Book description
In Delta of Venus Ana s Nin conjures up a glittering cascade
of sexual encounters. Creating her own 'language of the senses', she
explores an area that was previously the domain of male writers and
brings to it her own unique perceptions. Her vibrant and impassioned
prose evokes the essence of female sexuality in a world where only
love has meaning.
Contains a preface by the author, adapted from The Diary of Ana s
Not, Volume III.
Her second volume of erotic writings, Little Birds, is also
published by Penguin.
Partly of Spanish origin, Ana s Nin was also of Cuban, French and
Danish descent. She was born in Paris and spent her childhood in
various parts of Europe. Her father left the family for another woman,
which shocked Ana s profoundly and was the reason for her mother to
take her and her two brothers to live in the United States. Later Ana
s Nin moved to Paris with her husband, and they lived in France from
1924 to 1939, when Americans left on account of the war. She was
analysed in the 1930s by Ren Allendy and subsequently by Otto Rank,
with whom she also studied briefly in the summer of 1934. She became
acquainted with many well-known writers and artists, and wrote a
series of novels and stories.
Her first book - a defence of D. H. Lawrence - was published in the
1930s. Her prose poem, House of Incest (1936) was followed by the
collection of three novellas, Winter of Artifice (1939). The quality
and originality of her work were evident at an early stage but, as is
often the case with avant-garde writers, it took time for her to
achieve wide recognition. The international publication of her
Journals won her new admirers in many parts of the world, particularly
among young people and students. Her novels, Ladders to Fire, Children
of the Albatross, The Four-Chambered Heart, A Spy in the House of Love
and Seduction of the Minotaur were first published in the United
States between the 1940s and the 1960s, and eventually gathered in
Cities of the Interior. She also wrote a collection of short stories,
Under a Glass Bell. In the 1940s she began to write erotica for an
anonymous client, and these pieces are collected in Delta of Venus and
Little Birds (both published posthumously). Penguin also publish A
Woman Speaks, a collection of lectures and interviews; Journal of a
Wife, the third volume of The Early Diary of Ana s Nin, 1923-1927; In
Favour of the Sensitive Man and Other Essays; and, most recently, The
Early Diary 1927-1931, which is the fourth volume of her diary. Henry
and June, a chronicle of her passionate involvement with Henry Miller
and his wife June Mansfield, and Incest are the new volumes of the
'unexpurgated diary' of Ana s Nin, distinguishable from her previously
published volumes by the references to both her husband and her love
life. Her books have been translated into twenty-six languages around
the world.
During her later years Ana s Nin lectured frequently at universities
throughout the USA. In 1973 she received an honorary doctorate from
Philadelphia College of Art and in 1974 was elected to the National
Institute of Arts and Letters. She died in Los Angeles in 1977.
