Henry Miller Memorial Library, Big Sur California

The Henry Miller Library (also known as the "Henry Miller Memorial Library, Founded by Emil White") was created by Emil White, a longtime friend of Miller. Located in Big Sur, 35 miles south of Carmel-by-the-Sea on Highway One, the Library occupies White's former home.

White moved to Big Sur in 1944 to serve as caretaker and personal secretary to Henry Miller. The two had met in Chicago in 1942. In the 1960's White bought the property, a lush meadow surrounded by towering redwoods, on which the Library now stands. The main building was built in 1966 on the site of the Graves Canyon landfill created during the construction of Highway One in the 1930's. The caretaker's cottage adjacent to the main house was added shortly thereafter. Other changes have been made piecemeal since 1981.

After Miller died in 1980, Emil decided to maintain his property as a memorial to his friend and as a gallery where local artists could show their work. In 1981, with the assistance of the Big Sur Land Trust (BSLT), he converted his home into the Library. Emil spent the rest of his life as director of the new institution, which evolved into a local center for the arts.

At his death in 1989, White bequeathed the "HENRY MILLER MEMORIAL LIBRARY, FOUNDED BY EMIL WHITE," to the BSLT. "With this bequest," White wrote in his Last Will and Testament, "I am encouraging support and maintenance of said Library, and to promote and enhance the scholarly research and worldwide enjoyment of Henry Miller's literary and artistic works."

The mission of the Big Sur Land Trust is to focus on preserving Big Sur as an invaluable natural resource. The mission of the Henry Miller Library is to promote the literary and artistic works of Henry Miller, and to serve as a cultural and educational resource for residents of and visitors to Big Sur.

In 1997, with the growing awareness that these two mission statements were quite different from one another the Library staff, with the blessings of the BSLT, began the process of becoming an independent 501(c)3 organization. That process is completed.

Henry Miller in Big Sur

Henry Miller (1891-1980) is, in the words of one of his biographers, "one of the most famous-and infamous-writers of the twentieth century." During the eighteen years he spent living in Big Sur, he turned out some of his finest work, including The Rosy Crucifixion, a three-volume epic about his life with his second wife, June; and Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch, the story of his life in the region.

Miller fell in love with the rugged, isolated region on his first visit in 1944, and decided to move there almost immediately. Upon his arrival in Big Sur, Miller wrote, "Here I will find peace. Here I shall find the strength to do the work I was made to do." He also became part of a literary and artistic community that included Emil White, Jaime de Angulo, Lillian Bos Ross and her husband Harrydick, Ephraim Doner, and others.

When he first moved to Big Sur, Miller was struggling to make ends meet. Within four years of his arrival, royalties from overseas enabled him to live comfortably in Big Sur, even providing him with the resources to purchase a house on Partington Ridge. Here, with his third wife, Lepska, he raised his two children, Valentine and Tony.

Living in Big Sur obviously had a profound effect on Miller, inspiring him to write: "Peace and solitude! I have had a taste of it, even here in America." The Big Sur landscape gave him "such a feeling of contentment, such a feeling of gratitude was mine that instinctively my hand went up in benediction. Blessings! Blessings on you, one and all! I blessed the trees, the birds, the dogs, the cats, I blessed the flowers, the pomegranates, the thorny cactus, I blessed men and women everywhere, no matter on what side of the fence they happened to be."

Miller lived in Big Sur until 1962, when he moved to Pacific Palisades, where he resided until his death in 1980.

Emil White, Library Founder

Emil White was one of Henry Miller's closest friends and confidants. Miller, in fact, dedicated Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch to White, describing him as "One of the few friends who has never failed me." While he is known primarily for his association with Miller, White was one of Big Sur's most colorful characters and a remarkable person in his own right.

Born in Austria in 1901, White journeyed to Budapest during World War I, where he was arrested as a revolutionary. Just 15 at the time, he was condemned to death but amazingly escaped. Two years after his brush with a firing squad, White immigrated to the United States.

There, in 1942, he met Miller in Chicago outside a bookstore where White worked. Though Miller's work was virtually unknown in the U.S., White was already a great fan of the struggling writer. The two men became fast friends, and when Miller moved to Big Sur two years later, he asked White to join him as a caretaker and personal secretary, eventually paying him $5 a week to handle his correspondence.

In Big Sur, White started to paint. "Painting satisfied my need for creativity," he said. "It gave me a feeling of great accomplishment." White's charming oils and watercolors, distinctively primitive in style, remain today among the most popular images of the Big Sur coast.

