Miller's Controversial 'Cancer' to Be Sold Here

The Grove Press announced last week that it would publish Henry Miller's polemic 27-year-old book, The Tropic of Cancer, for the first time in the United States on June 24. Reaction in Cambridge has been so strong that several book stores in the Square have already put the work on sale.

"This is not a book This is libel, slander, defamation of character. This is not a book, in the ordinary sense of the word. No, this is a prolonged insult, a gob of spit in the face of Art, a kick in the pants to God, Man, Destiny, Time, Love, Beauty...what you will.

"I am going to sing for you, a little off key perhaps, but I will sing. I will sing while you croak, I will dance over your dirty corpse..."

Thus begins the controversial American writer in his famous Troplo of Cancer, banned in America since its publication in Paris in 1934 and long considered a paragon of pornography. Published in France, Sweden, Japan, and Mexico, it has found its way through U.S. Customs offices in laundry bags in such quantities that Miller has even thanked the country for the censorship.

He no longer has this special sales gimmick, however: The Grove Press has published Cancer in its unexpurgated entirety, 371 pages selling for $7.50.

Writers Attack Censorship

For years, countless artists including T.S. Eliot, John Dos Passos, Exra Pound, and Lawrence Durrell have applauded Miller's artistry and have severely attacked the laws of censorship which have prevented the publication of many of his works in this country. Other better known works of Miller include Troplo of Capricorn, Black Spring. The World of Sex, Sexus, Plexus, and Max and the White Phagooytes.

During the debates over pornography and the law, the Grove Press has printed Lady Chatterly's Lover, the U.S. Southern District Court has subsequently denied the right of the Postmaster General to ban the unexpurgated edition of that book, and people have begun to wonder if the next step--Miller--is really a pornographer or a prophet. In Pornography and the Law by Eberhard and Kronhausen he was called "the apostle of the gory detail"; Karl Shapiro has called Miller "the greatest living author."

Perry G. E. Miller, Powell M. Cabot Professor of American Literature, (no kin) said yesterday without hesitation that Cancer "should be published. It is an important piece of literature and expression," he said and called Miller "a major writer in our time." About the accusation that Henry Miller's writing is pornographic, Miller said, "I would not pay any attention to it." He added that he is against all censorship of literature.

People have rushed to the stores to buy copies of the book before any legal difficulties ensue and threaten the sales, as almost happened with Lady Chatterley's Lover two years ago. "I suspect there will be a stink over Cancer," Miller noted.