A Cafe in Space: The Anais Nin Literary Journal, Vol. 1 (Paperback) (French Edition) [Paperback]

Anais Nin (Author), Janet Fitch (Author), Paul Herron (Editor) (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2003

The official Anais Nin Literary Journal. This special Centennial edition of Nin's birth features a 21 page excerpt from her 1940s unexpurgated diary, entitled "Mirage," a description of a doomed love affair with a much younger man. A picture tour through Nin's Paris, including her legendary home in Louveciennes is included, along with articles and essays by Janet Fitch, Kazuko Sugisaki, Toyoko Yamamoto, Claudine Brelet, Yuko Yaguchi, Phi Jason, Tom March, Benjamin Joplin, and Lynette Felber. Poetry by Aeryn Seto, Daisy Aldan, Diane Allerdyce, and Shyamal Bagchee, and reviews and summaries of current literature, media, and events.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Anais Nin (1903 - 1977) was the 20th Century's most prolific and acclaimed diarist whose unique work propelled her to superstar status in the 60s and 70s. Her erotica, 'Delta of Venus,' was a bestseller shortly after her death and was followed by 'Little Birds.' Nin, born in France, began her diary as a "letter" to her estranged father, who abandoned the family when she was only 11 years old. Forced to America to find work, Nin's family struggled for years as Anais faithfully recorded the details. After marrying and moving back to France, her writing and artistic life burst with creativity and daring. She is considered one of the first women who forged an actual woman's language, who spoke as a woman and did not imitate men as so many other females authors of her time did. In this, she was a pioneer. Her future success came as a result of her struggles, as women who were finding their freedom in sixties responded passionately to the diaries.

The personages in Nin's diaries are legendary: Henry Miller, Gore Vidal, Lawrence Durrell, Otto Rank, Rebecca West, et al. Her revolutionary style of writing allows the reader to see these people from an "inner eye" point of view, revealing sides of their character no one else was able to detect, let alone describe.

It was Anais Nin's wish that the parts of her diaries that were deleted because of their degree of intimacy be published posthumously. As a result, her frenzied love life became the topic many who saw it as scandalous or immoral, but in these diaries we see Nin with her sexuality intact.

The movie 'Henry & June' (1990, directed by Philip Kaufman, starring Uma Thurman) was based on the first of her unexpurgated diaries, and was the first movie to be rated NC-17.

Product Details

• Paperback: 156 pages
• Publisher: Sky Blue Press (October 1, 2003)
• Language: French
• ISBN-10: 096523648X
• ISBN-13: 978-0965236485
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,766,023 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Anaïs Nin (1903-1977) was born in Paris and aspired at an early age to be a writer. An influential artist and thinker, she wrote primarily fiction until 1964, when her last novel, Collages, was published. She wrote The House of Incest, a prose-poem (1936), three novellas collected in The Winter of Artifice (1939), short stories collected in Under a Glass Bell (1944), and a five-volume continuous novel consisting of Ladders to Fire (1946), Children of the Albatross (1947), The Four-Chambered Heart (1950), A Spy in the House of Love (1954), and Seduction of the Minotaur (1961). These novels were collected as Cities of the Interior (1974). She gained commercial and critical success with the publication of the first volume of her diary (1966); to date, fifteen diary volumes have been published. Her most commercially successful books were her erotica published as Delta of Venus (1977) and Little Birds (1979). Today, her books are appearing digitally.