In Favor of the Sensitive Man
by Anaïs Nin
The late essays: masculinity reconsidered, women's becoming, travel, and craft — the last collection published in her lifetime.
- 1976
About Anaïs Nin
The story, briefly
Spoiler-freeThe essays of Nin's famous years, gathered in 1976: the title piece's early argument that the culture's remaking of women requires a matching remaking of men — the 'sensitive man' welcomed rather than mocked — alongside pieces on women and creativity, writers and books, travel from Fez to Bali, and the craft doctrine of her lectures in printed form. A Harvest paperback original from Harcourt, it was the last book she published before her death the following January. (Essays — nothing to spoil.)
The story, in more detail
The collection bottles the lecture era in essay form. Most pieces had appeared in the magazines of the early seventies, when editors wanted Nin on everything from eroticism to travel, and the range shows the late platform: cultural argument, portraiture, places, and the permanent subjects of diary and craft. The title essay is the striking one in hindsight — a defense of male gentleness written in 1974, years before the culture found vocabulary for the question.
Published by Harcourt as a Harvest original in 1976, the book closed her lifetime's shelf; Delta of Venus, already in press, would open the posthumous one months later. Read beside A Woman Speaks, it completes the record of what the famous Nin actually said to her era — the spoken version there, the written version here.
What's inside
Essays and articles from the fame years, in four registers: the cultural arguments, led by the title essay's case for the sensitive man; pieces on women, creativity, and becoming; travel writing — Morocco, Bali, and elsewhere — in her sensory key; and the craft essays carrying the lecture doctrine into print. Magazine-length pieces, arranged for the general reader.
Why we recommend it
The title essay
A short piece that reads decades ahead of its date.
The whole late range
Argument, portrait, travel, craft — the famous Nin's registers in one volume.
The shelf's closing bracket
Her lifetime bibliography ends here; the posthumous era begins with the next book.
What this book explores
Timeline
1970–1974
The essays appear in the magazines of the fame years, the title piece in 1974.
1976
Harcourt publishes the collection as a Harvest original — the lifetime shelf's last book.
Book editions
Paperback
- Paperback
- Harcourt Brace Jovanovich (Harvest)
- 1976
Reader reviews
Readers may also like
In Favor of the Sensitive Man: frequently asked questions
What is In Favor of the Sensitive Man?
A 1976 collection of Anaïs Nin's essays and articles from her famous years — cultural argument, women and creativity, travel, and craft — the last book published in her lifetime.
What is the title essay about?
It argues that the remaking of women's roles requires a matching remaking of men's — that the gentle, emotionally open man should be welcomed as the movement's ally, not its casualty. It first appeared in 1974.
When were the essays written?
Mostly in the early 1970s, for the magazines of her fame years; the collection gathers them with some earlier pieces.
How does it relate to A Woman Speaks?
They are companions from the same years — A Woman Speaks records the spoken Nin of the lecture halls, this book the written Nin of the magazines.
Was it really her last book?
The last published in her lifetime, in 1976. Delta of Venus was in press when she died in January 1977 and opened the posthumous shelf.