June Miller
| June Miller | |
|---|---|
Miller circa 1933.
|
|
| Born |
Juliet Edith Smerth January 7, 1902 Bukovina, Austria-Hungary |
| Died | February 1, 1979 (aged 77) Phoenix, Arizona |
| Spouse(s) |
Henry Miller (1924-34) Stratford Corbett (1935-47) |
June Miller (January 7 or 28, 1902 – February 1, 1979) was the much-written-about second wife of Henry Miller.
She was born in Bukovina, Austria-Hungary (of Romanian origin as mentioned in Sexus) as Juliette Edith Smerdt, the daughter of Wilhelm and Frances Budd Smerdt, a poor Jewish family. She emigrated with her parents and four siblings to the United States in 1907. At the age of 15, she dropped out of high school to become a dancer at Wilson's Dancing Academy (renamed the Orpheum Dance Palace in 1931) in Times Square and began going by the name June Mansfield, occasionally going by June Smith. In Sexus, Henry Miller writes that June claimed she graduated from Wellesley College, but in Nexus, he writes that she never finished high school. Kenneth Dick, after interviewing June, quotes her as saying, "My formal education amounted to about three and a half years of high school. I was working on a scholarship to Hunter College."
She would reside in New York City for much of the rest of her life, excepting a tour of Europe and stints in Paris and Arizona.
In 1923 at Wilson's, she met Henry Miller, when she was 21 and he was 31. Miller left his first wife and child to marry June in Hoboken, New Jersey on June 1, 1924. Their relationship is the main subject of Miller's semi-autobiographical trilogy, The Rosy Crucifixion. June is also featured in his best-known works, Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn.
In October 1926, Jean Kronski, an artist and poet, moved in with them at June's urging. June, who was likely bisexual, cultivated a very close relationship with Jean, often preferring Jean's affections to Henry's. This living arrangement soon fell apart and Jean and June left for Paris together in April 1927. However, two months later they started to quarrel, and June returned to Henry in July. The following year, June and Henry left for a tour of Europe, settling in Paris for several months before again returning to New York. June's relationship with Jean is the central piece of Henry's autobiographical novels Crazy Cock (1930, unpublished until 12 years after Miller's death) and Nexus (1959), the third volume of The Rosy Crucifixion. Around 1930, Kronski committed suicide in an insane asylum in New York.
...
Wikipedia