Nin, Anaïs (1903-1977), was a French-born American writer. She wrote novels, critical works, and short stories, but she made her reputation with the publication of seven volumes of journals, covering the years 1931 to 1974. Her writings are a highly impressionistic blend of dreams, fantasy, and autobiography.
Anaïs Nin was born on Feb. 21, 1903, in Paris and moved to the United States in 1914 and became a U.S. citizen. During the 1930’s, she lived in Paris, where she studied psychoanalysis, which strongly influenced her writing. Another major influence was the Surrealist art and literary movement, which explored dreams and the subconscious mind (see Surrealism). Nin’s first novel, House of Incest, was published in 1936. In 1939, she returned to the United States, where she continued writing and became a prominent member of literary society.
Nin’s fiction includes a five-part novel called Cities of the Interior. It consists of Ladders of Fire (1946), Children of the Albatross (1947), The Four Chambered Heart (1950), A Spy in the House of Love (1954), and Solar Barque (1958). She also wrote three long stories published as Winter of Artifice (1939, revised 1974); and the novels Seduction of the Minotaur (1961) and Collages (1964). She also produced the short-story collection Under a Glass Bell (1944) and two best-selling books of erotic stories, Delta of Venus (1977) and Little Birds (published in 1979, after her death). Nin died on Jan. 14, 1977.
