Paul: Teenager who fears making mistakes because of the demanding nature of his parents, who hire a detective to find him; has sex with Djuna. Based on William Pinckard, a seventeen-year-old boy with whom Nin had a sexual relationship (see Mirages).

Donald: A feminine young man who desires experiences forbidden by his parents; dominated by his lover Michael though he does not demonstrate love adequately; evicted from an apartment for failing to pay rent. Based on poet Robert Duncan (see Mirages).

Michael: College student who pursues Djuna and dominates his lover Donald, with whom he wishes to live peacefully; wants to remain an adolescent. Based on Nin’s cousin Eduardo Sánchez, who had a sexual relationship with Robert Duncan (see Mirages).

Lawrence: Impulsive teenager who shows Djuna a mouse that he dyed blue; with Paul, paints Djuna’s room. Based on Nin’s young friend Pablo (see Mirages).

Lillian: Pianist married to Jay, whom she vows to leave because he does not care about her; has an affair with a stranger. Composite character based on the aggressive aspect of Nin’s personality, which is reflected by her friend Thurema Sokol (see Mirages).

Jay: Hedonistic painter and unfaithful to husband of Lillian; considers all women sexually hungry. Based on Henry Miller (see Henry & June).

Sabina: Secretive woman who courts danger, cannot find love, and wants to consume Jay. Composite character based on June Miller and the aspect of Nin that sought to emulate her (see Henry & June).

Uncle Philip: Gloved, genteel, and lonely man who witnesses many events, though he is not remembered.

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

PUBLISHING HISTORY

1940s New York was, to Anaïs Nin, a hostile environment in which to be a writer. Nin’s poetic, symbolic fiction was the polar opposite of the conventional realism publishers sought, and she was forced to self-publish her work for years. Her fortunes changed when she befriended the young writer Gore Vidal, who at the time worked for the big publishing firm of E. P. Dutton. It was he who convinced Dutton to offer a contract to Nin for her next several books, the first of which was Ladders to Fire (1946). Dutton, dissatisfied with the sales of Ladders, planned on waiting two years before publishing Children of the Albatross. Vidal fought to get the book printed immediately, and in mid-1947, it was. Both novels were later collected into Cities of the Interior (Anaïs Nin Press, 1959; Swallow Press, 1974).

—Paul Herron, Editor

Introduction

INTRODUCTION

In Children of the Albatross, Djuna, a mature woman, seeks to contact her own adolescent self through a young man of seventeen. She is returning to adolescence, unconsciously, to discover what impedes her forward movement into experience. In Paul she sees her own fears, contractions, reticences, evasions.