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Collection of Henry Miller's Reflections on the Death of Mishima documents

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Held at: University of Delaware Library Special Collections [Contact Us]181 South College Avenue, Newark, DE 19717-5267

This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the University of Delaware Library Special Collections. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.

Overview and metadata sections

American author Henry Miller (1891-1980) was raised by German-American parents in Brooklyn. Before becoming a writer, Miller traveled throughout the western United States working at odd jobs and then returned to New York to work at his father's tailor shop. After working for Western Telegraph Company for four years, Miller left for France in 1930 and lived there for nine years. During this period, he published

Tropic of Cancer (1934), Tropic of Capricorn (1939), and Black Spring (1936). In 1940, Miller returned to the United States, traveled extensively, continued to write, and eventually settled in Big Sur, California. Miller's early works were unavailable in America until the 1960s because they contained explicit sexual passages that were deemed obscene.

Perkins, George and Barbara Perkins and Phillip Leininger. Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia of American Literature. New York: Harper Collins, 1991.

The Collection of Henry Miller's

Reflections on the Death of Mishima documents, spanning the dates 1971-1973, contains items related to Miller's work Reflections on the Death of Mishima (1972). Yukio Mishima (1925-1970), a Japanese author acclaimed for his postwar literature, publicly committed ritual suicide on November 25, 1970. The collection includes a carbon typescript of Part I of Miller's Reflections on the Death of Mishima as well as four letters to Miller from New Directions editor Robert MacGregor in which he discusses Mishima's writings and suicide, and principles of Zen Buddhism. Also included is a letter to Miller from Noel Young, editor of Capra Press, two short articles on Mishima's death, a picture of Henry Miller, and an envelope addressed to Miller from Japan.

Box 49, F0757: Shelved in SPEC MSS 0099 manuscript boxes.

Purchase, August 2005.

Processed by Karalee Kopreski, October 2005. Encoded by Anita Wellner, December 2007. Further encoded by George Apodaca, October 2015.

Publisher
University of Delaware Library Special Collections
Finding Aid Author
University of Delaware Library, Special Collections
Finding Aid Date
2007 December 7
Access Restrictions

The collection is open for research.

Use Restrictions

Use of materials from this collection beyond the exceptions provided for in the Fair Use and Educational Use clauses of the U.S. Copyright Law may violate federal law. Permission to publish or reproduce is required from the copyright holder. Please contact Special Collections, University of Delaware Library, http://library.udel.edu/spec/askspec/

Collection Inventory

"Reflections on the Death of Mishima".
Box 49 Folder F0757
Scope and Contents

With identifying cover notes "Carbon 1" and "Part I," as well as other minor corrections in the hand of Henry Miller, accompanied by note card reading "Corrected 2d draft ... original sent to Shiro Hayashi."

Physical Description

Typescript carbon with note card, 33 pp.

Robert M. MacGregor letters to Henry Miller, March-April 1971.
Box 49 Folder F0757
Scope and Contents

Four letters from New Directions editor Robert MacGregor.

Physical Description

Typescript signed letters, 4 items

Noel Young letter to Henry Miller, 1973 January 2.
Box 49 Folder F0757
Scope and Contents

One letter from Capra Press editor to Henry Miller.

Physical Description

Typescript signed letter, 1 p.

Articles regarding Yukio Mishima, 1971 and undated.
Box 49 Folder F0757
Scope and Contents

Includes "Yukio Mishima" by Eido Tai Shimano, undated; and "Death as Precept" by Takeshi Muramatsu from the

New York Times , April 16, 1971. Physical Description

2 items

Ephemera.
Box 49 Folder F0757
Scope and Contents

Includes a photo-postcard of Henry Miller and an envelope.

Physical Description

2 items

Print, Suggest