THE COLOSSUS OF MAROUSSI; [Inscribed, in facsimile dust jacket]

San Francisco: The Colt Press, 1941). First edition. This non-pornographic piece must have disappointed publishers anticipating something more lurid from Miller after his "Tropic of Cancer" because ten New York publishers rejected it before Colt Press accepted it with an advance of only 100 USD [Shifreen & Jackson A26b]. INSCRIBED -- "TO TAMAR, THE FLAMING MEDEA OF BIG SUR WHO IMPROVISES 'UNITS' AND ISLANDS OF FOG AND SEA ANEMONES. HENRY MILLER. 4/2/44." The recipient is, perhaps, Robinson Jeffers who, though not a friend of Miller's, was a fellow inhabitant of Big Sur and whose most famous poem is titled "Tamar." Or more likely, though a bit disturbingly, it is perhaps inscribed to Tamar Nais Hodel, who was named for the poem and was the young daughter of Miller's friend and fellow inhabitant of Big Sur, Dr. George Hill Hodel -- a suspect in the infamous 1947 "Black Dahlia" murder and mutilation of Elizabeth Short. Tamar Hodel would have been around 9 years old at the time of the inscription, a tender young age to receive an inscribed book from a friend of ones father. But this was a father who allowed Man Ray to take nude pictures of her when she was 11 years old and whom she accused at 14 of sexual molesting her beginning when she was 11. (He was acquitted and fled the country soon after.) Name at base of front endpaper, cloth at spine ends and corners slightly frayed, general light cover wear, front hinge repaired where previously loose otherwise good to very good, lacking original dust jacket but with facsimile provided. MYSTERIOUS INSCRIPTION