Henry Miller’s Original Works Fetch Up to $40,250

Author Henry Miller’s original writings, some banned for decades in the United States on charges of obscenity, commanded as much as $40,250 from mostly private collectors at a Thursday auction.

Letters, photographs and typed drafts comprised the works put up for sale by Miller’s children at the Pacific Book Auction Gallery.

The only existing carbon copy of the first draft of the novel “Tropic of Capricorn,” which differs widely from the final print version, fetched the highest price at $40,250, from a private collector in Southern California.

Other coveted items included Miller’s tributes to lover Anais Nin and his infamous “little black book,” a list of lovers with star ratings beside their names. The list commanded $2,645.

Also offered were letters from writers Pawl Bowles, Lawrence Durrell and Isaac Bashevis Singer, and early drafts of the novel “Nexus.”

Miller was best known for his semiautobiographical novels set in 1930s New York and Paris, which documented the adventures of a sexually voracious, struggling expatriate writer.

Miller’s passion for the sensual life was reflected in rich language that has been much admired and emulated by modernist writers. In 1961, his novel “Tropic of Cancer” catalyzed a landmark freedom of speech decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which lifted the book’s decades-old obscenity ban.

“I think he was a huge literary impact on this country, and this country misses out on not giving him his due,” said the author’s son, Henry Tony Miller, 48. “I hope this auction re-emphasizes his place in 20th century American literature.”

Miller, who died in 1980 at age 88 after spending his final decades in Big Sur and Los Angeles, willed his private collection--valued at about $1 million--to his son and daughters Barbara and Valentine. The children decided last year to sell parts of the collection over the next several years. Many of the manuscripts have been kept in UCLA’s special collections library.

But Thursday’s auction was something of a disappointment for gallery President Douglas Johns.

“There should have been more competition on some of these things,” Johns said. “This should garner more interest from research libraries.”