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Anais Nin. Photo by Barbara (WVS).

Top 10 Little-Known Facts about Anais Nin

Anais Nin was a popular French-born American short story writer, diarist, essayist, novelist, and erotica. She was born on 21^st February 1903 to Cuban parents in France. She was the daughter of a professional singer, Rosa Culmell, and a composer Joaquin Nin.

Anais Nin spent her childhood life in Spain and Cuba then left for Â鶹APP where she spent sixteen more years. For the remaining years of her life, she spent in the United States where she became an established author.

She began her writing career at the very young age of eleven until her death. Anais Nin was well brought up in a Roman Catholic but later fled at sixteen.

Her parents also separated when she was the age of two years and her mother moved her together with her siblings to Barcelona and later New York City.

Anais Nin attended high school in New York City where she later dropped out in 1919 at the age of sixteen. She however passed on in January 1977 in Los Angeles, California, the U.S. at the age of 73.

Below are the top ten little-known facts about Anais Nin

1. Anais Nin Wrote Journals From the Age of Eleven Until her Death

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Anais Nin began her journey in writing journals from the age of eleven until she died in 1977 in Los Angeles, California. Most of her journals were published during her lifetime as she expressed her relationships and thoughts.

In her journals, she mostly describes her marriage with Rupert Pole and Hugh Parker Guiler as well as other affairs she was involved in.

Anais Nin was also involved with Henry Miller and Otto Rank who significantly influenced her writing.

2. She Married her First Husband, Hugh Parker Guiler

Anais Nin got married to her first husband, Hugh Parker Guiler on March 3^rd, 1923 in Havana. Hugh was a banker and artist who later came to be known as “Ian Hugo” after he made experimental films in the late 1940s.

After the couple got married, they later moved to Â鶹APP the following year and Hugh continued with his career as a banker.

Anais Nin also continued with her interest in writing. She also had the opportunity to train as a flamenco dancer with Francisco Miralles Arnau between the mid-to-late 1920s.

3. Anais Nin had Several Relationships with Famous Authors

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Anais Nin had several relationships with famous authors whom she wrote about them in her diary. Most of them became main characters in her erotic books that have spread in most parts of her country.

The American surrealist named Henry Miller became most famous for having the long-term affair with Anais Nin.

After Anais Nin became very interested in studying psychoanalysis, she studied with Rene Allendy and later Otto Rank who all became her lovers.

She also met a former actor named Rupert pole and the two ended up dating and traveled back to California together.

4. She was Among the First Women to Explore the Realm of Erotic Writing

Anais Nin has been popularly recognized as the first woman known to extensively explore the realm of erotic writing. She has also received several acknowledgments as the finest writer of female erotica.

She was the first popular woman in the modern west to be involved in erotic writing. Before her, erotic writing by females was very rare except for the great work of Kate Chopin which was a notable exception.

5. Anais Nin Learnt Erotic Writing from an American Apartment

Anais Nin learned about erotic writing after going back to Â鶹APP with her mother, husband, and two brothers. They rent an apartment that belonged to an American man who was away for the summer.

Anais Nin read some of the paperbacks in the apartment that contained erotic writing. Although she knew nothing about erotic writing, by the time she was done reading she knew everything about sexual exploits.

Since then she had a desire for erotic writing and had a degree in erotic lore.

6. She was involved in Erotic Writing Due to a Need for Money

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The desperate need for money led Anais Nin to begin writing erotic and pornographic narratives. Anais Nin and some of her friends began writing the material for an anonymous collector for a dollar a page.

She never intended that the materials should be published but later changed her mind in the early 1970s.

7. Anais Nin had a Sexual Relationship with her Father

Anais Nin confessed to having a sexual relationship with her father when she was thirty. She wrote this in her first book named House of Incest which shows her brief sexual relationship with him. This took place after she visited her alienated father in France.

8. She was diagnosed with Cervical Cancer

Anaïs Nin. Photo by GFreihalter.

 Anais Nin was later diagnosed with cervical cancer in 1974 which she battled for a very long time.

She also underwent several medical treatments including chemotherapy and radiation which proved futile. She later passed on at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and her body was cremated.

9. Anais Nin Secretly Married Pole

Anais Nin was already married to Guiler by the time she met with Rupert pole in an elevator in Manhattan. She was heading to a party and immediately she fell in love with Rupert Pole.

She was still married to Guiler who was not aware of the love affair she had with Rupert pole. The two lovebirds took the relationship a step further and they married secretly in 1955.

10. She was awarded a Doctorate Degree

Anais Nin belonged to several movements which included the surrealist movement in the 1930s. Other movements included the feminist movement in the 1960s and the Avant-Garde movement of the 1940s.

Due to her social and literary propaganda, she received the doctorate award from the Philadelphia College of Arts.

Anais Nin is well known as the first woman to engage in erotic writing which was very rare for women. She has had several affairs with different men and she also had a sexual relationship with her father.

She had a very successful career although she later died after she was diagnosed with cervical cancer.