James and Blanche Cooney

From the jacket of "In My Own Sweet Time - An Autobiography" by Blanche Cooney:

"Blanche and James Cooney met in the 1930's in Greenwich Village. She was seventeen, a Russian-Romanian first generation Jewish New Yorker bound for radical freedom. He was twenty seven, an Irish American wirter, a lapsed Catholic expelled from the Communist Party for anarchist "tendencies." Disparate pair, imperative union.

"They married and left New York forever; left her outraged parents, his distraught lover, for frontier life in rural America with no money and limitless hope. The goal: a community of self sufficient artists. The rallying point: The Phoenix, a literary quarterly, international, eclectic. The threat addressed: totalitarianism, technology, the crushing of the individual. In spite of their isolation the cast is rich: Frieda Lawrence, Henry Miller, Anais Nin. ..."

April, 1939

"Time presses and the primary thing seems to be to get out with a whole skin. If by miracle we escape the impending catastrophe I shall go back to Paris and make plans to come to America....I feel badly about leaving - it seems a bit cowardly - but I am no soldier and would croak the first day of pneumonia or something like that. And besides, I don't feel it's my quarrel. I think if I were the head of a government, I could patch it up - perhaps ignomiously, but I could reach a solution. Hitler is absolutely crazy, no doubt about it - but he should be dealt with that way and not as a responsible person. We may yet see something spectacular within the German nation - they must realize dimly that they are once again in a desparate hole - once again confronted by the whole world in arms. Maybe we'll carry on from Woodstock."

Henry Miller to James Cooney, Villa Seurat, France April, 1939

Nov. 18, 1937 - Paris (14e) 18 Villa Seurat

Dear Mr. Cooney,
I have a disquieting letter from my agent
in N.Y., Miss Marion Saunders. She tells
me that she is unable to get any response to
her letters, and worse, cannot get back
from you the manuscripts which she gave
you. Now, my dear Cooney, I do hope
you will not be fucking me up. If the
Phoenix has died a still-birth please don't
take it out on a poor author. Have the
decency, I beg you, either to reassure her
as to your intentions, or mail her back the
manuscripts in question. I had a choice of
placing my things in different quarters,
and I told her to give you the preference.
So there you are.

Sincerely yours,
Henry Miller

October 14, 1937

Editorial Offices:
18 Villa Seurat,
Paris (14e).
October 14th

Dear Mr. Cooney,
Would you be kind enough to forward
the enclosed material to Aldous Huxley for
me, as I do not know his address.
...
We are bringing out this special number
of the WOMB for Christmas, as you see
from my letter to Huxley. I think it will
make a hit - in more ways than one.

My best to you and to the happy birth of
the Phoenix.

Sincerely,
Henry Miller

Paris August 24, 1937

Dear Mr. Cooney,
Just got your letter from San Cristobal -
and tell me, is Aldous Huxley still there?
I have been trying to reach him and lost all
traces.
...
... By the way, are
you going to pay your contributors or not?
I am curious. But it is not a determining
factor, please understand.
I have asked Miss Saunders to lend you
her copies of Tropic and of Black Spring,
if she possibly can. If not, let me know,
and I shall try to get you them some other
way. You know that the censor himself is
working on Morris Ernst, or rather working
on his partner, Alexander Lindey. Do
you know either of them?
I doubt very much, if at the present
moment, you can publish my books serially
in America. I would like it, to be sure, but
I am fairly certain you will only kill your
magazine. Better wait until after you have read
the books. There are, of course, good big
blocks, especially in Black Spring, which
might be published.
...
Do you know my friend John Nichols,
the painter, at Woodstock? A rum bird,
with a great sense of humor and a wonderful
gift of the gab.
....
... It's going to be a strange magazine.

Cordially yours,
Henry Miller

Paris, July 12, 1937

18 Villa Seurat
Paris (xiv)
July 12,1937

Mr. James P. Cooney,
Maverick Road,
Woodstock, N. Y.

Dear Mr. Cooney,

A friend of mine sent me a clipping
recently from a N.Y. paper announcing the
birth of a new magazine to be called The
Phoenix. No doubt the first number is al-
ready set up. But if not, and if in this first
number you would care to have something
from me about Lawrence, I should be glad
to contribute. I intend to finish next year
a very long book on Lawrence. I have now
some 300 or more pages finished, and, if
you are interested, would send you a frag-
ment or two...
As you have probably never heard of
me - I have been living in and publishing
from Paris the last seven years - I enclose a
few announcements gotten out by my fool
publisher. All three of my books are banned
in American and England - but one of them,
Black Spring, is now about to be published
in French, by Stock.

Sincerely yours,
Henry Miller
And luck to you! with your venture!