A Joyous Transformation: The Unexpurgated Diary of Anaïs Nin, 1966-1977

by Anas Nin, Benjamin Franklin V (Introduction), Paul Herron (Editor)

A Joyous Transformation marks the end of Anaïs Nin’s 35,000-page diary, the publication of which began in 1966 with the heavily edited Diary of Anaïs Nin . It chronicles Nin’s final years, which were spent in the glow of newfound fame and at battle with the disease that would end her life, one of the most highly-documented and fascinating in modern literature. Included are revelations that were excised from the final volume of The Diary of Anaïs Nin , which covers the same Nin’s relationships with husband Hugh (Hugo) Guiler and lover Rupert Pole, including Pole’s infidelity; the toll her popularity and grueling lecture schedule placed on her; and details of how she coped with and railed against cancer, which destroyed her body at a time when she could have been continuing her work and enjoying its rewards. The diary ends with an astounding correspondence between Guiler and Pole, both of whom, contrary to popular belief, were well aware of each other before Nin’s death in 1977.
Following in the tradition of Henry and June (1986), Incest (1992), Fire (1995), Nearer the Moon (1996), Mirages (2013), Trapeze (2017), and The Diary of Others (2021), A Joyous Transition tells stories that were left out of The Diary of Anaïs Nin . The publication of the unexpurgated diaries was one of Nin’s final wishes and one of Rupert Pole’s unfulfilled goals. At long last, the series is complete.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Biography Memoir

379 pages, Hardcover

Published August 23, 2023

Reviews

[Jeff Bursey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Death comes for the diarist, after Nin's emergence in mainstream letters and popular culture, with her a "legend" and a feminist force. A year before her death she writes that "I seem to have created a world in which they [young women who study her works] shine radiantly." No less egotistical than most other writers, really. What also comes across is how wrong she often is about people's characters and how disappointed she is when they don't live up to her expectations. She's up and down about Miller throughout every volume, and more down than up about Durrell. On Gore Vidal she has little good to say once he's betrayed her a second time.

The annulment of her west coast marriage to Rupert (while married to her east coast husband Hugo) is mentioned in a note at the end of the book and in a brief sentence in a very late diary entry, but not in the year it happened. Silence about this seems unusual, so I wonder if "unexpurgated" is the most accurate word. Many minor figures come and go, some mentioned in bio notes at the back, some not. Most seem to fall into one of three groups: fans, academics, and acolytes. More notes on these people would have been welcome.

With this the diaries stop. No one could persuade me to read Nin's pre-1931 diaries. Every now and then she says something that doesn't come out as aggrandizing or petty. Like all of us, she had many sides. A final battle with illness didn't bring her to a place of much peace: "finish like an insect" seem to be her last words in the diary.

[Betty · Rating 5 out of 5]

For years now Anais Nin has been a constant companion for me. I discovered her in the 90s when Henry & June was first published. I would read her edited diaries, first published in her lifetime, alongside the unexpurgated volumes. At some point- I think after Nearer to the Moon- they just stopped publishing them, but then picked up again in somewhat recent years. It’s been a long wait to see this final volume and how terribly heartbreaking and bittersweet it is to finally finish it. Such an amazing journey but I’m a little shattered that my close friend has died after such a long, agonizing illness. So, immediately after finishing this volume- I’ve returned to the very beginning to start all over again. How delightful she continues to live on in this way.

[Janet · Rating 5 out of 5]

The final volume in the complete, unexpurgated Diary of Anaïs Nin, covers the years 1966 to her death in 1977. As I said in my recent review of the first of the unexpurgated diaries, Henry and June, A Diary of Love 1931-32 these unexpurgated journals are extraordinary documents, revealing the inner life of a fascinating woman, a major writer--not just what she wished others to know, but the contents of the locked closets.

Nin was a keen observer and a brilliant, lyrical writer. She wrote novels and short stories with a compellingly enigmatic, subterranean flavor--but her journals, especially the unexpurgated ones, reveal her burning need for experience, which she took as she could, leading her to many byzantine turns in her personal life--subterranean stories, major affairs, minor affairs, two simultaneous husbands... a passionate, boundary-crossing life full of necessary secrets.

An overarching theme in her writers' life was her continued frustration, decade after decade, with the refusal of mainstream literary circles to accept her as an artist of note. A woman, writing books that in no way imitated the "real writers" of her time--men of the Hemingway ilk--lyrical and subtle, she eventually was forced to found her own press and physically print her own books. Even when she was later conventionally published, her "women's fiction," was never taken seriously.

Then comes her decision to publish the Diary. More than all her books of fiction (which I love) and essays, the Diary was the true work of her life. Yet no one had seen it but a few close friends. She decided to create edited versions which would capture her insights and lyrical flights without revealing the feet of clay she was very aware would shatter her life: secrets and deceptions, unacceptable truths, which would have been especially catastrophic to the stabilizing marriage she could not give up.

