View source for Anaïs Nin

{{Short description|French-born American author (1903–1977)}}
{{Infobox writer
| name             = Anaïs Nin
| image            = Anais Nin.jpg
| image_size       = 
| caption          = Portrait in the 1970s by [[Elsa Dorfman]]
| pen_name         = 
| birth_name       = Angela Anaïs Juana Antolina Rosa Edelmira Nin y Culmell
| birth_date       = {{birth date|1903|2|21}}
| birth_place      = [[Neuilly-sur-Seine]], France
| death_date       = {{death date and age|1977|1|14|1903|2|21}}
| death_place      = [[Los Angeles]], California, U.S.
| occupation       = Author
| parents          = {{plainlist|
* [[Joaquín Nin]]
* Rosa Culmell
}}
| relatives        = [[Joaquín Nin-Culmell]] (brother)
| spouse           = {{plainlist|
* {{marriage|[[Hugh Parker Guiler]]|1923}}
* {{marriage|[[Rupert Pole]]|1955|1966|end=ann}} ([[bigamy]])
}}
| signature        = Anaïs Nin signature.svg
}}

'''Angela Anaïs Juana Antolina Rosa Edelmira Nin y Culmell'''{{Family name footnote|Nin|Culmell|lang=Spanish}} ({{IPAc-en|ˌ|æ|n|aɪ|ˈ|iː|s|_|n|iː|n}} {{respell|AN|eye|EESS|_|NEEN}};<ref>{{Cite book |title=American Lives: An Anthology of Autobiographical Writing |publisher=University of Wisconsin Press |year=1994 |isbn=978-0299142445 |editor-last=Sayre |editor-first=Robert F. |page=597}}</ref> {{IPA|fr|ana.is nin|lang}}; February 21, 1903 – January 14, 1977) was a French-born American diarist, essayist, novelist, and writer of short stories and [[erotica]]. Born to Cuban parents in France, Nin was the daughter of the composer [[Joaquín Nin]] and the classically trained singer Rosa Culmell. Nin spent her early years in Spain and Cuba, about sixteen years in Paris (1924–1940), and the remaining half of her life in the United States, where she became an established author.

Nin wrote [[Diary|journals]] prolifically from age eleven until her death. Her journals, many of which were published during her lifetime, detail her private thoughts and personal relationships. Her journals also describe her marriages to [[Hugh Parker Guiler]] and [[Rupert Pole]], in addition to her numerous affairs with men and women, including the [[Psychoanalysis|psychoanalyst]] [[Otto Rank]] and writer [[Henry Miller]], both of whom profoundly influenced Nin and her writing.

In addition to her journals, Nin wrote several novels, critical studies, essays, short stories, and volumes of [[erotic literature]]. Much of her work, including the collections of erotica, was published posthumously amid renewed critical interest in her life and work. Nin spent her later life in [[Los Angeles]], California, where she died of [[cervical cancer]] in 1977. She was a finalist for the [[Neustadt International Prize for Literature]] in 1976.

==Early life==
Anaïs Nin was born in [[Neuilly-sur-Seine|Neuilly]], France, to [[Joaquín Nin]], a Cuban pianist and composer, and Rosa Culmell,<ref name="kir">{{Cite web |url=http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/anaisnin.htm |title=Anaïs Nin profile |last=Liukkonen |first=Petri |website=kirjasto.sci.fi |publisher=[[Kuusankoski]] Public Library |location=Finland |language=fi |url-status=dead |archive-url=http://arquivo.pt/wayback/20120123084641/http%3A//www%2Ekirjasto%2Esci%2Efi/anaisnin%2Ehtm |archive-date=23 January 2012}}</ref> a classically trained Cuban singer.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.morbidoutlook.com/nonfiction/articles/2001_03_anaisnin.html |title=The Unique Anaïs Nin |last=Fenner |first=Andrew |access-date=December 26, 2016}}</ref> Her father's grandfather had fled France during the [[French Revolution]], going first to [[Saint-Domingue]], then [[New Orleans]], and finally to Cuba, where he helped build the country's first railway.{{r|diary|pages=125-126}}

Nin was raised a [[Roman Catholic]]<ref>{{Cite book |last=Stuhlmann |first=Gunther |title=A Spy In The House Of Love (Foreword) |publisher=Swallow Press |page=3}}</ref> but left the church when she was 16 years old.<ref name="candubow">{{cite book | last=DuBow| first=Wendy| title=Conversations with Anaïs Nin | publisher=Univ. Press of Mississippi | publication-place=Jackson (Miss.) | date=1994 | isbn=0-87805-719-6 | page=}}</ref>{{rp|p=126}} She spent her childhood and early life in Europe. Her parents separated when she was two; her mother then moved Nin and her two brothers, Thorvald Nin and [[Joaquín Nin-Culmell]], to [[Barcelona]], and then to New York City, where she attended high school. Nin dropped out of high school in 1919 at age sixteen,{{r|candubow|p=xxi}} and according to her diaries, ''Volume One, 1931–1934'', later began working as an [[artist's model]]. After being in the United States for several years, Nin had forgotten how to speak Spanish, but retained her French and became fluent in English.{{r|diary|p=183}}

