Tropic of Cancer (novel)
First edition
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| Author | Henry Miller |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Maurice Girodias |
| Country | France |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Autobiographical novel |
| Publisher | Obelisk Press |
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Publication date
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1934 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 318 |
| Followed by | Black Spring |
Tropic of Cancer is a novel by Henry Miller that has been described as "notorious for its candid sexuality" and as responsible for the "free speech that we now take for granted in literature". It was first published in 1934 by the Obelisk Press in Paris, France, but this edition was banned in the United States. Its publication in 1961 in the U.S. by Grove Press led to obscenity trials that tested American laws on pornography in the early 1960s. In 1964, the U.S. Supreme Court declared the book non-obscene. It is regarded as an important work of 20th-century literature.
I am living at the Villa Borghese. There is not a crumb of dirt anywhere, nor a chair misplaced. We are all alone here and we are dead." -First passage excerpt
Miller wrote the book between 1930 and 1934 during his "nomadic life" in Paris. As Miller discloses in the text of the book, he first intended to title it "Crazy Cock". Miller gave the following explanation of why the book's title was Tropic of Cancer: "It was because to me cancer symbolizes the disease of civilization, the endpoint of the wrong path, the necessity to change course radically, to start completely over from scratch.”
Anaïs Nin helped to edit the book. In 1934, Jack Kahane's Obelisk Press published the book with financial backing from Nin, who had borrowed the money from Otto Rank.
In the 1961 edition, opposite the novel's title page is a quotation from Ralph Waldo Emerson:
These novels will give way, by and by, to diaries or autobiographies—captivating books, if only a man knew how to choose among what he calls his experiences that which is really his experience, and how to record truth truly.
The 1961 edition includes an introduction by Karl Shapiro written in 1960 and titled "The Greatest Living Author". The first three sentences are:
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