I've been coming up to Esalen regularly for about 3 years now and it never disappoints. I do find that I take the same pictures year after year. The property is a photographer's dream. These photos were taken on my cell phone. I can only imagine what a 'real' camera would capture.
Big Sur is notoriously moody with fog and marine layers, but not this time. It was sunny and in the 80's the entire trip.This year I brought with me Henry Miller's "Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymous Bosch" which I'd purchased on a trip up here a few years ago at the fantastic Henry Miller bookstore a few miles North of Esalen off Highway 1.
Miller lived and wrote in the area for fifteen years and this book details what it was like being an artist, and all the characters who lived and worked in this part of the world when he did.
If I were a 20-30 year old guy, Henry Miller would be my idol. This book in particular gives permission to be an artist. Hell, as a 40-something-year-old woman I'm still in awe. His voice is so encouraging, funny and confident, and he writes about the area with such knowledge and passion.
I'm holding the book in front of the same mountains that are on the book cover (I think)
And just to bring things back full circle...
Sitting in my dining room is this postcard from Henry Miller himself. (see below) My mom's friend from Montreal, Isabelle, had written to him asking about farming opportunities in Big Sur (from what I understand, she didn't give a crap about farming opportunities, she just wanted to connect with the man himself) He wrote her back and she saved the postcard for the rest of her life. When she passed away, her other friend (my mom's best friend Ruth) recovered the card and gave it to me where it now sits framed in my home. This postcard has made a circuitous journey, but I'm honored and grateful that it landed in my hands. Now more than ever I feel connected to this wonderful piece of memorabilia from this iconic author.