[[File:Anaisnin.jpg|thumb|Anaïs Nin as a teenager, {{Circa|1920}}]]On March 3, 1923, in [[Havana]], Cuba, Nin married her first husband, American [[Hugh Parker Guiler]] (1898–1985), a banker and artist from Boston, later known as "Ian Hugo", when he became an [[experimental film]]maker in the late 1940s. The couple moved to Paris the following year, where Guiler pursued his banking career and Nin began to pursue her interest in writing; in her diaries she also mentions having trained as a [[flamenco]] dancer in Paris in the mid-to-late 1920s with [[Francisco Miralles Arnau]]. Her first published work was a critical 1932 evaluation of [[D.&nbsp;H. Lawrence]] called ''[[D.&nbsp;H. Lawrence: An Unprofessional Study]]'', which she wrote in sixteen days.<ref name="kir" />

Nin became interested in [[psychoanalysis]] and studied extensively, first with [[René Allendy]] in 1932 and then with [[Otto Rank]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Oakes |first=Elizabeth H. |title=American Writers |publisher=Infobase Publishing |year=2004 |isbn=978-1438108094 |page=255}}</ref> Both men eventually became her lovers, as she recounts in her ''Journal''.<ref>Anais Nin, ''Journal (1931–1934)'', Paris: Le Livre de Poche, 1966, pp. 138, 171–172, 237, 404, 505, passim.</ref> On her second visit to Rank, Nin reflects on her desire to be reborn as a woman and artist. Rank, she observes, helped her move between what she could verbalize in her journals and what remained unarticulated. She discovered the quality and depth of her feelings in the wordless transitions between what she could and could not say. "As he talked, I thought of my difficulties with writing, my struggles to articulate feelings not easily expressed. Of my struggles to find a language for intuition, feeling, instincts which are, in themselves, elusive, subtle, and wordless."{{r|diary|p=276}}

In late summer 1939, when residents from overseas were urged to leave France due to the approaching war, Nin left Paris and returned to New York City with her husband (Guiler was, according to his own wishes, edited out of the diaries published during Nin's lifetime; his role in her life is therefore difficult to evaluate).<ref name="diary">{{cite book | last=Nin | first=Anaïs | title=The Diary of Anaïs Nin | editor-first=Gunther | editor-last=Stuhlmann | publisher=Harvest book Swallow press Harcourt Brace | publication-place=San Diego New York London | date=1966 | isbn=0-15-626030-1 | url=https://archive.org/details/diaryofanasnin01nina/ |ol=17058763M }}</ref>{{rp|page=xi|quote="Several persons,  when  faced  with  the  question  of  whether  they wanted  to remain  in  the  diary  'as  is' — since  Miss  Nin  did  not  want  to  change the  essential  nature  of  her  presentation — chose to  be  deleted  altogether from  the  manuscript  (including  her  husband  and  some  members of  her  family)."}} During the war, Nin sent her books to [[Frances Steloff]] of the [[Gotham Book Mart]] in New York for safekeeping.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.anaisnin.com/history/Steloff.html |title=Frances Steloff |last=Griffin |first=M. Collins |publisher=AnaisNin.com |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140812185852/http://www.anaisnin.com/history/Steloff.html |archive-date=August 12, 2014 |access-date=October 2, 2017}}</ref>

In New York, Nin rejoined Otto Rank, who had previously moved there, and moved into his apartment. She actually began to act as a psychoanalyst herself, seeing patients in the room next to Rank's.{{r|diary|pages=17–25}} She quit after several months, however, stating: "I found that I wasn't good because I wasn't objective. I was haunted by my patients. I wanted to intercede."<ref name="fraser" />  It was in New York that she met the Japanese-American [[Modernism|modernist]] photographer [[Soichi Sunami]], who went on to photograph her for many of her books.

==Literary career==
===Journals===
[[File:George Leite and Anaïs Nin at daliel's bookstore in Berkeley, CA, 1946.jpg|thumb|Nin at a book reading with [[George Leite]] in Berkeley, California, 1946]]
The spread of her fame grew in 1960 when she published her diaries, a work that is considered her first, given that she began keeping them at the age of 11. She published selections covering the years from 1931 to 1974. Nin's most studied works are her diaries or journals, which she began writing in her adolescence. The published journals, which span six decades, provide insight into her personal life and relationships. Nin was acquainted, often intimately, with a number of prominent authors, artists, [[psychoanalysis|psychoanalysts]], and other figures, and wrote of them often, especially Otto Rank. She initially wrote in French and did not begin to write in English until she was 17.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Liukkonen |first=Petri |title=Anaïs Nin |url=http://authorscalendar.info/anaisnin.htm |access-date=2022-08-20 |website=authorscalendar.info}}</ref> Nin felt that French was the language of her heart, Spanish was the language of her ancestors, and English was the language of her intellect. The writing in her diaries is explicitly [[trilingual]]; she uses whichever language best expresses her thought.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Nin, Anais (1903–1977) {{!}} Encyclopedia.com |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/nin-anais-1903-1977 |access-date=2022-08-20 |website=www.encyclopedia.com}}</ref>

In the second volume of her [[unexpurgated]] journal, ''[[Incest: From a Journal of Love|Incest]]'', she wrote about her father candidly and graphically (207–15), detailing her [[incestuous]] adult sexual relationship with him.

Previously unpublished works were released in the two academic journals ''Anais: An International Journal'' and ''A Café in Space: The Anaïs Nin Literary Journal''.[[File:Anais Nin inscriptio to Marjorie Anais Housepian Dobkin.jpg|thumb|Anais Nin's handwritten inscription to Marjorie Anais Housepian Dobkin.]]
As of 2026, 19 volumes of her journals have been published.

