times Section food fashions family furnishings page 24 a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Miller Henry 1961 Tropic of Cancer New York Grove Press ISBN 0 8021 3178 6 p 1 a b c Gutierrez Donald Winter 1978 Hypocrite Lecteur Tropic of Cancer as Sexual Comedy Mosaic 11 2 21 33 a b c Jackson Paul R 1979 Caterwauling and Harmony Music in Tropic of Cancer Critique 20 3 40 50 doi 10 1080 00111619 1979 10690198 Hardin Michael 2002 Fighting Desires Henry Miller s Queer Tropic Journal of Homosexuality 42 3 129 150 doi 10 1300 J082v42n03 08 PMID 12066987 S2CID 41169915 O Joyce Guillermo 2011 Miller Time On Henry Miller Miller Bukowski and their enemies 2nd ed London Pinter amp Martin ISBN 978 1 905177 27 1 permanent dead link Pizer Donald 1996 American Expatriate Writing and the Paris Moment Modernism and Place Baton Rouge Louisiana State University Press p 133 ISBN 0 8071 2026 X a b c Anonymous June 9 1961 Books Greatest Living Patagonian Time Archived from the original on February 4 2013 Retrieved September 25 2011 Mitgang Herbert April 16 1989 Frances Steloff is Dead at 101 Founded the Gotham Book Mart The New York Times Retrieved September 22 2011 Miller Henry 1940 Tropic of Cancer New York Medusa OCLC 9798986 Brottman Mikita 2004 Funny Peculiar Gershon Legman and the Psychopathology of Humor Hillsdale N J Analytic Press p 6 ISBN 0 88163 404 2 Tropic of Cancer 1934 History of the Ban Banned Books a b Holland Steve October 28 2000 Charles Rembar anti censorship lawyer who won freedom for Lady Chatterley and Fanny Hill in America The Guardian London Retrieved September 22 2011 Commonwealth v Robin 218 A 2d 546 561 Pa 1966 a b Woo Elaine October 28 2000 Charles Rembar Lawyer Won Key Obscenity Cases Los Angeles Times Retrieved September 22 2011 Jordan Ken Winter 1997 Barney Rosset The Art of Publishing No 2 The Paris Review Winter 1997 145 Attorney General Vs The Book Named Tropic Of Cancer 345 Mass 11 Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court July 17 1962 Grove Press Inc v Gerstein 378 U S 577 U S Supreme Court June 22 1964 Hubbard Melissa A Grove Press Publishes amp Defends T O C Southern Illinois University School of Law Library Archived from the original on March 25 2012 Retrieved September 22 2011 a b c d Caldwell Rebecca February 14 2004 Once Scandalous An Insult Fades The Globe and Mail Canada Archived from the original on April 4 2012 Retrieved October 24 2011 a b Travis Alan May 4 1998 The Miller s Tale That Beat a Ban Literary Experts Scared The Guardian CHIPP Donald Leslie 1925 2006 senate gov au Retrieved 7 June 2021 HY n helka palvelun tiedoissa Henry Millerin Kravun kaantopiirin ensimmainen suomennos Saarikoski olisi ilmestynyt jo 1960 ja Karl Shapiron introlla In the data of the University of Helsinki s Helka service the first Finnish translation of Henry Miller s Kravun kaantopiiri Saarikoski would have appeared already in 1960 and with Karl Shapiro s intro www2 kirjastot fi in Finnish 11 October 2012 Mencken H L 1977 Bode Carl ed New Mencken Letters New York Dial Press pp 372 373 ISBN 0 8037 1379 7 Orwell George 1968 1935 Review In Orwell Sonia Angus Ian eds The Collected Essays Journalism and Letters of George Orwell Volume 1 An Age Like This 1920 1940 Penguin pp 178 180 Orwell 1968 pp 179 80 Orwell 1968 p 180 a b c d Orwell George Inside the Whale 1940 PDF Inside The Whale and Other Essays Distributed Proofreaders Canada Retrieved 30 January 2021 Cited in Henry Miller Tropic of Cancer Harper Perennial UK 2005 Mailer Norman Miller Henry 1976 Genius and Lust a Journey Through the Major Writings of Henry Miller New York Grove Press p 8 ISBN 0 8021 0127 5 Wilson Edmund 2017 Twilight of the Expatriates In Wickes George ed Henry Miller and the Critics Forgotten Books p 26 ISBN 978 0 243 46156 1 OCLC 1002879700 Retrieved 30 January 2021 a b c d e f Broyard Anatole June 9 1980 Miller An Observer With Infallible Ear An Appreciation The New York Times Symons Julian March 7 1993 Quiet Days in Cliches Biography The Sunday Times London Morrison Ewan June 26 2009 Book Of A Lifetime Tropic of Cancer By Henry Miller The Independent London Retrieved October 22 2011 Lewis Paul July 20 1998 Ulysses on Top Among 100 Best Novels The New York