Anaïs Nin and the places of her childhood

Family background   top of page

Anais Nin's mother, Rosa Culmell y Vaurigaud, was born in 1871, the eldest daughter of the Danish consul to Havana, Thorvald Culmell Christensen, who was born in Denmark, and his wife Anais Vaurigaud y Bourdin, of French descent but born in Cuba. Thorvald was a successful businessman and they lived in a big house on the Malecon beachfront, a fashionable area of Havana. The couple eventually had 9 children, 5 daughters and 4 sons, and were of the highest social standing in Havana. Anais Vaurigaud, the grandmother of Anais Nin, left her husband and her children and moved into her own house in Havana where she lived as she pleased. As Rosa was now the oldest daughter it fell to her to organise the household, a task for which she was well prepared during her education in the exclusive Brentwood catholic convent school in Long Island, New York, where she also learned perfect English. Due to her important role in the Culmell household she was still single at the age of 30. She had singing lessons and was said to have a beautiful voice.

Anais Nin's father, José Joaquin Nin y Castellanos was born in Havana in 1879, the first son of a Spanish Cavalry officer, Joaquin Nin y Tudo, and his Cuban wife Angela Castellanos y Perdomo. The family moved to Barcelona in 1880 and Joaquin Nin stayed there until he was 21. He studied the piano and eventually became a concert pianist, he departed for Havana in 1901 and gave his first concert there in february, he had to live with money from relatives, though, as he had not yet made a name for himself.

Joaquin and Rosa met in a music store in Havana. She was independent, much older and more mature than him but they shared a love for music. She fell for the romantic image that he cultivated and he sensed that she would help him to further his career. Her father was against a marriage with the poor musician from Barcelona but allowed Rosa to have singing lessons with him and they soon gave their first joint concert. They married on April 8, 1902, and Rosa's father paid fro them to go to Paris and live there until Joaquin could look after the family with his own income.

Europe 1903 - 1914   top of page

Angela Anais Juana Antolina Rosa Edelmira Nin y Culmell was born at 8 pm on 21 February 1903. The family lived in Neuilly-sur-Seine, a fashionable suburb of Paris, where they had rented a spacious flat in the Rue du Géneral-Honrion-Bertier no 7. Her parents entertained many musicians and the evenings were spent playing music. In January 1905 the family went on a long trip to Cuba to see Rosa's family on whom they still depended financially. Anais Nin's brother Thorvald was born on March 12, 1905. Her parents often argued and Joaquin Nin did not care to hide his many sexual adventures.

When the family returned from Havana, they rented a smaller house in St.-Cloud, Rosa's sister Juana moved in with them to help. Rosa gave singing lessons to support the family while Joaquin was often travelling to give concerts throughout Europe and in Cuba.

In 1908 the family moved to Berlin to further Joaquin's musical career, and on September 5, 1908, Anais Nin's youngest brother Joaquin was born. Their father was travelling most of the time until in spring 1909 he called the family to come and live with him in Brussels where he was appointed professor. The lived in Uccle, a suburb of Brussels, and Anais went to school there. The children played a lot with each other, Anais made up stories for her younger brother Joaquin. The family did not live in harmony, however, as the parents still argued a lot and the father regularly spanked the children. The father also took many photographs of the children. In 1912, Anais had to be taken to hospital for an operation, she was very ill for 3 months and the family followed the doctor's adviced and moved to a warmer climate, to Arcachon, a small town at the French Atlantic coast, in February 1913.

There, her father began to pursue Maruca Rodriguez, the beautiful young daughter of a wealthy family. He left the family and advised Rosa to move to Barcelona and live with his parents. As he did not provide financial help, Rosa sold all their belongings and went to Barcelona. Her family wanted her to return to Cuba but at first she did not believe the separation to be definite and so they lived in Barcelona where Joaquin's parents took them up and were very friendly. Anais was used to speaking French but now learned Spanish. Her father wrote to her that she should keep speaking French, he did not write to Rosa but wrote to his parents instructing them how to educate the children. Anais brothers spoke Spanish with each other but Anais continued to speak and write in French.

