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The Diary of Anaïs Nin #7
The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 7: 1966-1974
The final volume ends as the author wished-not with her last two years of pain but at a joyous, reflective moment on a trip to Bali. "One of the most remarkable diaries in the history of letters" (Robert Kirsch, Los Angeles Times). Edited and with a Preface by Gunther Stuhlmann; Index; photographs.
384 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 1976
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About the author
Anaïs Nin
355 books8,927 followersWriter and diarist, born in Paris to a Catalan father and a Danish mother, Anaïs Nin spent many of her early years with Cuban relatives. Later a naturalized American citizen, she lived and worked in Paris, New York and Los Angeles. Author of avant-garde novels in the French surrealistic style and collections of erotica, she is best known for her life and times in The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Volumes I-VII (1966-1980).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ana%C3%...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ana%C3%...
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
February 22, 2015
“How often we make these circular journeys into the past, linking fragments of an incomplete puzzle, seeing a complete image…As we make the return journey it is not only to pass judgement on our past selves, it is to crystallize, reinforce, consolidate what we have gained.”
— The Diary of Anais Nin, Vol. 7
For me, reading Nin for me has always been a journey and a revelation of the inner-self. Through her writing, she reminds us of things that are important,good for the soul, things such as relationships, the arts, self-care, and dreams. I learned a lot from her over this two year journey of reading her journals. As somebody who has kept a diary since the age of 8, it’s only when I read these that I realized just how lacking my own journaling was,and just how powerful a journal can actually be. This is probably something Nin knew from the first, from when she started writing a diary for her father who had abandoned her family: the healing and therapeutic power of journaling:
"So I may say, all the Diaries are a tribute to psychology and to Dr. Rank, because they are a story of growth, and there seems to be no growth without confrontations with the unconscious and a unification of conscious and unconscious."
I think Nin helped revive the diary and I am glad she shared her diaries. They might be heavily edited and written for an audience, but to me they are still inspirational regardless of whether one reads them as true autobiography, or as a more fictionalized form of biography.
There were several points during the diaries that Nin spoke to my experiences, and that's another reason I felt a sort of kinship with her:
“I think it is a loss to be uprooted, but a loss which can expand our life, that is, instead of just being French, or American, you become all artist, a writer and international.”
It was interesting to see Nin change over the years and what I liked about her was that she owned every stage of her life and vowed to enjoy her life, gain deeper understanding of herself and others.
As much as I adore Nin and her writing, she is , like everyone on the planet, not without her flaws. She made some relatively homophobic comments in other journals, and in Volume 7 there were so many cringe-worthy examples of exotification and Orientalism. As Nin travels to several Asian countries, she describes the people she meets in complimentary ways but in an “othering” manner. Also, the way in which she describes some feminists seemed to me quite severe. I think she believed women should be gentle all the time, and she admired the Japanese women for this, but I really don’t buy into that philosophy. Even so, she was a product of her time and we are more enlightened now about many things, such as race, feminism etc.
As Nin has cancer for much of Volume 7, she does a lot of reflection on her life:
“The past has not left me bitter or vengeful. I face the love, tributes I receive with pleasure. I am like a new woman, born 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. Their warmth creates a climate in which I can open, flower, respond, return their love.”
I am so glad Nin finally got recognition and lived to see some success. I think she taught me something about tenacity and never giving up. She spent the early years printing her own books, being rejected by publishers, people misunderstanding her work, yet she soldiered on. To me it’s always been ironic that I stayed away from her work for so long also due to my preconceptions. How wrong I was about her and how happy I am to have read her. I am a fan for life.
“Do not ever falter from the dream. Someday they will understand.”
— The Diary of Anais Nin, Vol. 7
For me, reading Nin for me has always been a journey and a revelation of the inner-self. Through her writing, she reminds us of things that are important,good for the soul, things such as relationships, the arts, self-care, and dreams. I learned a lot from her over this two year journey of reading her journals. As somebody who has kept a diary since the age of 8, it’s only when I read these that I realized just how lacking my own journaling was,and just how powerful a journal can actually be. This is probably something Nin knew from the first, from when she started writing a diary for her father who had abandoned her family: the healing and therapeutic power of journaling:
"So I may say, all the Diaries are a tribute to psychology and to Dr. Rank, because they are a story of growth, and there seems to be no growth without confrontations with the unconscious and a unification of conscious and unconscious."
I think Nin helped revive the diary and I am glad she shared her diaries. They might be heavily edited and written for an audience, but to me they are still inspirational regardless of whether one reads them as true autobiography, or as a more fictionalized form of biography.