===Erotic writings===
Nin is hailed by many critics as one of the finest writers of [[Women's erotica|female erotica]]. She was one of the first women known to explore fully the realm of erotic writing, and certainly the first prominent woman in the modern West known to write erotica. Before her, erotica acknowledged to be written by women was rare, with a few notable exceptions, such as the work of [[Kate Chopin]]. Nin often cited authors [[Djuna Barnes]] and [[D.&nbsp;H. Lawrence]] as inspirations, and she states in ''Volume One'' of her diaries that she drew inspiration from [[Marcel Proust]],{{r|diary|p=15}} [[André Gide]],{{r|diary|p=45}} [[Jean Cocteau]],{{r|diary|pages=60, 109}} [[Paul Valéry]]{{r|diary|p=60}}, and [[Arthur Rimbaud]].{{r|diary|pages=29, 40}}

According to ''Volume One'' of her diaries, ''1931–1934'', published in 1966, Nin first came across erotica when she returned to Paris with her husband, mother and two brothers in her late teens. They rented the apartment of an American man who was away for the summer, and Nin came across a number of French paperbacks: "One by one, I read these books, which were completely new to me. I had never read erotic literature in America... They overwhelmed me. I was innocent before I read them, but by the time I had read them all, there was nothing I did not know about sexual exploits... I had my degree in erotic lore."{{r|diary|p=96}}

Faced with a desperate need for money, Nin, [[Henry Miller]] and some of their friends began in the 1940s to write erotic and [[Pornography|pornographic]] narratives for an anonymous "collector" for a dollar a page, somewhat as a joke.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gertzman |first=Jay A. |title=Bookleggers and Smuthounds: The Trade in Erotica, 1920–1940 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |year=2011 |isbn=978-0812205855 |edition=Reprint |page=344}}</ref> (It is not clear whether Miller actually wrote these stories or merely allowed his name to be used.<ref>[[Noël Riley Fitch]], ''Anaïs: The Erotic Life of Anaïs Nin'' (Boston: [[Little, Brown and Company]], 1993) {{ISBN|0316284289}}</ref>)  Nin considered the characters in her erotica to be extreme [[caricature]]s and never intended the work to be published, but changed her mind in the early 1970s and allowed them to be published as ''[[Delta of Venus]]''<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kowaleski-Wallace |first=Elizabeth |url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaoffe0053unse/page/190 |title=Encyclopedia of Feminist Literary Theory |publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]] |year=1997 |isbn=978-0815308249 |page=[https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaoffe0053unse/page/190 190]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Gibson |first=Andrew |url=https://archive.org/details/postmodernityeth00gibs_0/page/177 |title=Postmodernity, Ethics and the Novel: From Leavis to Levinas |publisher=Routledge |year=1999 |isbn=978-0415198950 |page=[https://archive.org/details/postmodernityeth00gibs_0/page/177 177]}}</ref> and ''[[Little Birds (short story collection)|Little Birds]]''. In 2016, a previously undiscovered collection of Nin's erotica, ''[[Auletris]]'', was published for the first time.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-empowerment-diary/201611/the-sexual-censorship-controversy |title=The Sexual Censorship Controversy |last=Raab |first=Diana |date=November 3, 2016 |website=Psychology Today |access-date=October 5, 2017}}</ref>

Nin was a friend, and in some cases lover, of many literary figures, including Miller, [[John Steinbeck]], [[Antonin Artaud]], [[Edmund Wilson]], [[Gore Vidal]], [[James Agee]], [[James Leo Herlihy]], and [[Lawrence Durrell]]. Her passionate love affair and friendship with Miller strongly influenced her both sexually and as an author. Claims that Nin was [[bisexual]] were given added circulation by the 1990 [[Philip Kaufman]] film ''[[Henry & June]]'' about Miller and his second wife [[June Miller]]. The first unexpurgated portion of Nin's journal to be published, ''[[Henry and June]]'', makes clear that Nin was stirred by June to the point of saying (paraphrasing), "I have become June", though it is unclear to what extent she consummated her feelings sexually. To both Anaïs and Henry, June was a [[femme fatale]]{{snd}}irresistible, cunning, and erotic. Nin gave June money, jewelry, and clothes, often leaving herself without money.

===Novels and other publications===
In addition to her journals and collections of erotica, Nin wrote several novels, which critics frequently associated with the [[Surrealism#Surrealist literature|surrealist movement]].<ref name="eb">{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Anaïs Nin |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Anais-Nin |access-date=October 6, 2017 |last=}}</ref> Her first book of fiction, ''[[House of Incest]]'' (1936), contains heavily veiled allusions to a brief sexual relationship Nin had with her father in 1933: while visiting her estranged father in France, the then-30-year-old Nin had a brief incestuous sexual relationship with him.<ref name="father">{{Cite journal |last=Charnock |first=Ruth |date=September 30, 2013 |title=Incest in the 1990s: Reading Anaïs Nin's 'Father Story' |url=http://eprints.lincoln.ac.uk/11712/1/Life%20Writing%20article.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://eprints.lincoln.ac.uk/11712/1/Life%20Writing%20article.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |journal=Life Writing |volume=11 |pages=55–68 |doi=10.1080/14484528.2013.838732|s2cid=162354162 }}</ref> In 1944, she published a collection of short stories, ''[[Under a Glass Bell]]'', which was reviewed by [[Edmund Wilson]].<ref name=fraser/>

