Miller, Henry

Tropic of Cancer [with] Tropic of Capricorn

Paris: The Obelisk Press, 1934, 1939. First Editions. Minor rubbing and split to the spine of Tropic of Cancer, else two near fine books, in the originl wrappers, without restoration. Both with custom boxes. Item #1118

Tropic of Cancer is primarily set in Bohemian Paris around 1930, where the locals could stay up on New Year’s Eve and watch their hopes drop.  It’s half autobiography and half exaggerated fantasy, but it’s mainly lighthearted, and its promiscuous carnal zeal is from a more sincere time.

Tropic of Capricorn is a first edition (in English despite the Paris imprint), and likely first issue, though the price has been scratched out on front flap and spine, a part of the ‘0’ is legible on the front flap, so it was not stamped over and there is no ‘175.00’ printed on the rear wrapper. Despite this, we will pretend it’s a 2nd issue and include it with Tropic of Cancer for free.

Tropic of Cancer was banned in, and difficult to buy in, or even bring into the U. S. until 1961, and the preoccupations of the '30s, '40s, and '50s didn't help its ready availability, migrating to my question about moral (as opposed to political) suppression. If some novel depraves and corrupts, why then is the person chosen to be the censor always the person who is the most depraved and corrupted? This paradox echoes Justice Potter Stewart's famous "I know it when I see it" obscenity standard from the 1964 Jacobellis v. Ohio case, highlighting how subjective and self-referential censorship judgments inherently become, as those who claim to identify moral corruption must necessarily be intimate with the very content they condemn.

Price: $57,500.00