Anaïs Nin & Henry Miller
The triangle that wrote modern desire
The diarist Anaïs Nin and the novelist Henry Miller lived, in 1930s Paris, a passionate love — complicated by June, his wife — that both turned into some of the most celebrated erotic writing of the 20th century.
01Why it matters
Their diaries and letters are a landmark of the literature of desire and of women's liberation in writing.
02The conflict
Henry's marriage to June and the jealousy of the triangle.
03The iconic moment
The burning letters collected in "Henry and June."
04What survived
Anaïs Nin's diaries; Miller's "Tropic of Cancer."
05Frequently asked questions
Why is the story of Anaïs Nin & Henry Miller famous?
Their diaries and letters are a landmark of the literature of desire and of women's liberation in writing.
How does the story of Anaïs Nin & Henry Miller end?
The burning letters collected in "Henry and June." Anaïs Nin's diaries; Miller's "Tropic of Cancer."
Related loves
Simone de Beauvoir & Sartre
A pact of free love that lasted half a century
The philosophers Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre never married or lived together: they made a pact of a "necessary" love open to "contingent" ones, an intellectual, free relationship that lasted 51 years.
Read the story
Lorca & Dalí
An impossible love between geniuses
Lorca fell in love with Dalí at Madrid's Residencia de Estudiantes; the painter did not reciprocate physically, but the bond was intense and inspired the "Ode to Salvador Dalí" (1926).
Read the story
Scott & Zelda Fitzgerald
The couple who embodied the Jazz Age
F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda, the glamorous, self-destructive marriage that defined the Roaring Twenties; between alcohol, creative jealousy and Zelda's mental illness, their love burned out as fast as it shone.
Read the story