Nin also wrote several works of nonfiction. Her first publication, written during her years studying psychoanalysis, was ''[[D. H. Lawrence: An Unprofessional Study]]'' (1932), an assessment of the works of [[D. H. Lawrence]].{{sfn|Franklin|1996|p=6}} In 1968, she published ''[[The Novel of the Future]]'', which elaborated on her approach to writing and the writing process.{{sfn|Franklin|1996|p=127}}

==Personal life==
According to her diaries, ''Vol. 1, 1931–1934'', Nin shared a [[bohemian style|bohemian]] lifestyle with [[Henry Miller]] during her time in Paris. Her husband Guiler is not mentioned in the published edition of the 1930s parts of her diary (Vol. 1–2), though the opening of Vol. 1 makes clear that she is married, and the introduction suggests her husband declined to be included in the published diaries. The diaries edited by her second husband, after her death, say that her relationship with Miller was very passionate and physical, and that she believed that it was a pregnancy by him that was stillborn in 1934.

In 1947, at age 44, Nin met former actor [[Rupert Pole]] in a Manhattan elevator on her way to a party.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Corbett |first=Sara |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/31/magazine/31pole.t.html?_r=1 |title=The Lover Who Always Stays |date=2006-12-31 |work=New York Times |access-date=2011-02-16}}</ref><ref name="pole">{{Cite web |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5591676 |title=Anais Nin Husband, Rupert Pole Dies in L.A. |date=July 29, 2006 |publisher=[[National Public Radio]] |access-date=February 16, 2011}}</ref> The two began a relationship and traveled to California together; Pole was 16 years her junior. On March 17, 1955, while still married to Guiler, she married Pole at [[Quartzsite, Arizona]], returning with him to live in California.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-jul-26-me-pole26-story.html |title=The Ranger Who Told All About Anais Nin's Wild Life |last=Woo |first=Elaine |date=July 26, 2006 |website=Los Angeles Times |access-date=October 4, 2017}}</ref> Guiler remained in New York City and was unaware of Nin's second marriage until after her death in 1977, though biographer [[Deirdre Bair]] alleges that Guiler knew what was happening while Nin was in California but consciously "chose not to know".<ref name="pole" />

Nin called her simultaneous marriages her "bicoastal trapeze".<ref name="pole" /> According to Deidre Bair:

{{blockquote|[Anaïs] would set up these elaborate façades in Los Angeles and in New York, but it became so complicated that she had to create something she called the lie box. She had this absolutely enormous purse and in the purse she had two sets of checkbooks. One said Anaïs Guiler for New York and another said Anaïs Pole for Los Angeles. She had prescription bottles from California doctors and New York doctors with the two different names. And she had a collection of file cards. And she said, "I tell so many lies I have to write them down and keep them in the lie box so I can keep them straight."<ref name="pole" />}}

In 1966, Nin had her marriage with Pole annulled due to the legal issues arising from both Guiler and Pole trying to claim her as a dependent on their tax returns,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://archive.boston.com/news/globe/obituaries/articles/2006/07/27/rupert_pole_executor_of_exotic_works_by_anas_nin/ |title=Rupert Pole, executor of exotic works by Anaïs Nin |last=Woo, Elaine |date=2006-07-27 |website=Boston Globe |access-date=2011-02-16}}</ref> but she and Pole continued to live together as if married until her death.  According to Barbara Kraft, Nin wrote to Guiler asking for his forgiveness. He responded by saying how meaningful his life had been because of her.<ref>Kraft, Barbara. ''Anaïs Nin:  The Last Days'' Pegasus Books, {{ISBN|978-0988968752}}, 2013, p. 200</ref>

After Guiler's death in 1985, Pole commissioned the unexpurgated versions of Nin's journals.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Woo |first=Elaine |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-jul-26-me-pole26-story.html |title=The Ranger Who Told All About Anais Nin's Wild Life |date=July 26, 2006 |work=Los Angeles Times |access-date=8 August 2012}}</ref> Eight volumes have been published, covering the years 1931 through 1977: ''[[Henry and June]]'', ''[[Incest: From a Journal of Love|Incest]]'', ''[[Fire: From a Journal of Love|Fire]]'', ''[[Nearer the Moon]]'', ''[[Mirages: The Unexpurgated Diary of Anaïs Nin, 1939-1947|Mirages]]'', ''[[Trapeze: The Unexpurgated Diary of Anaïs Nin, 1947–1955|Trapeze]]'', ''The Diary of Others: The Unexpurgated Diary of Anaïs Nin, 1955-1966'', and ''A Joyous Transformation: The Unexpurgated Diary of Anaïs Nin, 1966-1977''. Pole arranged for Guiler's ashes to be scattered in the same area where Nin's ashes were, Mermaid Cove in [[Santa Monica Bay]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5591676|title=Anais Nin Husband, Rupert Pole Dies in L.A.|publisher=[[National Public Radio]]|access-date=Apr 28, 2020}}</ref> Pole died in 2006.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/30/us/30pole.html |title=Rupert Pole, 87, Diarist's Duplicate Spouse, Dies |last=Fox |first=Margalit |date=July 30, 2006 |website=The New York Times |access-date=October 6, 2017}}</ref>

