House of Incest
The leap: from these apprentice sketches to her first real book is five years and a full transformation.
Read our take
Waste of Timelessness
by Anaïs Nin
The apprentice Nin, published at last: stories written around 1930, before the diary's fame, before even House of Incest.
- 1977
About Anaïs Nin
The story, briefly
Spoiler-freeSixteen stories from the very beginning — written around 1929 to 1931, in the Paris and Louveciennes years before Henry Miller, before the Gemor Press, before any of the published books — and left in manuscript until Magic Circle Press issued them in 1977, the year Nin died. They are apprentice work and openly so: a young writer trying postures, borrowing lights, and here and there striking the images her mature books would spend decades developing. (What's inside below — early sketches, nothing to spoil.)
The story, in more detail
Every posthumous Nin publication is a window into the workshop, and this is the earliest window: the stories predate her first published book, the 1932 study of D. H. Lawrence, and show what she was writing when the diary was still private practice and fiction still an ambition. The settings are her actual map of those years — Paris, the suburbs, artists' parties, women restless inside comfortable marriages — and the heroines are trial runs for the women of the continuous novel.
The collection appeared from Magic Circle Press in 1977 in the wave of publishing that followed the Diary's success, when everything in the trunk found readers. Its interest is honest rather than inflated: no one claims these are finished Nin, but the title story's image — a woman leaving a life measured in wasted timelessness — is already unmistakably hers, and readers of the mature books will recognize seed after seed.
What's inside
Sixteen short pieces from around 1930. Recurring figures: young wives restless in arranged comfort, artists measuring themselves against Paris, women testing how much interior life a conventional frame can hold. The title story sets the register — a woman taking stock of a life spent waiting inside timelessness — and the rest range from sketches and fables to small finished portraits. Read them as the workshop floor of the later books: postures tried on, images discovered, the diary's raw material reaching for fictional form for the first time.
Themes and analysis
The wisteria grows left
In the title-story exchange quoted by Rochelle Holt, the wisteria's change is measured first as something that might have happened overnight, then against a span of twenty years. The mismatch turns a small observation in a garden into a reckoning with elapsed life. The plant has been growing while the woman has failed to register its history; what looks suddenly new is also evidence of time already spent. Her recognition of wasted time punctures the wish for timelessness without supplying a ready account of what should come next.
The bus that never stops
In the Tishnar dialogue quoted by Rochelle Holt, an ordinary request to leave a bus meets an impossible rule: it never stops, and the journey happens only once. The conductor's matter-of-fact manner makes the fantastic destination feel like an established service regulation. Desire then becomes a problem of timing, as the woman glimpses the face she has long wanted while she cannot get off. The scene gives movement an unsettling finality: traveling toward another world can mean losing the chance to encounter what matters in this one.
Why we recommend it
Origins, unretouched
Apprentice work published as apprentice work — a rare honest look at a stylist before the style.
Seeds of the sequence
Image after image that the continuous novel later develops appears here in first draft.
The map of 1930
Paris and Louveciennes as the young Nin actually lived them, before the diary made the addresses famous.
What this book explores
Timeline
circa 1929–1931
Nin writes the stories in Paris and Louveciennes, years before her first published book.
1977
Magic Circle Press publishes the collection posthumously; the apprentice work finds readers on the strength of the Diary's fame.
2017
Swallow Press publishes a new edition of the early stories, introduced by Allison Pease.
Book editions
Hardcover
- Hardcover
- Magic Circle Press
- 1977
Paperback
- Paperback
- Swallow Press / Ohio University Press
Reader reviews
Readers may also like
The Diary of Anaïs Nin, 1931–1934
The same years, recorded rather than fictionalized — and incomparably more assured.
Read our takeWaste of Timelessness: frequently asked questions
What is Waste of Timelessness?
A collection of sixteen early stories by Anaïs Nin, written around 1929–1931 and unpublished until Magic Circle Press issued them in 1977.
When did Nin write these stories?
At the very start of her career — in the Paris and Louveciennes years around 1930, before her first published book and before the friendships that shaped her mature work.
Was it published in her lifetime?
No. The collection appeared posthumously in 1977, the year of her death, during the publishing wave that followed the Diary's success.
Is it a good introduction to Nin?
No — start with the Diary, House of Incest, or A Spy in the House of Love. This is apprentice work, valuable for showing where the mature books began.
What are the stories about?
Mostly restless young women — wives inside comfortable marriages, artists testing themselves against Paris — trial runs for the heroines of her later fiction.
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References
References
The sources below include the primary text, editions, scholarship, archival materials, and other records that informed this page. They document Waste of Timelessness, its publication, and its place in literary history.
1Waste of Timelessness
NovelAnaïs Nin, 1977Used forThe primary text represented by this page, used for descriptions of the work’s contents and for any quoted passages shown here.
2Anaïs Nin — biography
WebsiteThe Anaïs Nin FoundationUsed forUsed to place Waste of Timelessness within Anaïs Nin's published work and verify its bibliographic context.
3Anaïs Nin Papers — diary, March–September 1938
ArchiveUCLA Library Special CollectionsUsed forUsed for independent biographical, archival, or historical context surrounding Anaïs Nin's career and the period in which Waste of Timelessness appeared.
4Anaïs Nin: A Biography
BiographyG. P. Putnam's Sons, 1995Used forUsed to cross-check authorship, chronology, and the work's place in Anaïs Nin's wider catalogue.
5Anaïs: The Erotic Life of Anaïs Nin
BiographyLittle, Brown, 1993Used forUsed to verify Anaïs Nin's bibliography and place Waste of Timelessness within the broader chronology of Anaïs Nin's career.
6waste of timelessness — edition and reception record
WebsiteOhio University PressUsed forDocuments the dated edition or contemporary reception included in the timeline.
7Anais Nin: An Understanding of Her Art — public excerpts from the 1997 book
WebsiteScars Publications, 1997Used forSelected title-story and Tishnar passages quoted in Holt's public 1997-book excerpts; used for literary readings, not her biographical or clinical interpretations.
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Why these sources are here
The primary text is the baseline reference for every book page. Additional references document publication history, interpretation, and historical context where that evidence is available.
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