Monthly Archives: May 2011

Autograph Letter, signed (“Anaïs”), to Robert Kirsch of the Los Angeles Times

Not sure this offering is still current, but will post for the interest of the copy.

Thanks to Stephen Reigns for sending on this interesting link about a Nin Letter being sold on Abe.com

Autograph Letter, signed (“Anaïs”), to Robert Kirsch of the Los Angeles Times

Description:
Nin writes to author and Los Angeles Times book critic Robert Kirsch, upset that after a favorable review of the first volume of her Diary, he has not responded to Volume II and seem to be ignoring her. Nin clearly craves his approval, and is distressed by his silence. The letter reads, “I am assuming you are still in Paris. I’m following an impulse to write to the man who wrote such a beautiful review of Diary One – I want only to remember that, as what followed baffled me – cancelled dinner, no real answer to my letter on the fate of Vol. II – You are too big a man to act capriciously or without reason. Yet I felt suddenly you did not wish for any friendliness. I made several entries in the Diary for you, first when I read your novel, then on some of your reviews, then on your lecture – at State College. Then I confessed my perplexity to Murrah Gattis who is so loyal to you and justified the eclipse as due to your over-burdened life. At Edelstein I offered you names and addresses of reliable underground sources, one a heroine who was my literary agent in France – Denyse Clairouin [French translator and member of the Resistance, killed by the Nazis] – Suddenly it seemed there was no contact. Are you or are you not a friend? Are you going to let Diary 3 fall into the hands of a psychotic girl who is no critic – If you disliked Volume II you are too honest not to say so. As Durrell wrote: ‘everything depends on one’s interpretation of silence’ – Will the recent entry in the Diary be: Robert Kirsch, once a friend -” Kirsch did in fact write a favorable review of Volume II, which Nin did not see at the time of its publication. In Volume VII she includes a letter she wrote to Kirsch in 1969: “I was on a lecture tour when your review caught up to me – I was stunned as one is when one reaches the fulfillment of a wish and finds it suddenly granted beyond one’s imagination. Of all things which have been said, written about the Diaries you wrote what has the deepest meaning for me -” Tall 8vo (12 5/8 x 6 in). 1 long page on air-mail mailer. Roughly cut at top edge, touching a few words of greeting and first line, else fine, in custom chemise. Bookseller Inventory # 248386