"To live life as a dream" was Nin's motto, and she did so. She was a bigamist for more than thirty years, creating a "Lie Box" to help her keep her stories straight. And always she kept her diary, which eventually became one of the most astonishing renderings of a contemporary woman's life, noted as much for what she left out as for what she included. Bair's biography fills in the blanks and shows how Nin reflected the major themes that have come to characterize the latter half of the twentieth century: the quest for the self, the uses of psychoanalysis, and the determination of women to control their own sexuality.

Largely ignored by mainstream audiences for the first thirty years of her career, Anais Nin (1903-1977) finally came into her own with the publication of the first part of her diary in 1966. Thereafter she was catapulted into fame. Throughout the late sixties and the seventies she attracted a host of devoted and admiring readers in the counter culture, who were magnetized by her personal liberation and openness. For a woman to make such probing exploration of the intimate recesses of her psyche made her a cult figure with a large and lasting readership. Born in France, Anais Nin lived much of her life in America. Her liaison with Henry Miller and his wife June, documented in her explicitly detailed diaries, became the subject of a major film of the nineties. Her forthright books, her diaries that continue to be published in a steady flow, and her charismatic charm made her the subject of many candid interviews, such as those collected here. Eight included in this volume are printed for the first time. Many others were originally published in magazines that are now defunct. Nin elaborates on subjects only touched upon in the diaries, and she speaks also of her role in the women's movement and of her philosophies on art, writing, and individual growth.

"For readers unfamiliar with her subject, Maryanne Raphael's biography, Anais Nin, The Voyage Within, is a sensitive, uncomplicated introduction to the life and work of one of the 20th century's most quintessentially feminine artists. For Nin devotees, the biography is a refresher course taking us back through the vast material of the Diaries and novels that enchanted and inspired our love. Raphael accepts Nin entirely on her own terms. Thanks to a warm, personal relationship with Rupert Pole, Nin's surviving husband and executor of her estate, Raphael opens up some of the mystery that has hitherto surrounded Nin's relationship with her husbands-an aspect of Nin's life that was never explicitly described in the original Diaries. The result is a multi-dimensional portrait in which Nin's two selves, artist and woman are fully integrated. Nin the woman consciously chooses to realize female desire, give form to female imagination, always loving as she remains completely focused on birthing a new unabashedly feminine literature. Thank you, Maryanne!" -Dolores Brandon, Author of IN THE SHADOW OF MADNESS, A Memoir

This book of essays is the first to probe Anais Nin's achievements as a literary artist. With an introduction by the editor, Suzanne Nalbantian, the collection examines the literary strategies of Nin in their psychoanalytical and stylistic dimensions. Various contributors scrutinize Nin's artistry, identifying her unique modernist techniques and her poetic vision. Others observe the transfer of her psychoanalytical positions to narrative. The volume also contains fresh views of Nin by her brother Joaquin Nin-Culmell as well as innovative analyses of the reception of her works.

An interpretation of the life and works of the diarist and erotic writer, Anais Nin seen through varies mediums including mirrors, glass and light-box installations.

Anaïs Nin: A Myth of Her Own traces Nin’s literary craft by following the intimacy of self-exploration and poetic expression attained in the details of the quotidian, transfigured into fiction. By digging into the mythic tropes that permeate both her literary diaries and fiction, this book demonstrates that Nin constructed a mythic method of her own, revealing the extensive possibilities of an opulent feminine psyche. Clara Oropeza demonstrates that the literary diary, for Nin, is a genre that with its traces of trickster archetype, among others, reveals a mercurial, yet particular understanding of an embodied and at times mystical experience of a writer. The cogent analysis of Nin’s fiction alongside the posthumously published unexpurgated diaries, within the backdrop of emerging psychological theories, further illuminates Nin’s contributions as an experimental and important modernist writer whose daring and poetic voice has not been fully appreciated. By extending research on diary writing and anchoring Nin’s literary style within modernist traditions, this book contributes to the redefinition of what literary modernism was comprised, who participated and how it was defined. Anaïs Nin: A Myth of Her Own is unique in its interdisciplinary expansion of literature, literary theory, mythological studies and depth psychology. By considering the ecocritical aspects of Nin’s writing, this book forges a new paradigm for not only Nin’s work, but for critical discussions of self-life writing as a valid epistemological and aesthetic form. This impressive work will be of great interest to academics and students of Jungian and post-Jungian studies, literary studies, cultural studies, mythological studies and women’s studies.

A revealing look at the life of this “extraordinary and unconventional writer” during the mid-1920s (The New York Times Book Review). In this volume of her earlier series of personal diaries, Anaïs Nin tells how she exorcised the obsession that threatened her marriage—and nearly drove her to suicide. “Through sheer nerve, confidence, and will, Nin made of the everyday something magical. This was a gift, indeed, and it’s a fascinating process to witness.” —The Christian Science Monitor With an editor’s note by Rupert Pole and a preface by Joaquin Nin-Culmell