Henry Miller's Hamlet Letters

by Henry Miller

Book by Miller, Henry

184 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1988

About the author

Henry Valentine Miller was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist. He broke with existing literary forms and developed a new type of semi-autobiographical novel that blended character study, social criticism, philosophical reflection, stream of consciousness, 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 trilogy The Rosy Crucifixion, which are based on his experiences in New York City and Paris (all of which were banned in the United States until 1961). He also wrote travel memoirs and literary criticism, and painted watercolors.

Reviews

[Lee Klein is on the incline · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a cool collection of letters about Hamlet between some dude who recently reread it and Henry Miller who read it 25 years previously and can't remember what it's about - the dude is knowledgeable, wonky, and earnest, while Miller is all over the place and silly and wonderfully clever and funny. I own an old hardback of volume 1 only. Not sure if it's been released in paperback etc, but if you see it for cheap, it's totally worthwhile fun.

[Claudia Montesinos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nace como un proyecto entre Michael Fraenkel, y Henry Miller, la idea fue la escritura de cartas mutuas con miras a la publicación de un libro.

Henry propone discutir sobre Hamlet y aunque en un principio se abordan únicamente temas cercanos a esta obra de Shakespeare, termina siendo una conversación mucho más amplia donde debaten sobre arte, filosofía, condición social, etc. La primera edición se publica en 1939 en Puerto Rico, 500 ejemplares. Sin embargo, debido a que la relación entre ambos escritores se vio afectada, Miller no consigue los derechos de autoría, por tanto, esta edición únicamente contiene las cartas de Henry, desde noviembre de 1935 a octubre de 1938.

En este epistolario se puede apreciar la riqueza de pensamiento que caracteriza a Miller, junto su frontal y desinhibida manera de abordar la vida.

[Gentress · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just scored a 2nd printing from 1943 at the Library Sale. 7th Heaven!