Valerie Harms

In 2015 I was part of a program with those who knew Anais Nin and spoke about those experiences.  Here's the video.  If you click on the description, you can search for my name, but everyone else is awesome. 

See right hand column for direct link.

https://youtu.be/CS7lu9U4sU8

The program went well -- about 100 people in a lovely venue. They showed slides of Nin with her voiceover. I managed to speak without looking at my notes very often, which I'm proud of. It was very worth while, provoked many thoughts.
Steven, the organizer, called out Moira Collins extensively for her longterm sustaining of www.anaisnin.com, the best website on Nin. It's amazing that we would gather after all this time to pay tribute.  Read More 

Saturday March 28th in W. Hollywood I'll be on a panel about how Anais Nin influenced my life. Joining me will be Sas Colby, artist, Tristine Rainer who taught with Anais, and Barbara Kraft who wrote about Anais' last year, also Henry Miller. It will be a grand reunion. Check out Steven Reigns on Facebook.

While my lifetime mentors have been Ira Progoff and Carl Jung, other authors have stirred my soul. These include: Marie Louise von Franz, Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Anais Nin, Robert Bly, David Whyte, James Hillman and more. I highly recommend any of their books.

I went to Morocco because I’d loved the way Anais Nin described it in her diary and I’d loved The Arabian Nights as a child, and later the 19th c. adventurous heroines (such as Isabel Burton) described in The Wilder Shores of Love seemed intrepid in their venturing into the mysterious Arab world. Anais was only in Fez for a short time. She focused on the “hammams” (baths), talking to the women about their cosmetics. Her distaste for their ample, ample flesh is palpable but then she was petite and slender. She found in the densely winding corridors of the “medina” a metaphor for the labyrinths of the mind. (I met a man who said she had Berber blood).
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Cleaning out shelves I found 4 new copies of Anais Nin's Anais Nin, Waste of Timelessness and other stories, which I published years ago. These books are first editions. Am selling at $15 each. A real treasure.

On the right you'll see a live link to www.anaisnin.com. This is a Web site I co-founded with Moira Collins and Donna Ippolito 30+ years ago. For "Ninnies" it is a fund of juicy tidbits, serious and delectable.

The Anais Nin Character Dictionary and Index to Diary Excerpts by Benjamin Franklin V is published by Sky Blue Press, 2009. This publishing event deserves 5 stars.

We owe premier Nin scholar Dr. Franklin and publisher Paul Herron a huge debt of gratitude for this book. Benjamin Franklin is Professor Emeritus of English at the University of South Carolina. The author of many books about American authors, plus jazz greats, and several books about Anais Nin, Professor Franklin now gives us an invaluable reference book.

I wish I’d had it when I was reading all of Nin’s diaries and fiction. Even though I tried to sort out characters myself, especially as I read Nin’s early stories and novel in Northwestern University’s Special Collections Department and eventually compiled Waste of Timelessness and Other Stories as a rare edition. But now the book is available for longterm fans of Nin’s work as well as newcomers.

The character dictionary scrupulously tells who is who and where they are written about. I was especially interested in frequent characters—e.g. Djuna, Jay, Lillith, Lillian, and Sabina. Surprising to me were the frequent references to God and on p.36 the reference for “Don Juan” as “man who hates Dona Juana.”

Part Two gives a list of all Nin’s published fiction as well as a list of the characters who appear in each work. Very helpful.

The final part of the book indexes the diary excerpts that were not indexed in the published Diary of Anais Nin. Thus, many of these come from volumes of the Anais: An International Journal. Here one can trace the references to Hugh Guiler, Otto Rank, and many others.

This book belongs in the personal library of all those who love Nin’s work and to university and public libraries around the world. This 162 page paperback costs $19.95. Order from your bookstore or visit www.skybluepress.com.


Additional note: A Café in Space, The Anais Nin Literary Journal, Vol. 6, 2009, edited by Paul Herron, is also available from Sky Blue Press. This issue features excerpts from a newly found trove of letters from Anais’ father, Joaquin Nin y Castellanos, to Anais. It’s fascinating the material available on the Internet now. I recommend viewing the interview with the elderly Bebe Herron at www.youtube.com/user/TheStevenReigns.
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Anais Nin was and is a major influence on my life. Her diaries are all about becoming a writer, a fulfilled woman, and creating. She also wrote novels and had important bonds with Henry Miller, the psychoanalyst Otto Rank, and others in the arts in the United States. For lots and lots of information and inspiring thought visit www.anaisnin.com . Click on link at top of right column.
Nin on Amazon  Read More