Collection context
Summary
- Creators:
- Nin, Anaïs (1903-1977)
- Abstract:
- The papers of Anaïs Nin document the life of the noted diarist and novelist. Nin began her diary at the age of 11 in 1914 when she moved to the United States with her family. She continued to write in her diary as she grew up, married and settled into the role of a banker's wife. The diaries chronicle her interest in psychoanalysis, her literary aspirations and her relationships with various writers and artists, including Otto Rank, Henry Miller and Antonin Artaud. The diaries held by UCLA conclude in 1965. In 1946 her diaries took on a different form. Instead of the bound journals she traditionally used, the diaries became compilations of loose pages which included her diary entries interspersed with letters, ephemera, and other writings by Nin kept together in portfolios. The papers also include manuscripts of some of Nin's short stories and erotica, some correspondence, a number of taped interviews and speeches and appearances by Nin in underground films and a documentary by Robert Snyder.
- Extent:
- 25.2 linear feet (54 boxes and 9 oversize boxes)
- Language:
- Materials are in English.
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], Anaïs Nin Papers (Collection 2066). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
The collection consists of diaries, correspondence, manuscripts, cassette and reel-to-reel tapes of lectures and speeches, film appearances, printed items and memorabilia related to diarist and writer Anaïs Nin. Many of the diaries include letters, photographs, theatre programs, clippings, ephemera and memorabilia tipped and laid in. Some of the correspondents include Hugh Guiler, Rupert Pole, Lawrence Durrell, Henry Miller, Gore Vidal, James Leo Herlihy, Felix Pollak and Alan Swallow.
- Biographical / historical:
-
Anaïs Nin was born in Neuilly, France, February 21, 1903, to Joaquin Nin and Rosa Culmell and moved to New York in 1914 after her father abandoned the family. She began her diary at this time and continued the diary throughout her life. She married banker Hugh P. Guiler in Cuba in 1923 and moved to Paris with him in 1931, where she published her first book, D.H. Lawrence: an unprofessional study (1932) and associated with and cultivated writers and artists, including Antonin Artaud, Lawrence Durrell, Henry Miller, Gonzalo Moré. Began psychoanalysis with Dr. Réne Allendy and later with Otto Rank. She published The house of incest (1936) and Winter of artifice (1939) while in Europe. Returned to New York and began to publish her own work under the imprint of the Gemor Press, including Under a glass bell (1944), This hunger (1945) and limited editions of The house of incest and Winter of artifice. Her husband, Hugh Guiler, using the name Ian Hugo, became a filmmaker and engraver, while maintaining his banking career. Nin published several more books of fiction, including Ladders to fire (1946), Children of the albatross (1947), The four-chambered heart (1950), A spy in the house of love (1954), Solar barque (1958), Cities of the interior (1959) and Seduction of the minotaur (1961). In 1947 she met Rupert Pole and accompanied him on a cross-country trip from New York to Los Angeles, with stops in New Orleans and Taos. She spent the next several years living in New York and Los Angeles, continuing to write in her diary and establishing herself in the creative community of Los Angeles. She took up permanent residence in Los Angeles in 1961. The publication of the first volume of her diary in 1966 brought Nin world-wide attention. The diaries were subsequently published in 7 volumes, 1966-1980. Unexpurgated volumes were published following the death of Hugh Guiler in 1985. Nin died in Los Angeles in 1977.
- Acquisition information:
- Anaïs Nin Trust, purchase, 1977. Gift of Rupert Pole, 1977, 1984.
- Processing information:
-
Final procesing of materials in boxes 38-63 by Kate Ahn under supervision by Kelly Besser, 2025.
Collections are processed to a variety of levels depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived user interest and research value, availability of staff and resources, and competing priorities. Library Special Collections provides a standard level of preservation and access for all collections and, when time and resources permit, conducts more intensive processing. These materials have been arranged and described according to national and local standards and best practices.
We are committed to providing ethical, inclusive, and anti-racist description of the materials we steward, and to remediating existing description of our materials that contains language that may be offensive or cause harm. We invite you to submit feedback about how our collections are described, and how they could be described more accurately, by filling out the form located on our website: Report Potentially Offensive Description in Library Special Collections.
- Physical location:
- Stored off-site. All requests to access special collections material must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
- Rules or conventions:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
- Terms of access:
-
Property rights to the objects belong to UCLA Library Special Collections. All other rights, including copyright, are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], Anaïs Nin Papers (Collection 2066). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
- Location of this collection:
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A1713 Charles E. Young Research LibraryBox 951575Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575, US
- Contact:
- (310) 825-4988