Stand Still Like the Hummingbird: Essays

Henry Miller

New Directions Publishing, 1962 - Fiction - 194 pages

One of Henry Miller's most luminous statements of his personal philosophy of life, Stand Still Like the Hummingbird, provides a symbolic title for this collection of stories and essays. Many of them have appeared only in foreign magazines while others were printed in small limited editions which have gone out of print.

Miller's genius for comedy is at its best in Money and How It Gets That Way--a tongue-in-cheek parody of economics provoked by a postcard from Ezra Pound which asked if he ever thought about money. His deep concern for the role of the artist in society appears in An Open Letter to All and Sundry, and in The Angel is My Watermark he writes of his own passionate love affair with painting. The Immorality of Morality is an eloquent discussion of censorship. Some of the stories, such as First Love, are autobiographical, and there are portraits of friends, such as Patchen: Man of Anger and Light, and essays on other writers such as Walt Whitman, Thoreau, Sherwood Anderson and Ionesco.

Taken together, these highly readable pieces reflect the incredible vitality and variety of interests of the writer who extended the frontiers of modern literature with Tropic of Cancer and other great books.

What people are saying

STAND STILL LIKE THE HUMMINGBIRD

User Review  - Kirkus

That bohemian blockbuster, author of Tropic of Cancer, Henry Miller, is nothing if not personal, even less when not passionate. Here in essay after essay his volcano of the senses endlessly erupts ...

Review: Stand Still Like the Hummingbird

User Review  - Greg D. - Goodreads

Top three books of all time. I can't get enough of this book. I've lent it out so many times and I just keep buying it. Just writing this makes me want to pick it up.

Contents

• The Hour of Man: 1
• Children of the Earth: 11
• Open Sesame: 21
• Man of Anger and Light: 27
• The Angel Is My Watermark: 38
• First Love: 46
• Quest: 68
• Open Letter to Small Magazines: 75
• The Immorality of Morality: 86
• Ionesco: 93
• Walt Whitman: 107
• Money and How It Gets That Way: 119
• To Read or Not to Read: 157
• Let Us Be Content with: 168
• Anderson the Storyteller: 174
• The Novels of Albert Cossery: 181

Popular passages

Page 67 - Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help, and stay on horses, and trust in chariots, because they are many ; and in horsemen, because they are very strong : but they look not to the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the Lord ! 2.‎

Page 21 - The greater part of what my neighbors call good I believe in my soul to be bad, and if I repent of anything, it is very likely to be my good behavior. What demon possessed me that I behaved so well?‎

Page 142 - It is true of port traffic that "to him who hath shall be given and from him who hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.‎

Page 24 - Therefore, it seems to me that everything that exists is good — death as well as life, sin as well as holiness, wisdom as well as folly. Everything is necessary, everything needs only my agreement, my assent, my loving understanding; then all is well with me and nothing can harm me. I learned through my body and soul that it was necessary for me to sin, that I needed lust, that I had to strive for property and experience nausea and the depths of despair in order to learn not to resist them, in...‎

Page 53 - I tremble for a radical coming here, unless he is a radical on principle, by reason and reflection, and from the sense of right.3 I fear that if he were anything else, he would return home a tory.‎

Page 2 - God grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, courage to change the things we can, and the wisdom to know the difference...‎

Page 142 - to him who hath shall be given and from him who hath not, even that which he hath shall be taken away." The Welsh had loved their Bible so dearly that they probably would have continued to find much joy in it even if forced to shiver during services. That chapels were able to hold only the stolid bourgeoisie and a handful of old women who had attended services...‎

About the author

Henry Miller (1891 - 1980) was one of the most controversial American novelists during his lifetime. His book, The Tropic of Cancer, was banned in the some U.S. states before being overruled by the Supreme Court. New Directions publishes several of his books.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Stand Still Like the Hummingbird: Essays; Volume 236 of New Directions paperbook
• Author: Henry Miller
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: New Directions Publishing, 1962
• ISBN: 0811203220, 9780811203227
• Length: 194 pages
• Subjects: Fiction / General; Nature / Birdwatching Guides; Nature / General