Books: Two Pal Joeys

MY FRIEND HENRY MILLER (255 pp.) —Alfred Perles—John Day ($4).

This book will be read devoutly by the thin cult of aging Americans for whom Henry Miller was the big name in a bohemian pantheon of goofy godlets. For others it has interest as the life record of a literary anarchist of boundless charm and talent but limited good sense, the loosest member of the Lost Generation, who, now 64. has lived these twelve years past as a sage emeritus in an arty enclave at Big Sur, Calif.

Miller's fame rests on Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn, jubilantly riotous narratives whose...