“The pages of our life are blurred palimpsest, new lines are wreathed on others half erased and those on older still and so forever…..”

The novelist Anaïs Nin claimed an involvement with Vidal in her memoir The Diary of Anaïs Nin but Vidal denied it in his memoir Palimpsest.

In a recent WSJ magazine spread (june 2010) there is an article entitled Estate of Grace, a story about Mitchell Denburg’s hacienda beneath a dormant volcano in Antigua, Guatemala.

“He’s an avowed fan of the architecture here, and can wax nostalgic about the Antiguqa that existed before Guatemala’s 35 year civil war broke out in 1960; a Central American hideout for the international jet set, with a generous helping of bohemianism. This was, after all, where Gore Vidal came to stay in the late 1940’s taking over the ruins of a Carmelite convent, living with Anaïs Nin and according to local legend, turning his self-imposed Antiquan exile into an ongoing party” —Mark Rozzo

WSJournal magazine June 2010 Michael Reynolds

This letter from Matilde Batista dated April 12, 2002. We apologize that we were unable to change any part of the offending line as it is in a graphic designed when this version of the site was launched in 1996.

Dear M. Griffin,

Please note that the sentence in your website which states that Anaïs Nin was born of a Catalan father and a Danish mother is incorrect.

Anais’ father, Joaquin Nin Castellanos, was CUBAN;

the Nins were Catalans, and the Castellanos were Cubans who came from the Canary Islands.

Anais’ mother Rosa Culmell Varigaud, was CUBAN. (Rosa’s father, Thorvald Culmell Shistensen, was Danish; Rosa’s mother, Anaïs Variagaud Bodin , was born in New Orleans, USA)

Thorvald Culmell and Anaïs Varigaud lived in Cuba and their seven children were born there” Rosa, Edelmira, Anaïs, Antolina, Pedro, Enrique and Thorvald (Am not sure of their birth order.) Only the girls had offspring.

Although Anaïs and Joaquin Nin Culmell were born in Paris and Berlin, respectively, Anaïs’ brother Thorvald, was born in Cuba in 1905. When Anaïs’ mother took her children to live in New York, they were often visited by their Cuban cousins.

Sincerely,

Matilde Batista