Henry Miller (1891-1980) was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist best known for his banned books such as Tropic of Cancer and the Rosy Crucifixion trilogy. But it was Miller’s book The Time of the Assassins (1956), a study of Arthur Rimbaud, that profoundly influenced Jim Carroll’s decision to become a rock star.
Miller says poetry should be revolutionary–that it should change the world–and it should do so by appealing to the “inner register.” Talking about Miller’s influence on him, Carroll told Laura Fissinger:
A good poet has to write and affect the intellect, and be able to affect a virtual illiterate. And that’s what made me want to go into rock and roll. Kids may not be able to get the images intellectually, but they get them right through the heart and that’s much more important. They want something. They don’t want a goddamned message or anything like that, they want a door opened. Not anyone to lead them through and show them around, just somebody to open the door through images, saying, ‘there’s something out there, man. There ain’t much time left, you’re born out of this insane abyss and you’re going to fall back into it, so while you’re alive you might as well show your bare ass.’
Read excerpts from Time of the Assassins here.
Learn more about Henry Miller on Wikipedia.