Rosa could not support her three children despite giving singing lessons, so she asked her sisters for help. They agreed to help her to go to New York, which seemed an easy move as she was educated there and her sister Antolina lived there, and so on July 25, 1914, Rosa and her three children took the Montserrat to sail to New York.



America   top of page

After 17 days the ship arrived in New York, on August 11, 1914. It was on this journey that she began to write her diary. In New York the family was welcomed by Rosa's sister Antolina and her family, who also help Rosa to buy a brownstone house in Manhattan, 158 West 75th Street, large enough to take in musicians as boarders. The family lived in only two rooms. To stock up the family income Rosa began to do shopping for wealthy clients in Cuba, keeping 10% commission, she also made some real estate investments, and her little income kept the family going. Anais was sent to a Catrholic school but did not like it there and was enrolled in a public school and later in Wadleigh Highschool. She had to cope with the English language now, picking up the spoken language quickly but having at first trouble with the written language.

Joaquin reminded his daughter of her European heritage and so she did not want to think of herself as American, besides that, her passport was Cuban. Anais left school at 16, having no love for the rigid timetables. She preferred to go to the library and read.

By 1919 Rosa's business endeavours were failing, partly due to a crisis in Cuba and partly to misinvestments, so she sold the house in Manhattan and they moved to 620 Audley Street in Richmond Hill, Queens, then far less urban than Manhattan. For the first time Anais had her own bedroom, it was furnished as she had always wanted it, in white wood and with blue curtains and carpets. However, Rosa was still having financial problems and was hoping for Anais to meet a rich man in Cuban society to solve the family's financial worries. She commissioned a portrait of Anais and prepared her debut in Cuban society for 1921.

In 1920 Anais began using English in her diary. Rosa was frequently entertaining guests at the house in Richmond Hill, there was an atmosphere of music, dancing, poetry. Her cousin Eduardo Sanchez was a frequent visitor and became Anais' confidante until his parents forbade their contact because they feared he would fall in love with Anais and they wanted him to marry a suitable Cuban girl of equally high social standing.

Rosa's financial trouble got worse in 1920 and she took in boarders again. Anais was thinking about enrolling in Columbia university and spent the year reading avidly to prepare. She was accepted in winter 1921 but not allowed to take courses in philosophy and psychology as she had planned, so she studied English and French but did not show any interest and dropped the courses after a year. In order to support the family she decided to look for work. She registered with an agency as an artists model and posed for painters and illustrators.

On March 12, 1921, she met Hugh Parker Guiler at a dance in his parents' home in Forest Hills, Queens. they were attracted to each other but did not see each other very often at first as they were both too shy. They discovered a common interest in literature and she was thrilled to find out that he also kept a diary. However, his parents disapproved of Anais because of her poor, Cuban and Catholic background, they threatened to disown and disinherit him. They nevertheless got engaged secretly on June 8, 1922. Hugo was still not sure about the marriage, because he did not know whether he would be able to support his wife and her family, as Rosa had made Anais promise that they would all live together once she got married, something Anais was not too keen on but in the end agreed to.

Hugo was sent on a 3-month trip to Europe by his parents who hoped that he would give up the idea of marrying Anais. In the meantime, Anais was sent to Cuba, where her mother still hoped she would find a wealthy Cuban to marry. Hugo cut his journey short and wrote to Anais that he would marry her. On March 3, 1923, they got married in a Catholic church in Havana in a small ceremony, attended only by Anais' Cuban aunts and cousins.

If you want to learn more about the early life of Anais Nin I highly recommend the Early Diaries, they are beautifully written and truly reflect her own writing because - unlike later editions of her diaries - they are not edited or cut in any way. They show the sensibility of her as a young girl and then her awakening as a young woman. Beautiful writing!
a short bio can be found here: biographical notes