Nin once worked at Lawrence R. Maxwell Books, at [[45 Christopher Street]] in New York City.{{sfn|Franklin|1996|p=6}} In addition to her work as a writer, Nin appeared in the [[Kenneth Anger]] film ''[[Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome]]'' (1954) as [[Astarte]]; in the [[Maya Deren]] film ''[[Ritual in Transfigured Time]]'' (1946); and in ''Bells of Atlantis'' (1952), a film Guiler directed under the name "Ian Hugo" with a soundtrack of [[electronic music]] by [[Louis and Bebe Barron]].{{r|candubow|pages=xxi–xxii}} In her later life, Nin worked as a tutor at the [[International College, Los Angeles|International College]] in Los Angeles.<ref name=kraft/>

==Death==
[[File:Louveciennes (78) Plaque Anaïs Nin 373.jpg|thumb|Plaque at Nin's Louveciennes home]]
Nin was diagnosed with [[cervical cancer]] in 1974.<ref name="herron"/> She had cancer for two years as it [[Metastasis|metastasized]], and she underwent numerous surgical operations, [[Radiation therapy|radiation]], and [[chemotherapy]].<ref name="kraft">{{Cite web |url=https://www.culturalweekly.com/anais-nin-last-days/ |title=Anaïs Nin: The Last Days |last=Kraft |first=Barbara |date=December 13, 2016 |website=Cultural Weekly |access-date=September 28, 2017}}</ref> Nin died of the cancer at [[Cedars-Sinai Medical Center]] in [[Los Angeles]], California, on January 14, 1977.<ref name="herron">{{Cite book |last=Herron |first=Paul |title=Anaïs Nin: A Book of Mirrors |publisher=Sky Blue Press |year=1996 |isbn=978-0965236409 |page=235}}</ref><ref>Nin, Anaïs. Rauner Library Letters (September 1975): "I suppose you know I have been fighting cancer for 9 months – just recovering very slowly."</ref><ref name="fraser">{{Cite news |last=Fraser |first=C. Gerald |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1977/01/16/archives/anais-nin-author-whose-diaries-depicted-intellectual-life-dead.html |title=Anais Nin, Author Whose Diaries Depicted Intellectual Life, Dead |date=January 16, 1977 |work=The New York Times |access-date=September 1, 2017}}</ref>

Her body was [[cremation|cremated]] and her ashes scattered over [[Santa Monica Bay]] in Mermaid Cove. Her first husband, Hugh Guiler, died in 1985, and his ashes were scattered in the same cove.<ref name="pole" /> Rupert Pole was named Nin's [[literary executor]], and he arranged to have new, unexpurgated editions of Nin's books and diaries published between 1985 and his death in 2006. Large portions of the diaries are still available only in expurgated form. The originals are in the [[UCLA Library]].<ref>{{Cite archive |access-date= Nov 26, 2020 |file= 2066 |collection-url= https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt3489p4x9/ |collection= Finding Aid for the Anais Nin Papers, ca. 1910–1977 |institution= UCLA Library Special Collections |location= Online Archive of California |repository= Charles E. Young Research Library |first1= Anais |last1= Nin  }}</ref>

==Legacy==
The [[feminist movement]] in the 1960s gave feminist perspectives on Nin's writings of the past twenty years, which made Nin a popular lecturer at various universities; contrarily, Nin dissociated herself from the political activism of the movement.<ref name="kir" /> In 1973, prior to her death, Nin received an [[Honorary degree|honorary doctorate]] from the [[Philadelphia College of Art]]. She was also elected to the United States [[National Institute of Arts and Letters]] in 1974, and in 1976 was presented with a ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' Woman of the Year award.<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thedailymirror/2011/06/times-woman-of-the-year-anais-nin.html |title=Times Woman of the Year – Anais Nin |date=June 6, 2011 |work=[[Los Angeles Times]] |access-date=February 2, 2015}}</ref> Although she was described as a narcissist{{Citation needed|date=July 2026}} her feminist tendencies, along with her constant search for self-knowledge, made her an attractive speaker for lectures at American universities.

The Italian film ''La stanza delle parole'' (dubbed into English as ''The Room of Words)'' was released in 1989 based on the ''Henry and June'' diaries. [[Philip Kaufman]] directed the 1990 film ''[[Henry & June]]'' based on Nin's diaries published as ''[[Henry and June|Henry and June: From the Unexpurgated Diary of Anaïs Nin]]''. She was portrayed in the film by actress [[Maria de Medeiros]].

