Anais Nin is Probably the Most Famous Person to Ever Live in Sierra Madre

– Courtesy photo

By Sierra Madre Tattler

Sierra Madre was once upon a time home to one of the world’s truly great and celebrated authors. Untold millions of copies of her books have been sold, movies made, and her works continue to be taught and studied at universities and colleges the world over. What undergraduate hasn’t gasped at some of the boldly unexpurgated descriptions of her many erotic adventures? Anais Nin is a rite of passage author, a portal through which young innocents pass and become worldly, and where the already worldly become resigned to a life lived only through the words of others.

She also walked the walk. Did you know Anais had two husbands, and at the very same time? That is not an easy thing to do. One lived in New York City, and the other here in Sierra Madre where he watched over our sparky wooded hills for the US Forest Service. Think of the time spent traveling. Yet for years she came back here.

Michelle Zack, who wrote the excellent “Southern California Story: Seeking the Better Life in Sierra Madre,” was interviewed by the blogsite “Hometown: Pasadena” back in 2009. When asked about Sierra Madre’s most famous resident writer, she told this story.

Anais Nin, the erotic diarist, lived there with the forest ranger Rupert Pole for a decade and helped the Forest Service during the wildfires of 1953. When handling calls about the fire, she started answering with: “Forest Service, Paris Branch,” and some people got distracted by her accent and wanted to know who was on the other end of the line. Pole and Nin married in 1955, but she continued commuting between Sierra Madre and New York City, where she was also married to Hugo Guiler, a filmmaker who was editing her diaries. When these were about to be published, she annulled her marriage to Pole because she was afraid of getting her guys in trouble; both had been claiming her as a spouse and a tax deduction! So a major voice in changing sexual mores in the 1960s was quietly living as a bigamist in this pretty conservative San Gabriel Valley town.

Sadly, in Sierra Madre, the home of Anais Nin for many years, her existence goes largely unremarked. I have often thought that this is a story the City of Sierra Madre, a town of some literary ambition, could develop and use to its advantage. Turning her home into an Anais Nin museum, complete with tours and seminars, would not only attract tourists and fans from all over the world, but also bring some badly needed commerce to downtown shops and restaurants.

An Anais Nin Day would be interesting as well. Think of the nicknacks. The Sierra Madre Library, which faithfully stocks many of her books, could play an exciting role as well. And while the Wistaria plant, Sierra Madre’s reigning roadside attraction, is nothing to be scoffed at, I am not certain that experience could ever offer quite as much depth.

Of course, I also have doubts this will ever happen. After all, Anais Nin was a bit notorious, and remains so even today. And in a town where resident literary passions are often shown by displaying library lawn signs featuring a non-linguistic emoji of a (heart), this would represent an enormous leap into what for many here remains the inexplicable unknown.

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