There were several points during the diaries that Nin spoke to my experiences, and that's another reason I felt a sort of kinship with her:
“I think it is a loss to be uprooted, but a loss which can expand our life, that is, instead of just being French, or American, you become all artist, a writer and international.”
It was interesting to see Nin change over the years and what I liked about her was that she owned every stage of her life and vowed to enjoy her life, gain deeper understanding of herself and others.
As much as I adore Nin and her writing, she is , like everyone on the planet, not without her flaws. She made some relatively homophobic comments in other journals, and in Volume 7 there were so many cringe-worthy examples of exotification and Orientalism. As Nin travels to several Asian countries, she describes the people she meets in complimentary ways but in an “othering” manner. Also, the way in which she describes some feminists seemed to me quite severe. I think she believed women should be gentle all the time, and she admired the Japanese women for this, but I really don’t buy into that philosophy. Even so, she was a product of her time and we are more enlightened now about many things, such as race, feminism etc.
As Nin has cancer for much of Volume 7, she does a lot of reflection on her life:
“The past has not left me bitter or vengeful. I face the love, tributes I receive with pleasure. I am like a new woman, born 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. Their warmth creates a climate in which I can open, flower, respond, return their love.”
I am so glad Nin finally got recognition and lived to see some success. I think she taught me something about tenacity and never giving up. She spent the early years printing her own books, being rejected by publishers, people misunderstanding her work, yet she soldiered on. To me it’s always been ironic that I stayed away from her work for so long also due to my preconceptions. How wrong I was about her and how happy I am to have read her. I am a fan for life.
“Do not ever falter from the dream. Someday they will understand.”
August 27, 2015
I think this diary was really good, but it felt really not like a diary. Especially if you compare it to Sylvia's diary which was really personal, to me.
This one was heavily edited and border-lined (if not veered into) pretentious territory, but Nin writes beautifully, but it felt more like an art piece then a personal diary.
I don't agree with all her opinions/thoughts, and she was very pretentious and haughty in her personality from the way she portrayed herself.
I have said pretentious way too much. lol
It was good, but it lacked something special to me.
This one was heavily edited and border-lined (if not veered into) pretentious territory, but Nin writes beautifully, but it felt more like an art piece then a personal diary.
I don't agree with all her opinions/thoughts, and she was very pretentious and haughty in her personality from the way she portrayed herself.
I have said pretentious way too much. lol
It was good, but it lacked something special to me.
June 17, 2020
my goodness. I look back and see that it’s taken me nearly a year to make it through all of her years. Eleven months of her name. essential reading for lovers
July 13, 2010
you really, really have to be in the mood to read these things, & with this one...i was not. i actually fell asleep reading at one point, which has only happened to me one other time in the last 31 years. this is the last volume of the adult diaries, covering the period immediately following the publishing & surprise success of the first volume. suddenly anais is being feted about, invites to speak at college commencements, given honorary doctorates, interviewed for magazine pieces & TV programs all over the world. she's working with translators to publish the diaries in other countries, meeting foreign publishers, & being buried beneath a mountain of correspondence from enamored readers. a huge chunk of this last diary is drawn from her letters to & from readers, other authors, & long-time friends...which is kind of tedious.
in the midst of all this, she is diagnosed with cancer, & she seems to be doing her best to keep it a secret from most people. there is a lot of writing here about facing mortality & aging, but also a lot about traveling (japan, bali, mexico, etc).
anais has always identified with society's underdogs, & in this diary, she has many positive things to say about "the students". she seems pleased that college students are showing an interest in her work, & she seems to think that they will play a role in re-making society in a gentler way. she also writes a lot about the feminists. she laments the fact that her diaries could help women achieve liberation through self-analysis & self-discovery, but that too many feminists are blinkered by what she calls "aggression" & "man hate". nice, anais. really nice. i don't really think history has vindicated her on that front. it all comes across as, "why are these noisy women so ANGRY?" there's a lot of talk about how the feminists are making a big mistake by 'scaring off" men, whom the feminists supposedly "need to seduce" into assisting with women's liberation. i know anais was from a different time--she was like 70 years old when she was writing this. but it still kind of turned my stomach.
especially when it was followed up by a paragraph of anais being dumbfounded to realize that women are very under-represented in the fields of medicine, law, politics, etc. she goes on & on about how she's an artist & it always seemed like there were women artists around, & it's like, that's awesome, but not everyone is pursuing the same goals as you or has the same experience! argh.
there's also a whole awful passage about how "the negro" is "of the dark" & just wants to stay up all night beating on drums or something. even into the 1970s, anais couldn't shake her weird racist romanticization of people of color.