In February 2008, poet [[Steven Reigns]] organized ''Anaïs Nin at 105''<ref>{{cite web |title=Anaïs Nin |url=https://hammer.ucla.edu/programs-events/2008/02/anais-nin |website=Hammer UCLA |date=12 February 2008 |access-date=28 June 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Anais Nin @ 105 |url=https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL24F2F558E9EE2241 |website=YouTube |access-date=28 June 2024}}</ref> at the [[Hammer Museum]] in Westwood, Los Angeles.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.laweekly.com/arts/all-about-anais-nin-2151862 |title=All About Anais Nin |last=Kosnett |first=Rena |date=February 6, 2008 |website=LA Weekly |access-date=October 5, 2017}}</ref> Reigns said: "Nin bonded and formed very deep friendships with women and men decades younger than her. Some of them are still living in Los Angeles and I thought it'd be wonderful to have them share their experiences with [Nin]."<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.dailybruin.ucla.edu/news/2008/feb/12/writer-garners-personal-praise/ |title=Writer garners personal praise |date=February 12, 2008 |website=The Daily Bruin |publisher=University of California, Los Angeles |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080524095148/http://www.dailybruin.ucla.edu/news/2008/feb/12/writer-garners-personal-praise/ |archive-date=May 24, 2008}}</ref> [[Bebe Barron]], an electronic music pioneer and longtime friend of Nin, made her last public appearance at this event.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://echoes.org/2008/04/21/the-first-lady-of-electronic-music-passes-bebe-barron/ |title=The First Lady of Electronic Music Passes: Bebe Barron |date=2008-04-21 |website=Echoes |access-date=October 4, 2017}}</ref> Reigns also published an essay refuting [[Bern Porter]]'s claims of a sexual relationship with Nin in the 1930s.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Bern Porter's Wild Sexual Life with Anais Nin or Wild Imaginings? |journal=A Cafe in Space: The Anais Nin Literary Journal|first=Steven | last=Reigns | date=February 2014}} republished: {{Cite web |url=http://blog.anaisnin.com/2014/06/i-pursue-her-still-bern-porter-on-anais.html |title=Bern Porter's Wild Sexual Life with Anais Nin or Wild Imaginings? |last=Reigns |first=Steven |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160414023319/http://blog.anaisnin.com/2014/06/i-pursue-her-still-bern-porter-on-anais.html |archive-date=2016-04-14 |access-date=May 30, 2016}}</ref> 
Reigns is the President of the Board of the non-profit organization devoted to Nin's legacy, the Anaïs Nin Foundation.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Anais Nin Foundation-About |url=https://theanaisninfoundation.org/about |website=Anais Nin Foundation |access-date=28 June 2024}}</ref> In 2025, Reigns discovered and rescued an archive of Nin's papers and possessions. The items were stored in cardboard boxes in a metal container on a hillside vulnerable to fires and earthquakes. Shortly after he moved the materials to safe storage, the area was indeed ravaged by fire.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Pedersen |first1=Erik |title=Steven Reigns moved Anaïs Nin's papers to safety prior to the Palisades fire |url=https://www.ocregister.com/2025/11/21/steven-reigns-moved-anais-nins-papers-to-safety-prior-to-the-palisades-fire/ |website=The Orange County Register |publisher=Southern California News Group |access-date=14 December 2025}}</ref>

Cuban-American writer [[Daína Chaviano]] paid homage to Anaïs Nin and [[Henry Miller]] in her novel ''Gata encerrada'' (2001), where both characters are portrayed as disembodied spirits whose previous lives they shared with Melisa, the main character—and presumably Chaviano's [[alter ego]]—, a young Cuban obsessed with Anaïs Nin.<ref name="gata">Rodríguez, Antonio O. and Andricaín, Sergio. "Fusión de erotismo y magia: ''Gata encerrada'' es una novela cautivadora". [[Newsweek]] en Español, July 11, 2001</ref>

The Cuban poet and novelist [[Wendy Guerra]], long fascinated with Nin's life and works, published a fictional diary in Nin's voice, ''Posar desnuda en la Habana'' (''Posing Nude in Havana'') in 2012. She explained that "[Nin's] Cuban Diary has very few pages and my delirium was always to write an [[apocrypha]]l novel; literary conjecture about what might have happened".<ref name="sanchez">{{Cite news |last=Sanchez |first=Yoani |url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/yoani-sanchez/cuban-author-wendy-guerra_b_6299348.html |title=Cuban Author Wendy Guerra: 'I'm a Demon Who Writes What She Feels' |date=9 February 2015 |access-date=30 May 2016 |publisher=HuffPost Latino Voices}}</ref>

On September 27, 2013, screenwriter and author [[Kim Krizan]] published an article in ''[[The Huffington Post]]''<ref name=gore/> revealing she had found a previously unpublished love letter written by [[Gore Vidal]] to Nin. This letter contradicts Gore Vidal's previous characterization of his relationship with Nin, showing that Vidal did have feelings for Nin that he later heavily disavowed in his autobiography, ''Palimpsest''. Krizan did this research in the run up to the release of the fifth volume of Anaïs Nin's uncensored diary, ''Mirages'', for which Krizan provided the foreword.<ref name="gore">{{Cite news |url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/kim-krizan/gore-vidals-secret-unpubl_b_4004916.html |title=Gore Vidal's Secret, Unpublished Love Letter To Anaïs Nin |date=September 27, 2013 |work=[[The Huffington Post]] |access-date=September 20, 2013}}</ref>

In 2015, a documentary film directed by Sarah Aspinall called ''The Erotic Adventures of Anais Nin'' was released, in which [[Lucy Cohu]] portrayed Nin's character.

In 2019, [[Kim Krizan]] published ''Spy in the House of Anaïs Nin'', an examination of long-buried letters, papers, and original manuscripts Krizan found while doing archival work in Nin's Los Angeles home.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.hobartpulp.com/web_features/spy-in-the-house-of-anais-nin-an-interview-with-kim-krizanl|title=Spy In The House Of Anaïs Nin: An Interview With Kim Krizan|date=November 1, 2019|work=[[Hobart]]|accessdate=2020-07-11}}{{Dead link|date=August 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> Also that year, [[Routledge]] published the book ''Anaïs Nin: A Myth of Her Own'' by Clara Oropeza, that analyzes Nin's literature and literary theory through the perspective of [[mythological]] studies and [[depth psychology]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Anaïs Nin: A Myth of Her Own |url=https://www.routledge.com/Anais-Nin-A-Myth-of-Her-Own/Oropeza/p/book/9780367252663 |access-date=2022-08-20 |website=Routledge & CRC Press |language=en}}</ref>

