November 8, 1993

Dear Henry,

It's been 13 years since you moved on. I doubt you believed in heaven, but I would like to think that your spirit transcended beyond flesh. You are so much to so many, but more than anything else, you lived, experienced and interacted. We never met, but I feel that I've heard you in many ways.

When you shared the journey of your life and your passion for living in Tom Shiller's film Henry Miller Asleep and Awake, I knew there was an immense depth in you. You never stopped experiencing life. Life as it is, out there, the abundance, the poverty, sensuality, joys, disgust and suffering. Fighting through the decay of our modern world. Reading took on a new dimension then, not just titillating, but a chronicle of a complete life. A process that seems to have worked for you. Freeing yourself from the mold and becoming a free person.

I pay tribute to you, via the books that I collect. Yours is the largest of my collections. Eight years ago I got a box of about 25 first editions from Dan Flanagan. With the encouragement of fellow collector Jon Tatomer, that seed has grown and I now have 1,000 different printings, proofs and associated items of your work. I also have hundreds of pieces of ephemera and books with prefaces, contributions or quotes. It continues to grow. As more of your editions come out, there is no end in sight.

About 3 years ago I made contact with Roger Jackson, who was working on a bibliography of your work. There was trust, with a flow of information that I felt was truly in the spirit of Miller. We wrote and interacted for two years, building on the known volumes of your work. That work continues. He was a friend before we actually met. I'm sure you had many such friends. And when we did meet, what an occasion. I understand how you cherished your friends and found much fulfillment and joy from your associations. My sense is that most of the time you worked hard at your writing. Although you talk at times of the nobility of laziness, you always corresponded and Ana‹s thought that you worked too much.

I have to think that Ana‹s was one of the big hurts in your life. Up there with June and your mother. It's there in her recently published unexpurgated diaries. She would never commit to you. She was no saint. I have to wonder, that when Hoki says that you talked about having eight wives, that you probably count Ana‹s as one of them.

When you shook hands with Norman Mailer, did you know that he would be selling books as the greatest living author in America a few years later? Erica Jong finally got her book out that's about you. I thought it started quite well, talking about the process of your enlightenment. But, can you relate to Andrea Dworkin and Catharine MacKinnon's definition of pornography? Is it something that can only happen upon women? Why can't the definition be gender neutral? The sexism in it repulses me.

I love Reflections. Concise thoughts on many subjects. I guess you never met Gurdjieff, but I also reflect on the concept that within the body are many personalities. Knowing them and becoming aware of them. You continued to Love and Lust until the end. Do you long for Love and heartaches, or are you beyond it all?

Hope your day is great.

Best Regards, Bill