Perspective

Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch is a 1956 memoir of Henry Miller's early years living and working at Big Sur, CA, which he describes as a paradise. Miller had by 1956 established himself internationally both as a major author (novels and essays) and as an amateur watercolorist.

Miller draws on his New York upbringing and years of exile in Paris, where he writes his novels Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn, both of which are still banned for obscenity in the United States when he returns in 1940, but concentrates on the artist colony at Big Sur. By 1956, Miller is a hero in the growing counterculture and is supported, to his amazement, by fans worldwide as he continues writing pieces that challenge prevailing societal views but pay little and irregularly. He also produces large numbers of watercolors when the muse is upon him. Visitors flow constantly through...