Henry Miller’s Book of Friends. London: W.H. Allen, 1978.

Description

Henry Miller’s Book of Friends is a warm, reflective tribute to his “friends of long ago”. Through a series of vignettes and sketches, Miller celebrates the individuals who influenced his creative journey, offering intimate portraits of their personalities, quirks, and the bonds they shared.

The book blends nostalgia with Miller’s signature candidness, creating a deeply personal mosaic of friendship, love, and artistic inspiration. Rich in anecdotes and philosophical musings, Book of Friends is both a memoir and an homage, showcasing Miller’s gratitude for the eight friends Miller made early in his life that would go on to enrich his character: Staisu (“none of us dared called him that because it made him a ‘Polak’…”) ; Joey & Tony (“When I think of these two little friends now they scarcely seem real to me.”; Cousin Henry (“King of 85th Street”); Jimmy Pasta (“In grammar school he was my only rival.”); Joe O’Reagan (“a born wanderer…”); Max Winthrop (“we were both clowns…both ham actors”); and Alec Considine (“What he liked was to find a good-natured whore, fuck her in her own room, then bolt without paying her”.)