Arrived in Fes yesterday. Xeroxed seven pages from the second diary about Fez to read while here. I’m also carrying my Kindle and Volume 2 is available on the Kindle but of course I wanted our friends to have access to the printed page as well.

“A trip to Morocco. A short but vivid one. I feel in love with Fez. Peace. Dignity. Humility. I have just left the balcony where I stood listening to the evening prayer rising over the white city.”

Last night we sat on the top terrace of Riad 9 in the Medina, transfixed with the experience so similar to Nin’s listening to the evening prayer rising over the city, along with the spectacular sight of all the birds that owners let out of cages at this time of the day. A powerful and magical moment. This is a treasure of a Riad, the owner bought it eleven years ago, he was the second foreigner to buy a home in the Medina and it has been lovingly restored.

Steven Reigns was kind enough to send an audible file of Nin talking about Fez in Volume 2. How I wish I knew how to attach at m4a file to a blog for any of you reading this post.

“The pages of our life are blurred palimpsest, new lines are wreathed on others half erased and those on older still and so forever…..”

The novelist Anaïs Nin claimed an involvement with Vidal in her memoir The Diary of Anaïs Nin but Vidal denied it in his memoir Palimpsest.

In a recent WSJ magazine spread (june 2010) there is an article entitled Estate of Grace, a story about Mitchell Denburg’s hacienda beneath a dormant volcano in Antigua, Guatemala.

“He’s an avowed fan of the architecture here, and can wax nostalgic about the Antiguqa that existed before Guatemala’s 35 year civil war broke out in 1960; a Central American hideout for the international jet set, with a generous helping of bohemianism. This was, after all, where Gore Vidal came to stay in the late 1940’s taking over the ruins of a Carmelite convent, living with Anaïs Nin and according to local legend, turning his self-imposed Antiquan exile into an ongoing party” —Mark Rozzo

WSJournal magazine June 2010 Michael Reynolds

This letter from Matilde Batista dated April 12, 2002. We apologize that we were unable to change any part of the offending line as it is in a graphic designed when this version of the site was launched in 1996.

Dear M. Griffin,

Please note that the sentence in your website which states that Anaïs Nin was born of a Catalan father and a Danish mother is incorrect.

Anais’ father, Joaquin Nin Castellanos, was CUBAN;

the Nins were Catalans, and the Castellanos were Cubans who came from the Canary Islands.

Anais’ mother Rosa Culmell Varigaud, was CUBAN. (Rosa’s father, Thorvald Culmell Shistensen, was Danish; Rosa’s mother, Anaïs Variagaud Bodin , was born in New Orleans, USA)

Thorvald Culmell and Anaïs Varigaud lived in Cuba and their seven children were born there” Rosa, Edelmira, Anaïs, Antolina, Pedro, Enrique and Thorvald (Am not sure of their birth order.) Only the girls had offspring.

Although Anaïs and Joaquin Nin Culmell were born in Paris and Berlin, respectively, Anaïs’ brother Thorvald, was born in Cuba in 1905. When Anaïs’ mother took her children to live in New York, they were often visited by their Cuban cousins.

Sincerely,

Matilde Batista

Vacation Rental on Corfu! Korfu Ionian Islands Greece

Very special and exclusive holidays in the house of Lawrence Durrell, Henry Miller and Anaïs Nin – partly with original furniture from 1935. It has about 90 sqm with 4 sleeping rooms, dining room/living room, full equipped kitchen, 2 bathrooms (shower/tub). Room service possible, cleaning twice a week. Washing machine, Coffee maker and toaster. Breakfast balcony and living room with a perfect ocean view. 2 minutes walking distance to the nice beach with clear water. Parking space

For More Information and Rates

“The dream was always running ahead. To catch up, to live for a moment in unison with it, that was the miracle.” —Anaïs Nin

Special guest poet and Nin scholar Steven Reigns has been kind enough to forward information on his participation in helping to bring a historic interview with Anaïs Nin “from the vault”.(The Pacifica Radio Archive) His interview wraps up a month long series honoring Women’s History Month. Reigns selected the audio as a special guest scholar/poet. The interview recorded in 1955 just before the release of Nin’s Diary. The interviewer Francis Roberts speaks intimately with Nin about her writing styles, the origins of her diary as well aso her relationships with intimates mentioned in her Diary.

To give more background on Reigns, he produced the 105 Birthday Celebration for Anaïs held at the Hammer Gallery in UCLA: This video of Reigns introducing Anaïs Nin @ 105 underscores his remarkable devotion to her legacy and attests to his talents in integrating Nin studies in a manner that marries scholarship and poetry.

Reigns writes:
“I’m so pleased that the Anaïs Nin radio archive project I was asked to introduce is now online. It will be playing across the country throughout the week. It can also be listened to online.”

http://fromthevaultradio.org

http://audio.pacificaradioarchives.org

Kudos to Reigns who can be found at www.stevenreigns.com. Our thanks for his courtesy in mentioning our site.

The Wikipedia Entry for Anaïs Nin (English)

The Wikipedia Entry for Anaïs Nin (French)

The Wikipedia Entry for Anaïs Nin (Espanol)

“There are very few human beings who receive the truth, complete and staggering, by instant illumination. Most of them acquire it fragment by fragment, on a small scale, by successive developments, cellularly, like a laborious mosaic.”
—Anaïs Nin

Anaïs Nin’s Natal Chart

Anaïs NIN: astrologie et thème astral

English