The publication of the Diary of Anais Nin came at exactly the time the Feminist second wave movement was gathering speed--and it was a revelation, the inner life of the creative woman. Publication brought Nin what she had always wanted-- acknowledgement, acceptance, a generation of avid readers--myself among them. Suddenly she's a lecturer in demand, there's a Krakatoa of publicity, new associates, new circles--just as her health and boundless energy begins to fail her.

It's a fascinating hall of mirrors to read in the unexpurgated diary about the publication of that first edited volume, and the following works over these years. Editing and publication and lectures and articles and travel, the public life, as well as illness, travel, and her juggling act in her relationships with her two husbands: the elder one in New York, Hugo, ill and needy, who supported her all those years but whom she now was supporting in return, and the younger one in Los Angeles, Rupert, who has great physical charms, now her main emotional support, loves to travel, but has his own limitations.

This volume includes the correspondence as Nin tries to place the Diary with a publisher, also samples of her immense correspondence with old and new friends and with the husbands--writing to one when she's with the other, in the days that long distance phone calls were extremely expensive, but also, (as letter-writers know well,) one can control the topic, as well as amuse and delight.

But what I liked best about The Unexpurgated Diary of Anais Nin: A Joyous Transformation aren't the letters-- which are naturally keenly shaped to fit the relationship she has with each correspondent---but the continuing Diary entries, which are frank and gorgeous and unmediated thoughts about of her life with herself in all its dimensions. Her portraits of people are so vivid, her admissions so honest--what a writer!

I liked it so much I blurbed it. Here's what I say on the back cover:

"What a thrill to crack open the final unexpurgated journal of Anais Nin! It contains the culmination of her life's work--the publication and resounding success of the Diary, while dealing with aging, illness and ongoing personal struggles. Letters give us context, and I especially loved their contrast with the diary--her self-editing for audience vs. her elegant, subtle and extremely honest, sometimes shockingly so, conversation with herself. Nobody describes people, events, the inner life more beautifully than Nin. Bravo to editor Paul Herron to have seen this project through to the very end."

[Lara Gabrielle · Rating 3 out of 5]

“The past has not left any bitterness or revengefulness. I face the love and tributes I receive with pleasure. I am as if a new woman, reborn with the publication of the Diary. This new woman is at ease in the world, because whatever shyness is left over from the past is helped by the fact that when I enter a room or a lecture hall, people know me already and they rush towards me. The warmth creates a climate in which I can open up, return the love, respond.” (O passado não deixou nenhuma amargura ou sentimento de vingança. Eu recebo o amor e as homenagens com prazer. Sinto-me como uma nova mulher, renascida com a publicação do Diário. Essa nova mulher está à vontade no mundo, porque qualquer timidez que restou do passado é amenizada pelo fato de que, quando entro em uma sala ou auditório, as pessoas já me conhecem e correm até mim. Esse calor cria um clima no qual posso me abrir, retribuir o amor, responder.)


Comecei O Diário de Anaïs Nin, Volume 8 (1966–1977) sem ter lido nenhum dos volumes anteriores, e isso influenciou muito a minha experiência. A sensação foi a de entrar numa vida já construída, com uma autora que já vive o reconhecimento e a segurança de quem percorreu um caminho que eu ainda não acompanhei.
A Anaïs desse volume é madura, organizada e consciente da própria trajetória. A escrita é clara, ponderada e raramente espontânea. Eu esperava encontrar algo mais íntimo, mas encontrei uma autora que se observa com distanciamento, quase como se estivesse documentando a si mesma, e não apenas escrevendo para si própria.
Mesmo assim, algumas passagens me aproximaram dela, especialmente quando revisita memórias e tenta organizar um sentido para aquilo que viveu. Esses momentos mais vulneráveis e menos controlados tiveram mais impacto em mim, porque fizeram o livro finalmente parecer um diário.
Ainda assim, a sensação geral foi de distância. Muito do que ela escreve aqui depende de um histórico emocional que eu ainda não conheço, porque comecei justamente por um dos volumes mais tardios. Algumas reflexões soaram mais profundas do que eu consigo alcançar agora, já que não vi a construção delas nos volumes anteriores.
No fim, dei três estrelas. Não por falta de qualidade, mas por perceber que comecei pelo lugar errado. Quero voltar aos primeiros volumes, entender quem ela foi antes de alcançar essa maturidade tão serena e, depois disso, retornar a este. Talvez a leitura ganhe outro significado quando eu conhecer o caminho completo.

[Cherie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh it's been years since I've read the lovely writing of Anais Nin, and I'm so glad to read her again and that this was finally published. BUT this was painful to read, knowing that she was really peaking in so many ways in her life when she got cancer and suffered and died....Some of the letters weren't as interesting, but still was good to get a sense of the end of her life. Brilliant. Want to read her again.