The Air-Conditioned Nightmare

The Air-Conditioned Nightmare

First edition cover, 1945
Author	Henry Miller
Country	USA
Language	English
Genre	Memoir, nonfiction
Publisher	New Directions
Publication date	1945
Media type	Print
Pages	292
Preceded by	Sunday After the War
Followed by	The Time of the Assassins: A Study of Rimbaud

The Air-Conditioned Nightmare is a memoir written by Henry Miller, first published in 1945, about his year-long road trip across the United States in 1939, following his return from nearly a decade living in Paris.

Miller was born and raised in New York City, and moved to Paris in 1930, at the age of 38. He conceived of a book about traveling across the United States as early as 1935, after returning to Paris from a trip to New York. He wrote to Hilaire Hiler about plans for a book that would be "a loaded gun to the head of America."

By June 1940, his book on his time spent in Greece, The Colossus of Maroussi (which would ultimately be published by Colt Press in 1941), had been rejected by more than 10 publishers, severely disappointing Miller. His agent reminded him of his plan to travel around the US and record his impressions, predicting that publishers would be eager for a book on an expatriate's return to his own land. Despite the fact that he had been writing autobiographical fiction, the idea of writing a nonfiction book appealed to Miller, especially since writers like Ernest Hemingway had occasionally ventured into nonfiction.Doubleday, Doran (as it was then known) commissioned the book in August 1940, giving Miller a $500 advance. He used part of the advance to purchase a 1932 Buick, to use for his trip across the United States. He originally asked Anaïs Nin, who was then living in New York, to accompany him, but she declined. Instead, he was joined for much of the trip by the painter Abe Rattner.

Miller and Rattner left from New York in October 1940, driving south towards Florida before heading west. Miller brought along a few of his favorite books, including Mysteries by Knut Hamsun and Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman. Miller wrote to Nin that he let Rattner do most of the driving, despite the fact that he considered himself the superior driver. They spent a night at Caresse Crosby's estate in Bowling Green, Virginia, where Salvador Dalí and his wife were also staying. Miller and Dali did not get along, with Miller describing Dalí as vain. They later stopped in Jackson, Mississippi to visit the writer Eudora Welty.