3 volumes, comprising approx. 413 leaves, typed and holograph manuscript, each signed at the front ("Property of Henry V. Miller..."). 9½x6¼, half morocco & marbled boards, spines lettered in gilt.

Extraordinary and highly important notebooks written and assembled by Henry Miller during his years in Paris in the 1930's, providing source material for his three novels written in Paris, Tropic of Cancer (1934, an account of his bohemian life in Paris), Black Spring (1936, an examination of his early childhood, inspired by his relationship with Anais Nin), and Tropic of Capricorn (1939, a fictionalized account of his struggle to become a writer before coming to Paris). The literary significance of these notebooks can hardly be overstated - they capture the thoughts and reflections of Miller during his period of greatest creativitiy, and provide the basis for the works which were to make him famous. The notebooks contain an astounding array of material, both typed and handwritten, and occasionally newsclippings and other material pasted in. Included are notes on scenes and events in Paris; typed and handwritten excerpts from Lady Chatterly's Lover and Anais Nin's diary; keys to the names of characters in his novels; lists of debts he owes; letters from friends such as Alfred Perles, Emil Shnellock and Anais Nin; several photographs including his father and Anais Nin; erotic cartoons, movie programs, a French vocabulary, several drawings, a list of Miller's residences in Paris from 1930-1932, numbering 23 places, "which doesn't take account of the places where I've `flopped' for a night," and much more. Among his reflections on life in Paris: "The women of Montemartre! One has to go back to Virgil for comparisons - to the harpies!"; "At night screams, shouts, curses, animated discussions on streets - all very course, loud, terrifying, thoroughly Latin. Altercations with women absolutely unheard of in America - treat women like dogs, no chivalry, not even the slightest respect. The commoner here is a very low, crude specimen"; "Here June gets angry because I loaned `Chadla,' the dancer, her book of Dostoievski. Later she & Chadla become good pals..."; plus Miller's transcription of Anais Nin's notes on Tropic of Cancer; notes from Nin's diary which, when she read them to him, precipitated their sexual relationship; and much more. In the third volume are extensive handwritten notes on Black Spring and Tropic of Capricorn. There are manuscript indexes inserted at the front of the first two volumes. In sum, the three volumes containing what is undoubtedly the most important source material for the study of Henry Miller, his mind, his life, and his writings. Miller kept these three volumes on his desk, and they can be seen in many photographs taken of him in his office. Provenance: The Henry Miller Family, then the Collection of Roger Wagner.