Miller, Henry | Black Spring, inscribed to artist Benjamin Benno

Miller, Henry

Black Spring. Paris: The Obelisk Press, [1936]

8vo. Unopened. Original pictorial wrappers by Maurice Kahane; minor wear to extremities, upper joint just splitting, light soiling to spine. Housed in a red slipcase with a folding cloth chemise.

First edition, presentation copy, inscribed by Miller: "To Benno — with best wishes always. Henry Paris 10/37".

Benjamin Benno (née Greenstein) was a fellow American expatriate living in Paris in the 1930s, there under the auspices of the Guggenheim Foundation to study sculpture, drawing, and painting. Miller presented Benno with a copy of his book of short stories, Black Spring, the month after he published a creative profile of him in The Booster magazine, titled "Benno, the Wild Man of Borneo." There, Miller described him as "gaunt and cannibalistic, positively ferocious when his breadbasket is empty, [but also] gentle and peaceful as a dove, calm, placid, cool as a volcanic lake... He loves light and space as well as champagne and oysters. But best of all he loves a rumpus..."

PROVENANCE:

Benjamin Benno (presentation inscription) — Roger Rechler (Christie's New York, 11 October 2002, lot 228)