The young Henry Miller was enamored of Harrison and marveled at his skills as a street-corner orator. The consensus was that Harrison, the Black Socrates, was the most brilliant orator in New York. It is uncertain whether Miller was privy to the rumors about his personal life, but perhaps he suspected as much, perceiving the intensity of passion and the spirit of erotic adventure in the force of Harrison’s political rhetoric. Miller took such lessons to heart in Tropic of Cancer and acknowledged the debt in Plexus, insisting that sexual freedom was as necessary as economic freedom and that the
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