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Anaïs Nin (1903 - 1977)
Writer born in Paris, France. Child of a Spanish father and a French-Danish mother, she and her mother moved to New York City (1914), where she attended Catholic schools. She left school when 16, worked as a model, studied dance, and returned to Europe (1923) (in 1923 she married a New York banker, Hugh Guiler; although he would later illustrate some of her novels under the name "Ian Hugo", little is known of how long this marriage survived). She investigated psychoanalysis under the tutelage of Otto Rank, and briefly practiced the discipline under his supervision and on her own in New York City (1934-35). She returned to France (1935), and helped establish a publishing house, Siana Editions, because no one would publish her erotically charged works. She returned to New York City (1939) and continued writing but it would be the 1960s before she began to be discovered by the literary world at large. She would eventually become best-known for her series of intensely personal journals begun in 1931, The Diary of Anaïs Nin (10 vols. 1966-83); additional journals have since been published. She is also known for her intimate relationships with Henry Miller and Lawrence Durrell, among many others described in her writings. She also wrote novels, short stories, and erotica, all clearly drawing on the contents of her journals.
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