Henry Miller, infamous for his use of unvarnished sexuality and seamy portraits of city life, combined a variety of modes – ranging from surrealism and romanticism to the jeremiad and the burlesque – as he investigated his life. His major works banned for three decades, Miller wrote prolifically, and versions of his experiences – both verifiable and fantastic – lie at the core of his narratives. While his sexual imagery often distracts his readers, Miller's importance far surpasses his numerous obscenity trials and extends to both his avant garde narrative style and his rejection of the strangulating values of capitalism. Born on December 26, 1891, Henry Valentine Miller experienced an ambivalent childhood in which he disdained his mother's bourgeois pretensions yet benefited from his status, particularly in relation to the struggling immigrants who encroached daily on his neighborhood. In Black Spring (1936) and the Rosy Crucifixion trilogy – Sexus (1949), Plexus (1952b), and Nexus…