Le Select

Le Select in Montparnasse

Le Select opened its doors in 1925 and was the first Montparnasse café to remain open all night. The air of sexual freedom permeating Montparnasse between the world wars was nowhere more evident than at the Select, which quickly became a popular hangout for homosexuals. Samuel Putnam recalls that Emma Goldman, the anarchist who was one of Miller’s early idols, was frequently to be seen on the terrace surrounded by a group of lesbians. For Henry Miller, the Select was one of the iconic locations of American expatriate life in Paris, as he exclaimed in Tropic of Cancer: “Paris! Meaning the Café Select, the Dôme, the Flea Market, the American Express. Paris!”

Miller and the surrealist director Luis Buñuel met at the Select to discuss Buñuel’s film, L’Age d’Or, following Miller’s published defense of the film in 1931. Their meeting reinforced Miller’s admiration for the passion and violence of Buñuel’s vision, while revealing to Miller the disparity between his own intellectual understanding of the film and Buñuel’s intention. The effect of L’Age d’Or on Miller remained profound and greatly influenced his writing in Tropic of Cancer. At one point he considered dedicating the novel to Buñuel, as he wrote to Emil Schnellock, “I am dedicating my book to him you know. That’s how much I think of him. More than anyone he made me realize what I wanted to say, and how to say it—that is, with courage.” The original typescript of Tropic of Cancer contained the following passage on Buñuel’s influence:

Not having seen L’Age d’Or, I do not believe I could have written this book. It was a unique experience; it unlocked something in me. And not to acknowledge my indebtedness to Buñuel seems to me a crime of the highest order.

As at the other prominent Montparnasse cafés, Miller frequented the Select in search of new friends who might be able to lend a few francs or buy him a meal. The night before his fateful teaching excursion to Dijon, which is recounted in Tropic of Cancer, Miller found himself sitting up all night at the Select trying to raise the last fifty francs needed to cover the train fare.

During the 1920′s, Brassaï, the photographer who later became one of Miller’s close friends, lived in an apartment above the Select. Today, you will find Miller’s name listed on the Select’s menu amongst a throng of artistic luminaries to have patronized the café,—charmingly misspelled in the French manner as “Henri Miller”.

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