==Bibliography==
===Diaries===
{{Library resources box|by=yes|viaf=14774462}}
* ''[[The Diary of Anaïs Nin]]'', in 7 volumes
* ''[[The Early Diary of Anaïs Nin]]'' (1914–1931) in 4 volumes
**Linotte: 1914-20 (1987)
**1920-23 (1983)
**The Journal of a Wife: 1923-27 (1984)
**1927-31 (1985)
* ''[[Henry and June]]: From a Journal of Love. The Unexpurgated Diary of Anaïs Nin (1931–1932)'' (1986), edited by Rupert Pole after her death
* ''[[Incest: From a Journal of Love]]'' (1992)
* ''[[Fire: From A Journal of Love|Fire: From a Journal of Love]]'' (1995)
* ''[[Nearer the Moon: From A Journal of Love|Nearer the Moon: From a Journal of Love]]'' (1996)
* ''[[Mirages: The Unexpurgated Diary of Anaïs Nin, 1939-1947|Mirages: The Unexpurgated Diary of Anaïs Nin, 1939–1947]]'' (2013)
* ''[[Trapeze: The Unexpurgated Diary of Anaïs Nin, 1947–1955]]'' (2017)
* ''The Diary of Others: The Unexpurgated Diary of Anaïs Nin, 1955–1966'' (2021)
* ''A Joyous Transformation: The Unexpurgated Diary of Anaïs Nin, 1966–1977'' (2023)

===Correspondence===
* ''A Literate Passion: Letters of Anaïs Nin & Henry Miller 1932–1953'' (1988)
* ''Letters to a friend in Australia'' (1992)
* ''Arrows of Longing: Correspondence Between Anaïs Nin & Felix Pollack, 1952–1976'' (1998)
* ''Morale des épicentres'' (2004)
* ''Anais Nin Letters: Her Correspondence With a Young Fan''.  Edited by Moira Collins (The Avalon Archives, 2018)
* ''Reunited: The Correspondence of Anaïs and Joaquin Nin, 1933–1940'' (2020)
* ''Letters to Lawrence Durrell 1937–1977'' (2020)

===Novels===
* ''[[House of Incest]]'' (1936)
* ''[[Winter of Artifice]]'' (1939)
* ''[[Cities of the Interior]]'' (1959), in five volumes:
** ''Ladders to Fire''
** ''Children of the Albatross''
** ''[[The Four-Chambered Heart]]''
** ''[[A Spy in the House of Love]]''
** ''[[Seduction of the Minotaur]]'',  originally published as ''Solar Barque'' (1958).
* ''[[Collages (novel)|Collages]]'' (1964)

===Short stories===
* ''[[Under a Glass Bell|Under a Glass Bell and Other Stories]]'' (1944)

Published posthumously:

* ''[[Delta of Venus]]'' (1977) erotica from the 1940s
* ''[[Waste of Timelessness|Waste of Timelessness and Other Early Stories]]'' (1977) apprentice work written before 1932
* ''[[Little Birds (short story collection)|Little Birds]]'' (1979) erotica from the 1940s
* ''[[Auletris]]'' (2016) erotica from the 1940s

Nin agreed in principle to the publication of the first three before she died — reluctantly in the case of the erotica.<ref>Bair, Deirdre (1995), pp. 515-516.</ref>

===Non-fiction===
* ''[[D. H. Lawrence: An Unprofessional Study]]'' (1932)
* ''[[The Novel of the Future]]'' (1968)
* ''A Woman Speaks'' (1975)
* ''[[In Favor of the Sensitive Man]]'' (1976)
* ''Conversations with Anaïs Nin'' (1994) edited by Wendy M. DuBow
* ''The Mystic of Sex: Uncollected Writings, 1930-1974'' (1995)

==Filmography==
*''[[Ritual in Transfigured Time]]'' (1946): Short film, dir. [[Maya Deren]]{{r|candubow|p=xxi}}
*[https://www.instagram.com/anaisninfoundation/reel/C70wSvAR9kL ''Lascivious Folk Ballet''] (1946) - (Outtakes from ''Ritual in Transfigured Time'').
*''Bells of Atlantis'' (1952): Short film, dir. Ian Hugo{{r|candubow|p=xxii}}
*''Tropical Noah's Ark'' (1952).
*''[[Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome]]'' (1954): Short film, dir. [[Kenneth Anger]]{{r|candubow|p=xxi}}
*''Jazz of Lights'' (1954)
*''Melodic Inversion'' (1958)
*''Lectures pour tous'' (1964)
*''Anaïs Nin Her Diary'' (1966)
*''Un moment avec une grande figure de la littérature, Anaïs Nin'' (3 May 1968)
*''The Henry Miller Odyssey'' (1969). 
*''Through the Magiscope'' (1969).
*''Apertura'' (1970).
*''Anaïs Nin at the University of California, Berkeley'' (December 1971)
*''Anaïs Nin at Hampshire College'', (1972)
*''Anaïs Nin Interview'', (New York, 1972).
*'''Ouvrez les guillemets'' (11 November 1974)
*''Journal de Paris'' (21 November 1974)
*''Anais Nin Observed'' (1974): Documentary, dir. [[Robert Snyder (filmmaker)|Robert Snyder]]{{r|candubow|p=xxii}}

==See also==
{{Portal|Biography|Literature}}
* [[List of Cuban American writers]]
* [[List of Cuban Americans]]

