Includes: 2 black and white photographs, one of Miller, one of Miller with a nun. And, all addressed to Sister Magdalen Mary: 1 page ALs dated July 1st, 1962. * ANs on a postcard post-dated 6/11/63, plus 3 envelopes address to the Sister. * 1 page ALS dated May 15th, 1963. * 1 page ALS dated 5/23/63. * 1 page TLs dated June 13th, 1963. * 1 page TLs dated Dec. 27, 1963, with a holograph post script from Miller. * 1 page ALs dated Nov. 21st, 1964. * 2 page ALs dated August 13th, '63. * 3 ANs on post cards, dated 6/17/63, 12/15/65, and 1/6/66. * 2 typed telegrams, dated Sep 28, '63 and Dec 14, 1965. * 1 page ALs dated June 15th, 1963. * 1 page ALs dated June 24th, 1963. * TNs dated Jan. 21, 1965. * Plus some ephemera, newspaper clippings, etc.
Nice archive of letters from Henry Miller to Sister Magdalen Mary of the Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles. In typical Miller style, the first letter, dated July 1st, 1962, he writes to her: "At long last, and please forgive my being so remiss, I get round to acknowledging the receipt of your Gloria Issue (1951) - what a wonderful document! What nerve, audacity, joie de vivre!" Also includes 8 newspaper clippings or print-outs from news publications, mostly about the Catholic Church, and about Miller. Also includes an insightful typed letter dated April 7, 1981 from Donald R. Kardon to Mr. Noel Young of the Capra Press, regarding the archive of letters presented here. "I believe Miller's relationship to the nuns and their teaching him the techniques of serigraphs, etc. fascinating." Miller's correspondence with the sister is not only amusing - see Letter dated 1961 quoted above - but also sheds light on the influence that the order led by rather flamboyant and influential nun, Sister Corita had on Miller. “Sister Corita, the Andy Warhol of Hollywood. Sister Corita was a nun, a member of the West Coast’s Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, under whose progressive roof Corita developed and taught her art, a cutting-edge populist imagery in the vein of her more famous, mainstream Pop-art peers. Sister Corita used familiar 1960s artistic methods to spread the priorities of her spiritual life, namely religion and goodness, in a startling yet accessible way. She and the women she taught used silk screens, brilliant colors, contemporary slogans. She herself forsook black habits for bright, joyful clothes. The New York Times wrote that she “did for bread and wine what Andy Warhol did for tomato soup.” Sister Corita was put on the cover of Newsweek in the 1960s; she was criticized severely by conservative Catholics but was adored by everyone else. Her champions included Henry Miller, Buckminster Fuller, Charles and Ray Eames, and John Cage.” (From Vanity Fair March 13, 2007)