9:3 Fall 1955

HENRY MILLER

Literature as a Dead Duck

The Fall 1955 issue was devoted to essays on the topic “Changing American Culture”; it included essays by Benjamin Mays, Michael Harrington, Nat Hentoff, and Walt Kelly. Henry Miller, whose work was primarily available through French publishers at the time, contributed the following essay on the state of American literature to the issue; his was a topic that would be addressed in Chicago Review many times during the era, notably by publisher Alan Swallow and philosopher Marshall McLuhan. Miller would be courted again for a contribution to the magazine; staffer Gary Mokotoff recently remembered the magazine’s strategy:

David Ray was editor at that time and one of the contributors was Henry Miller. I asked Ray how he was able to get the eccentric author to write for the Chicago Review. He chuckled and told me that most editors sent a long letter to Miller and got nothing. He just sent a letter that said “Dear Henry: We haven’t gotten a manuscript from you in a while. Please send one. (signed) David Ray.”

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