==Notes==
{{Notelist}}

== Citations ==
{{Reflist}}

==Works cited==
* {{Cite book |last=Bair |first=Deirdre |year=1995 |title=Anaïs Nin: A Biography |title-link=Anaïs Nin: A Biography |publisher=[[G. P. Putnam's Sons|Putnam]] |isbn=978-0399139888|author-link=Deirdre Bair}}
* {{Cite book |last=Fitch |first=Noël Riley |author-link=Noël Riley Fitch |year=1993 |title=Anaïs: The Erotic Life of Anaïs Nin |url=https://archive.org/details/anaiseroticlifeo00fitc |publisher=[[Little, Brown and Company]] |isbn=978-0316284288}}
* {{Cite book |editor-last=Franklin |editor-first=Benjamin V. |year=1996 |title=Recollections of Anaïs Nin |publisher=Ohio University Press |isbn=978-0821411643}}
* {{Cite book |last=Nin |first=Anaïs |year=1966 |title=The Diary of Anaïs Nin (1931–1934) |volume=1 |publisher=Harcourt, Brace & World |isbn=978-0547538709}}
* {{Cite book |last=Nin |first=Anaïs |year=1967 |title=The Diary of Anaïs Nin (1934–1939) |volume=2 |publisher=Harcourt, Brace & World |isbn=978-0156260268}}
* {{Cite book |last1=Nin |first1=Anaïs |last2=DuBow |first2=Wendy M. |year=1994 |title=Conversations with Anaïs Nin |url=https://archive.org/details/conversationswit00nina |publisher=University Press of Mississippi |isbn=978-0878057191}}

==Further reading==
* Miceli, Barbara. (2026) "The Narrative Construction of “Non-Trauma’: The Fantasy of Therapeutic Incest in Anais Nin’s Journal", in ''English Studies at NBU'', Vol. 12, Issue 1, 2026: 5-22.
* Oropeza, Clara. (2019) ''Anaïs Nin: A Myth of Her Own'', Routledge 
* {{Cite book |last=Jarczok |first=Anita |title=Writing an Icon: Celebrity Culture and the Invention of Anaïs Nin |publisher=Ohio University Press |year=2017 |isbn=978-0804040754}}
* {{Cite book |editor-last=Mason |editor-first=Gregory H. |title=Arrows of Longing: The Correspondence between Anaïs Nin and Felix Pollak, 1952–1976 |publisher=Ohio University Press |year=1998 |isbn=978-0804010061}}
* Yaguchi, Yuko. (2022) ''Anaïs Nin's Paris Revisited'' The English–French Bilingual Edition (French Edition), Wind Rose-Suiseisha
* [[Lili Bita|Bita, Lili]]. (1994) "Anais Nin". ''EI'' Magazine of [https://web.archive.org/web/20181105160436/https://euarceblog.wixsite.com/euarce European Art Center (EUARCE)], Is. 7/1994 pp.&nbsp;9, 24–30

==External links==
{{Commons category|Anaïs Nin}}
{{wikiquote}}
* [https://www.sky-blue-press.com/blog/ The Official Anaïs Nin Blog]
* [http://www.theanaisninfoundation.org Anaïs Nin Foundation] Contact the Anaïs Nin estate for rights and permissions requests
* [http://www.instagram.com/anaisninfoundation Official Instagram account]
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Anaïs Nin}} 
* {{IMDb name|632405}}
* [http://www.roberthaller.com/firstlight/hugo.html Ian Hugo (Nin's husband)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170420090918/http://www.roberthaller.com/firstlight/hugo.html |date=2017-04-20 }}
* [https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/21/t-magazine/anais-nin-los-angeles-home.html Anais Nin's Hideaway Home in Los Angeles] (2022-03-21 in ''[[The New York Times]]'')
<!---Inactive links below - as/of 20220322--->
<!---* [http://www.oldkewgardens.com/ss-2-homes-0125.html Anaïs Nin: 82nd Avenue] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180303160531/http://www.oldkewgardens.com/ss-2-homes-0125.html |date=2018-03-03 }}--->
<!---* [https://archives.lib.siu.edu/?p=collections/controlcard&id=2079 Anaïs Nin Letters, 1932–1946] at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Special Collections Research Center--->
<!---* [http://segundaviola.com.ar/natvideos/#04 Anaïs Nin video text] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140605061455/http://segundaviola.com.ar/natvideos/#04 |date=2014-06-05 }}--->

{{Anaïs Nin|state=expanded}}
{{Henry Miller}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nin, Anais}}
[[Category:1903 births]]
[[Category:1977 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century American non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:20th-century American women non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:20th-century American diarists]]
[[Category:20th-century French essayists]]
[[Category:20th-century French women non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:American people of Catalan descent]]
[[Category:American writers of Cuban descent]]
[[Category:American people of Danish descent]]
[[Category:American women diarists]]
[[Category:Analysands of Otto Rank]]
[[Category:Analysands of René Allendy]]
[[Category:Burials at sea]]
[[Category:Deaths from cervical cancer in California]]
[[Category:Former Roman Catholics]]
[[Category:French emigrants to the United States]]
[[Category:French erotica writers]]
[[Category:French novelists]]
[[Category:French people of Catalan descent]]
[[Category:French people of Cuban descent]]
[[Category:French people of Danish descent]]
[[Category:French short story writers]]
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[[Category:Polyandry]]
[[Category:Women erotica writers]]
[[Category:American erotica writers]]
[[Category:American women erotica writers]]
[[Category:Writers from Neuilly-sur-Seine]]
[[Category:Writers from Paris]]