The Rosy Crucifixion

Sexus is the first novel in Miller's Rosy Crucifixion trilogy. Due to allegedly licentious content, the trilogy was initially banned in the United States, and published only in France and Japan. Hence, the imprint declares that this edition is 'printed for private circulation' only. Miller was concerned about publishing the novel in the States due to the possibility that his ex-wife Beatrice (the model for Maude) would bring a lawsuit for her fictionalised portrayal. In a letter of September 1949, the author Lawrence Durrell (Miller's close friend) wrote scathingly of Sexus as a 'shower of lavatory filth […] excrementitious and sad'. Miller retorted that '[i]f it was not good, it was true; if it was not artistic, it was sincere; if it was in bad taste, it was on the side of life'.

First edition, 2 volumes, 8vo., one of 3000 copies, upper corner of vol. 1 front free endpaper clipped, publisher's green cloth (without dust jackets as issued), very good condition overall (lower cover of vol. 1 with light stain, light staining on spine and edges of bindings and very light spotting at edges of some pages in both vol. 1 and vol. 2).