The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-07.
Nin, Anaïs
(n´s nn, nn) (KEY) , 190377, American writer, b. Paris. The daughter of the Spanish composer Joaquín Nin, she came to the United States as a child. She was a psychoanalytic patient of Otto Rank, and a deep concern with the subconscious is evidenced in her work. This is particularly true of her best-known works, her autobiographical diaries, which reveal her psychological and artistic development. These have been published in several collections: early diaries, 191431 (4 vol., 198085, J. Sherman, ed.); diaries, 193174 (7 vol., 196981, G. Stuhlmann, ed.); and unexpurgated diaries (4 vol., 198696). Nins fiction, which is noted for its poetic style and searching portraits of women, includes the novels Winter of Artifice (1939) and A Spy in the House of Love (1954). Her published works include her correspondence with Henry Miller (1965); critical works, such as The Novel of the Future (1970); and two volumes of erotica, The Delta of Venus (1977) and Little Birds (1979).