Plexus by Henry Miller

Paperback

640 pages

“Plexus is the core volume in The Rosy Crucifixion: the volume which has the most complete description of Henry Miller’s basic values, beliefs, opinions, judgments, both at the time of his “Crucifixion” and at the later time when the trilogy was written. Plexus is simply the most marvelous volume of emotions and ideas and visions and nightmares about man and society in the twentieth century–with art as the link perhaps, or as the soul’s refuge–that I have read in many a long year. There is absolutely no subject in the world that Henry Miller does not seem to know about, want to talk about, and to evaluate with the deep authority of wisdom. He is probably the most learned of all our American writers, the most open to ideas and feelings, and yes, the most worshipful of all the aspects of life, as well as the most critical literary spokesman of our time.” –Maxwell Geismar

Henry Miller was born in New York City on December 26, 1891. Miller briefly attended City College of New York, but abandoned his university studies after only two months. In 1930 Miller traveled to Paris, where he stayed until 1940. During this period he was financed by his lover and fellow writer, Anaïs Nin, who helped him obtain a first printing of the celebrated and controversial Tropic of Cancer (1934); the book was banned in the United States at the time Grove Press printed it in 1961, which promptly initiated a costly, but successful, Supreme Court case to overrule the ban.