Times Retrieved September 22 2011 a b 100 Best Novels Modern Library July 20 1998 Radcliffe s Rival 100 Best Novels List Modern Library July 20 1998 Archived from the original on November 20 2016 Anonymous November 15 1998 Librarians Choose a Century of Good Books Library Journal 34 36 Retrieved September 25 2011 Lacayo Richard October 16 2005 ALL TIME 100 Novels Tropic of Cancer 1934 by Henry Miller Time Magazine Archived from the original on April 16 2010 Retrieved September 23 2011 Boxall Peter 2006 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die London Cassell ISBN 978 1 84403 417 8 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read The Definitive List The Guardian London January 23 2009 Retrieved October 12 2011 The 75 Books Every Man Should Read Esquire Magazine May 26 2011 Retrieved October 5 2011 Collins Tom December 10 2004 Haiku Paintings Reveal Essence of Jorge Fick s Artistic Intellectual Life Albuquerque Journal Retrieved October 12 2011 Iyer Pico July 22 1991 Essay An American Optimist Time Magazine Archived from the original on November 22 2010 Retrieved October 12 2011 Featherstone Joseph L September 27 1961 Critics Testify for Tropic of Cancer The Harvard Crimson Retrieved October 12 2011 a b Shifreen Lawrence J Winter 1979 Henry Miller s Mezzotints The Undiscovered Roots of Tropic of Cancer Studies in Short Fiction 16 1 11 17 Miller s transcendental stance as a follower of Whitman and Thoreau becomes apparent in his essays Walt Whitman and Henry David Thoreau Orend Karl January 9 2004 Making a Place for Henry Miller in the American Classroom Chronicle of Higher Education 20 18 Retrieved October 25 2011 Ingersoll Earl G ed 1998 Lawrence Durrell Conversations Madison NJ Fairleigh Dickinson University Press p 12 ISBN 0 8386 3723 X Oriard Michael 1991 Sporting with the Gods the Rhetoric of Play and Game in American Culture Cambridge Cambridge University Press p 450 ISBN 0 521 39113 X Kendrick Walter February 14 1993 Her Master s Voice New York Times Retrieved October 10 2011 Fox Margalit June 7 2010 Joseph Strick Who Filmed the Unfilmable Dies at 86 The New York Times Retrieved October 5 2011 Service Longepe Charlotte 25 May 2015 Henry Miller 1891 1980 Robert W Service Moore Steven 1982 A Reader s Guide to William Gaddis s The Recognitions Univ of Nebraska Press p 95 ISBN 978 0 8032 3072 9 Vonnegut Kurt 1998 Chapter 9 God Bless You Mr Rosewater Or Pearls Before Swine New York Dell Publications pp 156 159 ISBN 0 385 33347 1 Silver Nicky 1994 Pterodactyls New York Dramatists Play Service p 66 ISBN 0 8222 1375 3 Hickam Homer H Jr 2000 Rocket Boys a Memoir New York Delta p 64 ISBN 0 385 33321 8 Andriatch Bruce 20 January 2016 10 times Seinfeld showed his love for newspapers Buffalo News Retrieved 2022 09 05 100 Girls Full Movie 2000 Event occurs at 50 10 ISBN 1 58817 264 3 Retrieved October 25 2011 Typescript of Cancer Auctioned for 165 000 New York Times February 15 1986 Retrieved October 3 2011 From Heinrich Schuetz to Henry Miller Selections from the Frederick R Koch Collection at the Beinecke Library 20 April 2001 to 14 July 2001 Yale University Retrieved October 3 2011 Further reading editFraenkel Michael 1947 Defense du Tropique du Cancer avec des inedits de Miller in French Paris Variete OCLC 1837523 Nin Anais 1947 Preface to Henry Miller s Tropic of Cancer New York L R Maxwell OCLC 4490763 Hutchison Earl R 1968 Tropic of Cancer on trial a case history of censorship New York Grove Press OCLC 440116 Rembar Charles 1968 The end of obscenity the trials of Lady Chatterley Tropic of Cancer and Fanny Hill New York Random House OCLC 232256 Fraenkel Michael 1998 First published in 1946 by B Porter Berkeley The genesis of the Tropic of Cancer Paris and London Alyscamps Press ISBN 1 897722 81 8 Miller Henry 1999 From Tropic of Cancer previously unpublished sections Ann Arbor MI Roger Jackson ISBN 1 893918 00 9 Turner Frederick 2011 Renegade Henry Miller and the Making of Tropic of Cancer New Haven Yale University Press ISBN 978 0 300 14949 4 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Tropic of Cancer novel amp oldid 1200593433, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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