for completists ony.
in the midst of all this, she is diagnosed with cancer, & she seems to be doing her best to keep it a secret from most people. there is a lot of writing here about facing mortality & aging, but also a lot about traveling (japan, bali, mexico, etc).
anais has always identified with society's underdogs, & in this diary, she has many positive things to say about "the students". she seems pleased that college students are showing an interest in her work, & she seems to think that they will play a role in re-making society in a gentler way. she also writes a lot about the feminists. she laments the fact that her diaries could help women achieve liberation through self-analysis & self-discovery, but that too many feminists are blinkered by what she calls "aggression" & "man hate". nice, anais. really nice. i don't really think history has vindicated her on that front. it all comes across as, "why are these noisy women so ANGRY?" there's a lot of talk about how the feminists are making a big mistake by 'scaring off" men, whom the feminists supposedly "need to seduce" into assisting with women's liberation. i know anais was from a different time--she was like 70 years old when she was writing this. but it still kind of turned my stomach.
especially when it was followed up by a paragraph of anais being dumbfounded to realize that women are very under-represented in the fields of medicine, law, politics, etc. she goes on & on about how she's an artist & it always seemed like there were women artists around, & it's like, that's awesome, but not everyone is pursuing the same goals as you or has the same experience! argh.
there's also a whole awful passage about how "the negro" is "of the dark" & just wants to stay up all night beating on drums or something. even into the 1970s, anais couldn't shake her weird racist romanticization of people of color.
for completists ony.
August 7, 2009
This is the final volume of the Journal of Anais Nin, of which I have read one volume a year over the past seven years. This is probably the longest it has taken me to read one of the volumes (I usually begin in January of the new year), but I'm glad I've paced myself, knowing that this book marks the end of a great artist's lifetime and a long personal journey. It's wonderful to see Anais' dream of recognition lived, as well as her work's reception of the praise it was long due. Interestingly, the reader is also part of her fame's dark side-- the exhaustion, sacrifice of privacy, and difficult decisions that Anais had to make due to her sudden popularity. Also fascinating are her struggles with the Women's Movement of the late-60s and early 70s, and her eventual acceptance of and by many of the leaders of this movement. Anais Nin was a remarkable person, and her life reflects that, but her mission of self-understanding was her ultimate gift to the world. The way she discussed her "journey inward" has shaped my perception of the endless possibilities that we have to create our world and make positive change. I still have 40 pages to go, and I really don't want to finish. However it is bittersweet, as I'm sure there are new authors who will continue to inspire me where she leaves off.
May 29, 2012
==============
Letter to a reader:
I feel the crux of your conflict is that you want to go too fast. At twenty-five I was like you—ambivalent, uncertain. Take time. It is an organic, slow growth. You hurt yourself by looking at me now in late maturity and comparing me with your youth. You're hard on yourself. The neurosis is there—shocks, wounds, losses. I turned for help at those moments. The neurosis keeps us from growing. Can you deal with that? Can you get help? You are rich within and full of potential, humanly and poetically.
(Nin, Vol. VII, 256-7)
==============
ANAÏS NIN <3 <3 <3 SO REMARKABLE <3 <3 <3
December 31, 2008
At this diary seems more like a travelogue and an appointment book, but it is interspersed with flights of fancy, the fast gutting of a freshly cooked fish in the deft hands of a geisha, a seminude knife weilding young dark man who emerges from bushes in cambodia, and a festive cremation in Bali. There are wonderful photographs in the center of this book ranging from slightly uncomfortable shots of her posing with locals in her travels through asia to a portrait with her frou frou puppy Piccolino. Amid all this, Nin takes on radical marxists in the women's movement. Even in her late sixties, Nin has a full dance card.
January 31, 2008
why couldn't i have been one of her lovers.
August 25, 2024
Dragged my feet for so long in finishing this because I just don't want to let go. Her last diary that she herself edited. The last 3 years of her life are not in an attitude diary. She only wanted to write about happy things and not chronicle the pain and suffering of her cancer. Very recently however and unexpurgated version of those last years has been published, as A Joyous Transition so that's next up on my reading list
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June 20, 2023I confess that I didn't read the whole thing, I skipped some letters and notes about lectures etc. all the stuff that wasn't interesting to me
April 13, 2007
Although I like Anais quite alot, this book was not as interesting to me as other books of hers, such as Vol. 2 of her diary, and Henry & June.
August 29, 2007
This book helped me.
March 13, 2011
As writer, woman, feminist, emotionally struggling throughout her entire life...peace.
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May 18, 2019I have the german edition: Tagebuecher 1966-1974
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews