An impossible affair in the Old World: Henry Miller's short story "Vienna and Back"
Autograph manuscript with autograph note monogrammed.
4to. English manuscript in black felt-tip pen on paper. 10 pp. Together with two copies of a typescript with corrections.
€ 7,500.00
An excerpt from Henry Miller's 1979 publication "Joey. A Loving Portrait of Alfred Perlès Together With Some Bizarre Episodes Relating to the Other Sex" for Irving Stettner's Stroker Magazine, where it appeared under the final title "Vienna and Back", rather than "Love and Sex", as suggested by Miller in the manuscript. In the autograph note in the margin of the first page, Miller explains to his secretary Sandy: "I cut this out of 'Joey' and sent it to Stettner for his 'Stroker'".
The short story tells of the meeting and Viennese love affair of a young American woman, Nelly, with a swindler called Albert, that is cut short because of Albert's pending trial and Nelly's romantic expectations, aware that her lover is only interested in her for sex. The opening of the story foreshadows the end of the affair: "She was unquestionably a sexy bitch, one would say. And he, well he was like a guy without a pair of balls. An odd couple, truly. They had met on a trans-continental flight. Both were headed to the same place: Vienna". Nelly breaks up this odd couple within a week and returns to her native Shreveport in Louisiana without regrets, asserting: "I will always be thankful for the things you taught me. You were just wonderful in bed. But we don't spend our whole life in bed, do we?" Albert, on the other hand, is more affected than he could have imagined: "For the first time in his life Albert knew what is meant by the pangs of love".
Henry Miller and Irving Stettner (1922-2004) collaborated from 1978 to 1980. An edition of Miller's contributions to Stroker Magazine, including "Vienna and Back", appeared under the title "From Your Capricorn friend" in 1984, four years after Miller's death.
With old staple marks. Well preserved.
