Anais Nin: A Biography [Paperback]

Deirdre Bair (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 1996

The first biography of the famous diarist written with exclusive access to her complete, original diary and with the full cooperation of her family traces her infamous erotic exploits among the intellectual elite. Reprint. 25,000 first printing. Tour. NYT.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Biography of Nin, a bohemian writer best known for her voluminous diary and her sexually explicit fiction.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

In her Samuel Beckett (LJ 6/15/78) and Simone de Beauvoir (LJ 3/1/90), Bair was overtly judgmental by a forthright middle-class ethic. Still, readers could appreciate that her fastidious grounding of verifiable facts made possible an exact correlation of literature and life. Classifying Nin as a "major minor writer" does not encourage readers to overlook moral lapses in the name of art. Bair clearly finds Nin distasteful, a self-victimizing nymphomaniac who victimized in turn. She was a narcissist, bigamist, and compulsive liar whose obsessive diary-keeping was both her personal art form and her personal undoing. In fiction, her surrealistic representation of eroticism made it seem like fantasy and hence more poetic than pathological. Called a decadent St. Theresa by a publisher's reader, she bore her final illness bravely. Bair has had access to 250,000 pages of Nin's unedited diaries and interviewed a staggering number of "witnesses." The result is compelling reading for literature and biography collections.
--Marilyn Gaddis Rose, Binghamton Univ., N.Y.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 672 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (July 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140255257
• ISBN-13: 978-0140255256
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 2.9 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,364,416 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An interesting but often soulless recitation of facts, June 5, 2001

By 

C. Miller "chrysalis13" (Irving, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Anais Nin: A Biography (Paperback)

I read many Amazon reviews of this book (mostly negative) but bought it anyway, hoping for an in-depth look into the life of Anais Nin. What I got were details covering everything about her life except WHY she loved the men whose selfishness Bair details ad nauseum. I never could figure out why Anais loved Gonzalo or Rupert, men she was with for decades. Bair talks only of how they demanded money and how Anais resented them. Dig a little deeper, please!

It seems the author did not care to present her subject as anything but a psychologically frail moron, a fool. This unwillingness/inability to provide any important insight into the reason for these particular lengthy love affairs makes the on and on repetition of how they demanded her money, her time, etc. become quite boring and meaningless. Also, since nearly EVERY man Anais met seemed to demand that she share any money she got with them, was this how all men were during this era? There was no context in which to discern what was happening to Anais and why. Overall, factually informative but emotionally disappointing.

25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A very unsympathetic look at a unique woman, September 9, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Anais Nin: A Biography (Paperback)

This book left me mixed. I learned more about the truth behind Anais Nin than I ever learned in reading all of the diaries--expurgated and unexpurgated--but I can't understand Bair's out-and-out loathing of Anais Nin. If you don't at least find her fascinating, why not write a biography about someone else? This book was filled with cynical biographer asides such as, "The house was always cold and her clothes were shabby. What a better way to lift her spirits than to throw a dinner party!" Really. I expect more from People Magazine.

Of course anyone who knows a smidgeon about Anais Nin would never call her flawless. She was deeply, deeply flawed. And a responsible biographer should point out the flaws. But I felt like I was on the subway with a gossipy neighbor who wouldn't shut up about everything she didn't like about another woman. Let it rest. What's disappointing is that, from a research perspective, this was the best piece I've read about Anais Nin. Ms. Bair did her homework--hence the three stars.

You won't find better research about Anais Nin than in Ms. Bair's book. If you want to know about Anais Nin, read it. But try to be cognizant of Ms. Bair's apparent jealous little sister attitude.

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Five stars for this book from an Anais Nin fan, January 3, 2001

By 

Tina Cohen (Amherst MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Anais Nin: A Biography (Paperback)

I give Deirdre Bair high marks for her book. Sure, it can be disillusioning to those of us who discovered Anais Nin when we were impressionable youth and admired her for her creative and adventurous life. But I think that in her approach to understanding Nin, Bair was not vicious, jealous, or working from other motives of disrespect. She had the cooperation of Nin's family, friends, and lovers and had access to materials unavailable to others. The length of the book, the amount of materials she studied, and her helpful and thorough notes for each chapter convince me she cared about her subject and presenting Nin's life accurately. I think the book gives a very sensitive assessment of who Nin was. Some of what the book reveals is disappointing, but that is more about Nin than Bair. I appreciate that Bair didn't try to be a psychologist or literary critic- she stuck to doing a thorough job as biographer, working with as many primary sources as possible. Nin is an especially complex subject and I believe Bair did her justice, not trying to simplify, glorify, denigrate or disregard those contradictions and deceptions Nin wove into her life. Instead, she dignified Nin by taking her on as a woman whose life was fascinating, who was a compelling person, and who didn't need- in life or death- to stay hidden behind a facade.