[Rarebooks] FS: Henry Miller's "Opus Pistorum" 1 of 5 original typescript copies. Carmel: 1950.

[Kenneth Karmiole]

[Miller, Henry]. OPUS PISTORUM par Couillon... Carmel, CA: No pub. 1950. 2 bound volumes of onion skin, carbon copy typescript (11" x 8-1/2") containing 6 separately paginated stories on 321 leaves. Edition statement: limited to 5 numbered copies (this is #4). Both volumes bound in original 1/4 blue cloth, spines stamped in gilt, over marbled boards, edgewear to covers.                   $1,000.00 (trade discount allowed)
As the story goes, in 1940 Henry Miller was commissioned by a New York book dealer to write a pornographic manuscript for an Oklahoma oil millionaire client. The client, however, found Miller's draft "too poetic," so Miller supposedly enlisted the rewriting help of his friend Anais Nin.  Nin, however, wrote her own stories and, in turn, called on the writers Robert Duncan, Harvey Breit, Caresse Crosby and George Barker, among others, to help her complete the work. This is one 5 copies with the "Carmel 1950" imprint (though Miller's bibliographer Roger Jackson estimates that 35-40 copies may have been typed at various times, some without the "Carmel.1950" imprint).  In 1981, "Opus Pistorum" was published by the Grove Press, using the text taken from the "Carmel 1950" carbon paper copy (the original typescript has never turned up) and the work continues to be attributed to Henry Miller.

Kenneth Karmiole, Bookseller, Inc.
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