Finally, I published Solar Barque myself, making it a small book with interesting drawings by Peter Loomer, age 11. It focused on an episode of Lillian’s life. At the time I thought it contained all I wished to say, but like a piece of music which continues to haunt one, the theme continued to develop in my head; and I took it up again and carried it to completion.

Now there was a problem for my new and loyal publisher, Alan Swallow. Should we reprint Solar Barque with the new material? No one would notice then that it had been added to, and the reviewers would not review the same title twice. Swallow decided to make a new book with a new title: Seduction of the Minotaur. Some reviewers complained bitterly because they had already read the first part. Generosity was not exactly rampant, and again I could not come forward to explain how I worked. It might have compounded the difficulties.

When all the novels went out of print, and people wrote me asking for them, I published them together under the title Cities of the Interior (1959), and for the first time the continuity was established. This is the book with the addition of the second part of Solar Barque included in Seduction of the Minotaur. Now that the links between the novels are made clear, I hope the journey through the Cities of the Interior will be deeper and less difficult.

—Anaïs Nin, 1974

LADDERS TO FIRE

MAIN CHARACTERS

Lillian: Strong, masculine woman who doubts herself; wife of Larry, mother of Adele and Paul, and friend of Djuna; pianist who becomes pregnant by Jay, whom she works to support. She is unable to be happy unless she is with Jay; lover of Sabina, commits internal suicide at a party she and Jay host. Composite character based on the aggressive, passionate aspect of Anaïs Nin’s character that was reflected in her friend Thurema Sokol (see Mirages).

Djuna: Feminine friend of Lillian; as a child, lived in an orphanage; desires human warmth and tries to avoid pain. Memories of the past keep her from enjoying the present. Based on what Nin called “the mystic Anaïs” (see Mirages).

Sabina: Incendiary woman who dresses in red and silver, meets Jay at a café, and desires Lillian; attends a party hosted by Lillian and Jay. Composite character based on June Miller and the aspect of Nin that sought to emulate her (see Henry & June).

Jay: Hedonistic painter and lover of Lillian and Sabina; paints Sabina as a whore. Based on Henry Miller (see Henry & June).

Descriptions in part from Anaïs Nin Character Dictionary by Benjamin Franklin V

PUBLISHING HISTORY

The journey of Ladders to Fire is somewhat confusing: it contains parts of previously published books, and the book itself has undergone several significant transformations. Many of the passages in the second section of the book, “Bread and the Wafer,” are taken from the novella “Djuna,” which appears in the 1939 edition of The Winter of Artifice. In “Djuna,” the title character is romantically involved with the Henry and June Miller characters (Hans and Johanna, respectively, who are renamed Jay and Sabina in Ladders). This entire novella was scrapped (Nin asserted it was for reasons of censorship, but later claimed it was poorly written) for the 1942 American edition of Winter of Artifice (self-published by Nin’s Gemor Press), but it was rewritten and incorporated in Ladders to Fire. In 1945, Gemor Press published a precursor to Ladders, titled This Hunger, which was divided into three sections: “Hejda,” “Lillian and Djuna,” and “Stella.” When Nin signed with E. P. Dutton, Ladders to Fire consisted of “Bread and the Wafer,” “Lillian and Djuna,” and “Stella.” Nin expressed her final wishes about the content of the novel when she published it in Cities of the Interior (1959), where the text includes “This Hunger” (originally “Lillian and Djuna”) and “Bread and the Wafer.”