To support himself in Big Sur, White published tour guides. These sold well and helped him achieve the financial security that ultimately enabled him to purchase the property that is now the Henry Miller Library. After establishing the Library, White spent his remaining years as director of the new institution, which evolved into a local center of the arts.

While Miller chose to spend his final years in Los Angeles, White remained in Big Sur until his death in 1989. In an interview he gave shortly before his death, White was asked whether he had any regrets. He responded, "I only wished I had moved to Big Sur sooner."

Purpose

Mission Statement

The Henry Miller Library is a public benefit, non-profit organization championing the literary, artistic and cultural contributions of the late writer, artist and Big Sur resident Henry Miller. The Library also serves as a cultural resource center, functioning as a public gallery/performance/workshop space for artists, writers, musicians and students. In addition, the Library supports education in the arts and the local environment. Finally, the Library serves as a social center for the community.

The Library Today

The Henry Miller Library serves as its founder Emil White intended, by promoting the literature and art of Henry Miller. Library visitors range from the many familiar with Miller's work who are delighted to find a center honoring him, to those who are at first merely curious, then intrigued, by this important figure in American literature. The Library staff acts as docents for its guests, who come from all over the world. More and more visitors learn about the Library's existence by viewing this website.

Concerts, workshops, educational fairs, private events and art exhibits, both indoors and in the natural redwood amphitheater on the Library's grounds, happen at this unique community center. Poetry readings, lectures, memorial services and celebrations also occur regularly at the Library. The beauty of the site, a lush meadow surrounded by towering redwood trees, and the ease of access directly off Highway One, appeals to residents and visitors alike.

The Library is an informal meeting place, offering office space and computer time to various environmental and educational groups.

People and Groups the Organization Serves

The Henry Miller Library serves three main groups of visitors: local residents both from Monterey County and Big Sur [40%], California residents [30%], and foreign tourists especially from Japan, France and Germany, where Miller is more well-known than he is in the U.S. [30%].

Big Sur enjoys a worldwide artistic and literary reputation almost as great as its reputation for breathtaking natural beauty. Many visitors from all over the world are drawn to Big Sur because of Henry Miller, and the library staff directs these tourists to Miller's work, the Library's permanent collection of his art work and rare editions of his writing, as well as videos featuring the author and his literary and artistic companions. Poetry, fiction, non-fiction and artwork by contemporaries of Miller and many of the works influenced by him also grace the Library's shelves walls and grounds, including the tiles of Ephraim Doner.

The Library celebrates our local history and culture. It is available as a meeting place and computer resource center for various nonprofit community organizations serving Big Sur; it hosts concerts, lectures, poetry readings and artists' and writers' receptions; it offers workshops in the arts and hosts educational events.

Some of the community groups and events the Library supports include:

The Big Sur Home Schooling Project
Big Sur Arts Initiative
The Big Sur JazzFest
CoastWatch
The Big Sur Children's Writers Workshop
The Big Sur Annual Winter Art Show
Pfeiffer Beach Defense Fund
Friends of the Big Sur River

As part of its Henry Miller Library Arts and Education Program, the Library actively seeks funding to underwrite community art, literary, educational and environmental projects; children's educational workshops; musical events; and other appropriate workshops.

Events and Ongoing Programs

West Coast Regional Poetry Slam
Ever since summer of 1998 HML has hosted the West Coast Regional Poetry Slam, featuring poet teams from San Diego in the south to Vancouver in the north.

Poetry Readings
Open poetry readings are held at random during the Spring, Summer and Fall months, the readings are randomly attended by local poets, writers and interested guests. Some readings have been recorded for broadcast through local National Public Radio stations.

Eric Barker Poetry Prize
Working in conjunction with the English Department at Monterey Peninsula College, HML awards a poetry prize of $300 to a student selected from the creative writing classes at the College.

Big Sur Watersheds Fair
This annual summer event focuses on the vitality of the Big Sur bio region as defined by the watersheds for the entire coast. The goal is to educate the public, with special attention given to children, about the bio diversity that makes up this unique coastal area. The two-day educational fair features displays by the Big Sur Natural History Association, the Ventana Wilderness Sanctuary, the California Department of Parks and Recreation, Big Creek Reserve, the Santa Lucia Watersheds Council, the New Camaldoli Hermitage, and other groups and individuals.

The event features water samples for tasting from almost every creek in Big Sur, local jade craftspeople, locally produced and prepared foods, a storytelling circle for children, educational exhibits and games on the natural and cultural history of the bio region, pottery-making from Big Sur clay, and performances by local musicians and poets.

Big Sur Arts Initiative
A community alternative school that was developed during the El Niño storms (when highway closures shut down local schools), BSAI provides cultural, arts and science activities in a variety of formats for the children of Big Sur. Classes/workshops are taught in schools, in homes and at community centers like the Henry Miller Library. The Library hosted an Escuela del Niño art exhibit this spring.

