Pasadena Star News: Anais Nin and the handsome Sierra Madre forest ranger

Mod: The latest from my occasional PSN soapbox. 

Anais Nin and the handsome Sierra Madre forest ranger (Pasadena Star Newslink): I first came across the Anais Nin connection while reading Michelle Zack’s wonderful history, “Southern California Story: Seeking the Better Life in Sierra Madre.” When asked about Sierra Madre’s most recognizable literary figure in a Hometown: Pasadena interview from 2009, Michelle dished this:

“Anais Nin, the erotic diarist, lived there with the forest ranger Rupert Pole for a decade and helped the Forest Service during the wildfires of 1953. When handling calls about the fire, she started answering with: ‘Forest Service, Paris Branch,’ and some people got distracted by her accent and wanted to know who was on the other end of the line. Pole and Nin married in 1955, but she continued commuting between Sierra Madre and New York City, where she was also married to Hugo Guiler, a filmmaker who was editing her diaries. When these were about to be published, she annulled her marriage to Pole because she was afraid of getting her guys in trouble; both had been claiming her as a spouse and a tax deduction. So a major voice in changing sexual mores in the 1960s was quietly living as a bigamist in this pretty conservative San Gabriel Valley town.”

And where did the literary chanteuse of free love reside? On Sturtevant Drive. Which is in the Canyon, of course. Where else would she live? The house still exists, though I have been told the folks renting there would prefer not being disturbed by the likes of you.

In case you were a business major wondering who Anais Nin was, here is a brief description of her fame taken from Wikipedia:

“Nin is hailed by many critics as one of the finest writers of female erotica. She was one of the first women to explore fully the realm of erotic writing, and certainly the first prominent woman in modern Europe to write erotica … Nin was a friend, and in some cases lover, of many leading literary figures, including Henry Miller, Antonin Artaud, Edmund Wilson, Gore Vidal, James Agee, and Lawrence Durrell. Her passionate love affair and friendship with Miller strongly influenced her as a woman and an author.”

At one time numbering among those banned in both the United States and Great Britain for publishing literature of an unabashedly erotic nature, the world has since cooled off. Today Nin’s acclaimed works are taught to blushing undergraduates at universities worldwide. Her books have sold in the millions, and remain popular today

The reason I’m bringing this up is currently the governing agency of Sierra Madre is hard at work assisting in the mulching of whatever interesting natural settings remain there. The relentless need for more cash putting everything good at risk. City employee pension solvency apparently being all that matters.

I’ve often thought of the Anais Nin legacy as a more positive resource for Sierra Madre. Rather than ravaging the hillsides for the grotesque profits of greedy out-of-town developers, why not take a gentler path?

Turning her former home into a museum would not only attract thousands of devoted fans from around the globe, but also bring sorely needed commerce to downtown shops and restaurants. An Anais Nin study center could attract esteemed lecturers from the academic world. There is also the sale of merchandise such as T-shirts, photos, artifacts, hats.

How about changing the name of the city library to honor Anais Nin? The relevance it has sought for decades could finally arrive. A Rupert Pole Fire Station might provoke conversation. Rebranding the Buccaneer the Nin Bin? Just a thought.

I have serious doubts any of this will happen. For one, Anais remains a figure of much controversy to book burners. And for a town where resident literary affinity is displayed with library lawn signs featuring a nonlinguistic (heart), it may represent an edgy leap into a frightening unknown.

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