October, 1940: The Artist

"The artist is tutoring the soul, civilizing the savage in us, necessary to a humane society," Anais Nin says. "He has been the eyes, the ears, the voice of humanity. He was always the transcendentalist who X-rayed our true states of being," she continues. The artist dreams, imagines, invents, experiments, and gives meaning to everything, she believes.

September, 1940: Reverie of Europe

Anais Nin continues to compare America to Europe. She is disillusioned by the study of the masses rather than the individual. She feels that if an individual were understood, this would give insight into human beings as a whole. She does like the activity, the intensity, the tempo of New York, although she says it prevents the experience from seeping in due to a lack of time for reflection, which she needs so that understanding is born. Anais says that New York is the opposite of Paris where everything is designed for intimacy whereas in New York, people are unconcerned with intimacy, development of friendship, and self development.

July, 1940: Charisma

Anais Nin visits Caresse Crosby at her home in Bowling Green, Virginia. Anais describes Caresse:

- She moves with airiness and freedom.

- She is filled with femininity and charm.

- She consents, invites, assents, agrees, is receptive and yielding and draws everyone around her.

- She has a gift for friendship and is happiest when all of her friends are sitting around her table.

- She talks intimately and tells delightful stories.

The atmosphere changes when she is away. Now that's charisma.

May, 1940 Life in the Village

Anais Nin has rented a furnished apartment in Washington Square West. The Village is filled with artists and writers, before and after Anais's time there - Henry James, Edith Wharton, Edward Hopper, Mark Twain, Leonard Bernstein, Khalil Gibran, Edgar Allan Poe, e.e. cummings, Marlon Brando.

Meandering streets, speakeasies during Prohibition - Chumley's played host to F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway, literary ambiance, give the Village its Bohemian tone. Anais loves its charm, character, atmosphere: old houses, small shops, trees, patios, back yards, studio windows, small theaters, people strolling about, sitting in the park.

It sounds as though Anais has discovered New York's version of Paris.

April, 1940: Spiritual Needs

Spiritual needs can be met by dancing until 5:00 a.m. at the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem.

Spiritual needs can be met by being out in the world, living fully, getting ideas for a book to write, then plunging into writing it.

Spiritual needs can be met by finding an Italian espresso place on Macdougal Street, sitting at a small table with tottering chairs, watching the Italians play chess, not feeling rushed, talking over coffee.

That's how Anais Nin meets her spiritual needs; how about you?

February, 1940: Freedom

Anais Nin says, "There are only two kinds of freedom in this world: the freedom of the rich and powerful, and the freedom of the artist and monk who renounce possessions." She has lived in both worlds. She has lived a life of luxury, traveling, going to the Elizabeth Arden spa for a day of pampering, enjoying fine dining. She has also lived a life of poverty, wearing worn out shoes and stockings, eating fried potatoes for dinner with Henry, drinking sour wine out of a plastic cup with a friend. Anais wants both worlds for herself. She wants to be an artist, but she wants to be a famous artist with the accompanying fortune. She wants it all; she doesn't want to choose between the two worlds.

In this entry, Anais also tells about the death of Dr. Otto Rank and gets philosophical: "In the face of death, one asks oneself invariably: Did I see enough, hear enough, observe enough, love enough, did I listen attentively, did I appreciate, did I sustain the life?" Thank goodness for freedom. Anais can see, hear, observe, love, and appreciate to her heart's content, either with or without money.

Winter, 1939: Return to New York

After arriving in Paris in December, 1924 from New York, Anais and Hugh return to New in December, 1939 from Paris.  The media says the war will be over soon. She longs for Paris where life is rich, creative, and human, full of love and friendship. She would rather be eating meager breakfasts in a Paris bistro with small tables and tottering chairs and sleeping in unheated rooms than living in the lap of luxury in New York, far away from fear and anxiety surrounding the war. In Paris, people are eager to enter into conversation and get to know you; in New York, conversations lack substance and are shallow. She feels empty, lifeless.

Nonetheless, Anais meets new people; the phone is ringing; her social life is beginning in New York.