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Lot 26
MILLER, HENRY. 1891-1980. Typed Manuscript with Holograph Annotations, entitled "The World of Sex," 68 pp, 4to, Big Sur, California, February-April 1957,
11 April 2016, 10:00 EDT
New YorkSold for US$18,750 inc. premium
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MILLER, HENRY. 1891-1980.
Typed Manuscript with Holograph Annotations, entitled "The World of Sex," 68 pp, 4to, Big Sur, California, February-April 1957, profusely annotated on every page in blue ink in Miller's hand, with Autograph Note Signed ("Henry Miller") to Ben Grauer dated 12/2/57 laid in, original transmittal envelope, typescript folded horizontally at center, some incidental wrinkling.
RE-WRITE TOWARDS THE SECOND EDITION OF THE WORLD OF SEX. With corrections, cancellations, and additions on every page, filling some entirely. The note to Ben Grauer accompanying the typescript reads, in full: "Ben-/ This is the second re-write. The first I did in the printed copy of the original version. So this copy is rather unique. The corrections (full pages) shown in the new edition are from the corrected pages of the original edition./ Henry Miller." Grauer, a radio personality who spent much of his career with NBC, had recorded a conversation with Miller the year before which was released by Riverside records under the title Henry Miller Recalls and Reflects, and would record another LP with Miller for Offbeat records in 1962.
Miller wrote The World of Sex in New York soon after returning from his ten year rambles through Europe, "to satisfy the curiosity of an unknown reader," as he later remarked (Henry Miller Reader, New Directions, 1969). By turns unabashed confession, critical essay, and romantic manifesto—"All that matters is that the miraculous become the norm"—The World of Sex was considered by Miller himself to be among his "most important books, the most revelatory" (ibid). Aside from the major novels, the work is arguably more characteristic of Miller's sensibility than any other.
The first edition was published in a limited edition by Ben Abramson in Chicago in 1940, with another limited edition from the same text brought out by Abramson in 1946. Early in 1957, Miller re-read his book, and turned to completely rewriting it—"a game which I could not resist playing to the end" (ibid). Photographic copies of the revised manuscript were inserted in a new edition, published that year in Paris by the avant-garde Olympia Press in a banned book series. The present manuscript represents the final revision before publication. "Every page of the original edition I went over in pen and ink, hatching and criss-crossing until it looked like a Chinese puzzle" (ibid).
Working manuscripts with as much textual interest as the present example are rare on the market.
RE-WRITE TOWARDS THE SECOND EDITION OF THE WORLD OF SEX. With corrections, cancellations, and additions on every page, filling some entirely. The note to Ben Grauer accompanying the typescript reads, in full: "Ben-/ This is the second re-write. The first I did in the printed copy of the original version. So this copy is rather unique. The corrections (full pages) shown in the new edition are from the corrected pages of the original edition./ Henry Miller." Grauer, a radio personality who spent much of his career with NBC, had recorded a conversation with Miller the year before which was released by Riverside records under the title Henry Miller Recalls and Reflects, and would record another LP with Miller for Offbeat records in 1962.
Miller wrote The World of Sex in New York soon after returning from his ten year rambles through Europe, "to satisfy the curiosity of an unknown reader," as he later remarked (Henry Miller Reader, New Directions, 1969). By turns unabashed confession, critical essay, and romantic manifesto—"All that matters is that the miraculous become the norm"—The World of Sex was considered by Miller himself to be among his "most important books, the most revelatory" (ibid). Aside from the major novels, the work is arguably more characteristic of Miller's sensibility than any other.
The first edition was published in a limited edition by Ben Abramson in Chicago in 1940, with another limited edition from the same text brought out by Abramson in 1946. Early in 1957, Miller re-read his book, and turned to completely rewriting it—"a game which I could not resist playing to the end" (ibid). Photographic copies of the revised manuscript were inserted in a new edition, published that year in Paris by the avant-garde Olympia Press in a banned book series. The present manuscript represents the final revision before publication. "Every page of the original edition I went over in pen and ink, hatching and criss-crossing until it looked like a Chinese puzzle" (ibid).
Working manuscripts with as much textual interest as the present example are rare on the market.