Workshops
Annual Children's Writing Workshop
Sponsored by the Library and led by veteran editor and free-lance agent Andrea Brown, this workshop is geared for writers of childrenís literature that are receiving serious consideration by a publisher. The workshop offers small group evaluations by editors and published authors with the goal of assisting participants in the final steps in getting their work published. Now in its second year, two of last yearís participants have successfully published their childrenís stories.

Big Sur Painting Workshop
Teacher Ronna Emmons has led "Hoop of Eight" workshops for painters of all skill levels at the Library. Many of her students have displayed and sold their work at the Library and other local venues.

Poetry Workshop
Veteran Poetry Slam performing poets will lead a weekend workshop at the Library this fall. The goal is to develop the creative word power of all individuals involved, and to put together a Big Sur poetry team for area poetry competitions.

Exhibits, Performances and Lectures
The Library offers a variety of musical performances, art exhibits, lectures, slide shows and book signings. Both local and international artists are featured. Events include:

Winter Art Exhibit
Now in its fifth year, this community exhibit offers over fifty local artists, ranging in age from 7 to 85, the opportunity to show their work during a holiday show each December.

Pacific Rim Sculptors Group Exhibit
A select group of primarily California Central Coast and San Francisco Bay Area sculptors display their large scale work under the redwoods in the HML garden during April through October.

Lecture Series
Lectures on Henry Miller and Big Sur artistic and cultural heritage by HML staff. Tour groups, Elder Hostel groups and hotel and resort guests in Big Sur have participated in this program.

Concerts
Several musical performances are held during the summer months on the HML lawn. A benefit concert by guitarist, improviser and composer Fred Frith was held this summer. The Library also hosted musical classes and performances by local drumming teacher Jayson Fann and his students.

Community Access to Computer and Internet
As a result of grants from the Cultural Council for Monterey County, the Nepenthe/Phoenix Corporation, and local businesses and Library supporters, the Library was able to purchase new computer equipment last year. Our computer system is open to all visitors for Internet access, research, and education. Prior to our development of this community resource, residents without computers and access to Internet had to travel to the Monterey-Carmel area for service.

General Community Use
The Library is also used by a local Buddhist dharma center, the Big Sur Volunteer Fire Brigade for classes in first aid, and by many people for weddings and memorials.

NO!
I would not like to miss this opportunity to help. It is particularly irresistable since I am here presented with no less than four different ways to do it!

Please!!

Let us show you the alternatives.

Here they are!

1. Press the button and give us money; easy, quick, honest.

3. Go through your bookshelves and pack the books you don't need in a box and send it to us: Henry Miller Library, Highway One, Big Sur, CA 93920. The value of the books will be a tax deductible donation. We especially like books by and about Miller but we are interested in good books of any kind. (One way for us to pay for the work we do is to sell books to guest of the Library). Please do not send us software manuals from last year however...

4. Do all of the above.

The best alternative for all involved is, as we are sure you already guessed, alternative number four. However, we would much appreciate whatever you can do.

All books - we love to get your old books - Miller, literature - really anything except old computer and software manuals! Ship by using media mail - we'll send you an acknowledgement in the mail and you get to deduct from your taxes.
Mail to: HMML, Highway One, Big Sur, CA 93920.

Thank you.

Foundations & Corporate Sponsors

National Endowment for The Arts
Funding for Miller Audio Project

Lannan Foundation
General support

LEF Foundation
Funding for Miller Audio Project

Threshold Foundation
General support

Big Sur Marathon
General support

Arts Council for Monterey County
General support

Post Ranch Inn
General support

Big Sur River Inn
General support

Big Sur Internet
General support

What we need funds for.

Most of our programs, music, poetry, art workshops, exhibits etc. cost money. We need to have benefit events, donations, booksales etc. to make ends meet. There's only one paid staff during the winter and two during the summer, the overhead is relatively low, but, we now need some serious work done.

1. We need to get the archives room built. We own one of the most complete (if not the most complete) collection of Miller's publications in the English Language, we own the Emil Schnellock Archives w/ letters and manuscripts form the 20-ies and 30-ies and much more. We can't house the material here until we have one of our rooms insulated, re-roofed, and climate controlled.

Good news: We recently finished our new roofs as well as almost finished teh archives room. This summer, when we will have three interns working on the archives we'll get a lot done!

2. We still need improvements done to the building and garden in general. A new/repaired deck in front, repairs to gates and fences etc.

Please help us reach our goals - donations are tax deductible.