Anais
Nin, 1903-1977.
Writer and diarist, born in Paris, of a Catalan
father and a Danish mother, Anais spent many of her early years with Cuban
relatives. Later a naturalized American citizen, she lived and worked in
Paris, New York and Los Angeles. Author of avant-garde novels in the French
surrealistic style, she is best known for her life and times in The
Diary of Anais Nin, Vols. I-VII. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich,
1966-1980; and The Early Diaries of Anais Nin, Vols. I-IV. New York:
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1978-1985. Photograph by Valerie
Harms, 1972.
"I
walked into my own book seeking peace" Anais
Nin
Nin
Bookstore/ Diaries and Fiction available now.
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"Louveciennes has always known how to hide its secrets behind thick walls..." Le Figaro, March 12th, 1996 Unlike other celebrated artists' homes of the first half of the Twentieth Century opened for the public, the former home of Anais Nin changed ownership under private sale in June in Louveciennes, France.... Also, read about Barbara
Sapp's efforts in trying to save Anais's home.
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On
Saturday July 15 1995, three friends who all had originally met through
their connections with Anais Nin, sat having coffee and muffins on Valerie
Harms' cozy poolside patio in Weston, CT. While discussing books and
reviews that had recently been published on Nin, they agreed, "This
is not the woman we knew." From that simple sentence, they began talking
about how many people who
knew Nin personally, had memories and experiences that intensely affected
their lives and touched "the deep heart's core" as Yeats wrote
in his poem The Lake Isle of Innisfree.
They
had been discussing the potentials of the World Wide Web, and since Moira
Collins had access to a site, they decided to create a little cyberspace
isle of Innisfree called "Thinking of Anais Nin" where their
other friends might contribute memories
and reflections starting on Anais's birthday February 21, 1996.
They
also spoke of expanding the site later and linking it to other not-yet
created spaces that would enable all
those interested in Anais to connect to people and organizations somehow
related to Anais. Thus, anyone accessing the web from anywhere in the world
could learn about sources, such as: Gunther Stuhlmann, Rupert Pole, Joaquin
Nin-Culmell, Richard Centing, Benjamin Franklin, Paul Herron, Duane Schneider
and Nin's many many friends with whom she corresponded, scholars, her publishers,
archives at Northwestern University and UCLA. For information on Paul Herron's
project "Anais Nin: A Book of Mirrors", write to: 13149 Balfour,
Huntington Woods, MI 48070 or email [email protected].
Valerie and Moira then called Rupert Pole in Los Angeles, and had a magical conversation about creating this little page. Rupert's warm response encouraged them to translate their thoughts into reality. Although this isle is not commercial and has no intention of raising copyright issues or selling things, we thought anyone reading this page now might like to know about Gunther Stuhlmann and the ANAIS Journal. (To order the ANAIS Journal, write to: Anais Nin Foundation, 2335 Hidalgo Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90039. Single copies: $8.00 foreign $9.00, Special: 3 issues $22 (in USA only), Institutions & Libraries: $12.50 (foreign $14) .
On Moira's return home to Chicago, she continued planning this page, encouraged by Peter Fraterdeus of designOnline who showed his enthusiastic support for such a page by generously providing this isle in cyberspace free rent until they find a more permanent home. Until then it's in ours and- we hope- your "deep heart's core". Please send all email about the page to: [email protected] (Valerie Harms) or [email protected] (Moira Collins)We welcome contributions from those who knew Anais personally and would like to share memories. We of course will also welcome other comments, suggestions, and offers of other's time and talents (particularly netcool networkers adept at writing in HTML!) who may be "Thinking of Anais Nin"...
Go to Personal Recollections of Anais Nin
We've had our share of luck and now
we need a little lucre!
In
the year since we launched this site we have had great press! Not only
were we featured in the February issue of MacHome with an actual photo
of the site, but through Barbara
Sapp's efforts in trying to save Anais's home, we were featured in
writeups in Le Figaro, the Guardian and other European papers. We have
also won an award on the Literary Research page at http://users.mwci.net/~lapoz/LitResearch.html
and were chosen as one of the best literary sites.
However, Moira Collins, who has so far paid for the expenses of this
site out of her own pocket, needs a little help from her friends so we
can continue to keep this site alive and move it into a realm where we
can have film and sound snippets of Anais online! To keep this site current
is actually fairly modest, $100 a month and includes changes needed to
keep the site alive. $100 donations made out to the Anais Nin Trust
will be thanked personally and will include a gift copy of Wendy M. DuBow's
book Conversations with Anais
Nin.
We have a vision of what we would like this site to be by February
21, 1997, not only will we hopefully have added more personal memories
but we will try and link those who wish to correspond with others about
Anais.
$500 donations will include a copy of Paul Herron's "Anais Nin:
A Book of Mirrors" and a copy of Wendy DuBow's book. For information
on how your $500 will be used, please click on vision
of the web site to be, developed by Bruce Cohen/Chamlin Records (email
[email protected] for flyer
on Chamlin Records!), a spokesman for Rupert Pole.
The
Anais Nin Home Pages are designed by Emily at Balaam Inc. [email protected]
The Balaam Inc. Home Page is located
here.
