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Greetings digesters!
It's yet another wet day in Big Sur, but we're not complaining (And if we could, who wants to hear it? Furthermore some say we're heading for a wonderful wildflower spring with hillsides like the one above between Partington and the Henry Miller Library a few years ago.)
Highlights of the day include visitors fawning over Alice (in Wonderland) (1), a nice chat from Idaho on a road trip—he called it a "tasting" of various West Coast cities he's considering moving to (2), and a weird rumbling noise outside that startled both Mike and a gentleman from Georgia. (Neither could identify what the sound was or where it came from.)Anyway, here's the Digest!
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As promised here is the response to the above question anno 1964:
"Big Sur is world famous, yet nobody seems to know where it actually begins or where it ends. About 30 miles south of Monterey the motorist passes a sign which reads:
"Big Sur—Population 300. Elevation 230."
Thirty miles later the same traveler may be wondering:
"Where was Big Sur?"
continue reading here...
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|  | Henry Miller Library Opening party in 1990 with Jerry Kamstra somewhere in the crowd as the first Library Director!
Where you there? Can you see yourself? Let us know. Photo by Duke Kamstra | |
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Good Library News!
The literary masterpiece 'Weed' by Jerry Kamstra is in print again in a beautiful and illustrated edition. Get your copy @: HMML HERE.!
From the foreword by Gerald Nicosia.
"We are infinitely lucky that (Jerry) left us a book like Weed, which recorded one of the most extraordinary portions of that amble through the moral deserts of mid-cenrury North America. Now in an era where pot is mostly legal and immigration is mosly illegal, where these two neighboring countries, Mexico and the United States, seem on the verge of going to war again, it is good to have the brilliant and humble words of Jerry Kamstra recalling a time when discovering a new place, making new friends, and getting high in a different language were still precious pleasures. That time may not come again. | 312 pp. Available at the HMML and HERE.
"There's enough dope lore to interest potheads, square smokers and maybe even narcs." NEWSWEEK
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A Millerian tête-à-tête in the New York Review of Books! In the February 21st issue of the New York Review of Books, Elaine Blair writes a review of John Burnside’s “On Henry Miller: Or, How to be an Anarchist,” in which she takes a somewhat dim view of Miller and his “shallow” philosophy of sex. Erica Jong, one of Miller’s most ardent feminist proponents and a friend of the Library, rose (3) to his defense in the following issue. Then Blair (4) sent a follow-up response.
Whip out the popcorn and read the full exchange here!
Interesting reading and particularly now that our guest speaker on April 13, Doniphan Blair, who also wrote a response to Elaine Blair's review: Miller Under Attack! will elaborate further. Whip out the popcorn and read the full exchange here!
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"Slaughterhouse Five" Turns 50Published 50 years ago this month, Kurt Vonnegut's masterpiece became his first best-seller and made 47-year-old writer a star. Weird, wise, moral, profane and profoundly human, it remains a countercultural classic and one of the most enduring antiwar novels of all time. Check out Kevin Powers' trenchant essay on the book's "moral clarity" here. (5)
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"The Artist's Way" turns 25We always like passing along bits of wisdom for artists. Twenty-five years on, Cameron's twelve-week journey to "discover the inextricable link between their spiritual and creative selves" is more relevant than ever. Check out this New York Times essay exploring how Cameron "invented the way people renovate the creative soul."
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From the Archives: 2004 West Coast Poetry SlamOn July 17-18, 2004, the West Coast Poetry Slam held its finals at the Henry Miller Library. Click here for a full rundown of the day's festivities. (And yes, there’s Magnus above performing, presumably, this old torch song!).
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And while we have you...
We realize that many (most?) of you Digesters live far away. Nonetheless, the following tip applies to you because, we fervently hope—no, we believe—you'll visit us in Big Sur very soon. Click this link. Click the blue "Follow" button on the right. Enter your email. Voila! You just signed up for e-mail alerts so the nanosecond after we post a new event, you'll get an email about it!
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OK, toodles! See you in April! Thanks!
We'll let the Magnetic Fields take us home...
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(1) That may, in fact, be a photo of Jack (Kerouac).
(2) He's leaning towards Seattle. (As it turned out, we have lots of visitors from Seattle today.)
(3) Pun intended? (4) Blair's 2015 Harpers review of Jonathan Franzen's "Purity" also explores the work through the lens of sex. (5) In related news, the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library is moving to a new location in Indianapolis. (6) Also an homage to the customer who purchased this book at the Library today.
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