Henry Valentine Miller (1891-1980) was born in New York City and spent his early life there. In the 1930s he went to Paris, France with his second wife, who went by the stage name June Mansfield. He remained in Paris throughout the decade, starting an affair with fellow author Anaïs Nin, who began helping to support Miller's time in Paris. Miller's wife divorced him in 1934. Miller published several books during his time in Paris, including Tropic of Cancer (1934), Black Spring (1936), and Tropic of Capricorn (1939).

After spending time in Greece, Miller traveled around the United States, eventually moving to Big Sur, California in the 1940s and later to Los Angeles in the 1960s. Miller continued writing throughout the rest of his life, including the trilogy The Rosy Crucifixion, collections of short stories, and a limited print chapbook On Turning Eighty. His early works were originally banned from entering the United States under obscenity laws but were smuggled in and read by many members of the Beat Generation of authors. A 1960s court case, overturning the obscenity ruling and declaring his book Tropic of Cancer a work of literature, allowed others of Miller's works to be published and sold in the United States.