"Life shrinks or expands according to one's courage." -Anais Nin

Anais Nin is one of those marvelous characters of the twentieth century who were scandalous in their day, but almost tame by current standards. She was born in 1903 into an artistic family whose economic fortunes did quite a bit of shrinking and expanding during her childhood. She ran with the surrealist set following WW I and her written work explored the nature of the creative individual, psychoanalysis, the public and private self, and sexuality. When her circle (which included Henry Miller) was hard pressed for cash, they wrote erotica for a dollar a page