Opus Pistorum

New York: Grove Press, Inc, 1983. First Hardcover Edition [stated]. First printing [stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. 288 pages. Epilogue by Milton Luboviski. Henry Valentine Miller (December 26, 1891 - June 7, 1980) was an American writer, expatriated in Paris at his flourishing. He was known for breaking with existing literary forms, developing a new sort of semi-autobiographical novel that blended character study, social criticism, philosophical reflection, explicit language, sex, surrealist free association, and mysticism. His most characteristic works of this kind are Tropic of Cancer, Black Spring, Tropic of Capricorn and The Rosy Crucifixion trilogy, which are based on his experiences in New York and Paris (all of which were banned in the United States until 1961). He also wrote travel memoirs and literary criticism, and painted watercolors. Derived from a Kirkus review: In need of cash, Miller wrote anonymous $1-a-page pornography for a Hollywood bookstore back in 1942--and here, gathered together and officially published for the first time, are the dozens of short episodes he turned out, all narrated by a Milleresque man in Paris named Alf. This is no-frills porn--getting right down to business in the first paragraph, with a kinky foursome that's very quickly in full gear. And the encounters that follow include threesomes and fivesomes, the usual variations (oral, anal, urinary), lesbians, homosexuals, gang-rape, spanking, black masses, incest and a midget. Recognizable as Miller work--in the occasional humor, the relentless misogyny, and the dank-funhouse sex--but of little non-prurient interest, except to dedicated Miller mavens.