Archive of Original Correspondence, Photographs, and Related Materials, 1968-1990, Compiled by Richard Centing

A substantial and revelatory archive containing 281 pieces of signed, original correspondence, written between 1968 and 1977, from Anaïs Nin to Richard Centing (1936-2017), editor of Under The Sign of Pisces: Anaïs Nin and Her Circle, a quarterly newsletter of Nin criticism and appreciation. The correspondence begins prior to Centing’s first proposal for the journal in 1968 and continues until just before Nin’s death in January, 1977. The archive also includes a full run of Under the Sign of Pisces; 41 pieces of additional correspondence to Centing from members of Nin’s circle including William Burford, William Claire, Daisy Aldan, Ian Hugo, Renate Druks, (truncated) and others; and 57 additional pieces of miscellaneous archival material, including photographic portraits, manuscripts, publishing ephemera, and a few photocopied items. Together comprising an archive of nearly 400 manuscript and printed items, at minimum fifty thousand words, covering the final (and arguably most important) decade of Nin’s long and storied career. Centing, a career librarian at Ohio State University, first met Nin in 1967, a meeting which he described as transformative:

“...I was enriched – not only by her art, which is what drew me to her – but by her great power of entrancement, her presence, which brought together so beautifully loveliness of spirit and profundity of purpose” (quoted in Rochelle Holt, Networks: Anaïs Nin, 1978).

With Nin’s encouragement, Centing founded Under the Sign of Pisces the next year and continued to publish it until 1981 (at which point he founded a successor, Seahorse: the Anais Nin - Henry Miller Journal, which ran through 1983).

Under the Sign of Pisces was the first regularly-published journal devoted to Nin studies, and it was one critical factor in Nin’s return to prominence in the final decade of her life, a decade which saw the publication of her seven-volume Diaries, now generally regarded as Nin’s key contribution to the literature of the period, and inarguably one of the major literary memoirs of the 20th century.

The portrait that emerges of Nin in these letters is that of a writer firmly in control of her own legacy, determined to carve out a permanent place in the pantheon alongside such former friends and lovers as Henry Miller, Lawrence Durrell, and Antonin Artaud. Nin keeps a close eye on every issue of Pisces, offering Centing abundant (if not always welcome) feedback on the contributors, never shying from criticizing contributions she considers less than worthy – especially when they cast her in anything other than a friendly light. In one representative exchange, Nin takes Centing to task for publishing a negative review of the latest volume of The Diaries, written by the Argentinian feminist critic Marta Traba:

“Dear Richard: I am still under the shock of that insulting review and my faith in your friendship severely affected...the space you gave to that madwoman should have been used for information. I sent you so much material, the Woman of the Year [Nin had been named the Los Angeles Times “Woman of the Year” in 1976], reviews, honor from the women of Unesco...are you tired of the Newsletter? Do you want to give it up?...It has caused me much embarrassment. What is the matter with Richard? Has he turned against [me]?” (Nin to Centing, July, 1976).

But just as often Nin is appreciative, even rapturous, over the positive publicity that Pisces is bringing her and her work, as here responding to the appearance of the first issue:

...I love the Newsletter. I like the way you arranged, selected, edited material. It is lively, informative...it is exceedingly well done. Not blurby, which I feared...only one pitfall. Play down my connection with Durrell. That has broken. You can mention him as much as you like but in general, not personal... (Nin to Centing, Jan 16, 1970).

Such confiding passages, filled with revelations of fractures, prejudices, severed and renewed bonds within Nin’s inner circle, are a constant feature of her correspondence with Centing, and provide a great deal of missing context for the published portions of her Diaries, as well as filling in blanks in her biography that remained following publication of her final volume of the Diaries, which ended in 1974.

In addition to the correspondence, the archive includes a few significant manuscripts, including signed typescripts for Nin’s reviews of Anna Balakian’s biography of André Breton and Esther Hardy’s Women’s Mysteries; numerous poetry manuscripts from William Burford (1927-2004, poet and critic, mutual friend of Nin and Centing); numerous manuscripts for submissions to Pisces, including reviews by Richard Zaller, Rochelle Holt, Catherine Broderick, Kathleen Chase, and others. Also present are Nin’s frequent solicitations for advice on where and how to place her archives – these grow more urgent with the re-appearance of her cervical cancer in 1975, but appear to have been motivated less by a need for money than by a desire to secure her legacy; her papers were eventually sold to UCLA in 1976, an event about which she writes at length in several letters.

The archive’s overall condition is Fine; the letters have been kept in archival sleeves and show little evidence of aging or wear. Contents break down roughly as follows:

Letters written by Anaïs Nin:
ALS (>ca 60 words): 175 pieces
TLS (>ca 60 words): 31 pieces
ANS/TNS ( (Inventory #: 52885)