Miller, Henry (1891-1980) Tropic of Cancer, Signed and Inscribed First Edition.
Paris: The Obelisk Press, 1934.
First edition, octavo, presentation copy from Miller, likely to longtime friend Joe O'Regan: "To my old friend Joe whom I think of in strange moments and still stranger places and always with deep affection," dated September 1934 at 18 Villa Seurat, Paris, with original first edition paperback wrappers bound in at front and rear; scattered stains, lightly toned; bound in modern leather with the iconic cover art etched onto front board decorated with pink and green, white and black printed endpapers with horse pattern; front board bowed and detached, lower board starting, text block cracked at page 226 with subsequent signatures loose, spine perished, leather disintegrating; trimmed at lower and outer edge barely affecting the notice of prohibited publication in the U.S. and Britain; 7 1/8 x 5 1/4 in.
Miller met O'Regan on a family vacation at Swartswood Lake, New Jersey where they were "sealed in a pact of friendship" after being introduced by another friend of Miller's, Bill Woodruff. O'Regan would accompany Miller to Florida, their experiences appearing in Miller's Gliding into the Everglades. Miller later wrote, "all his life he was dropping in on me--from nowhere it seemed." (81)
See Henry Miller's Book of Friends.Santa Barbara: Capra Press, 1976, pp. 81-94.
