BIG SUR CELEBRATES A LITERARY RENEGADE

Why: If Big Sur is a temple to the beauty of the California coast, the Henry Miller Memorial Library is one of its most endearing altars, a respite from the rigors of navigating Highway 1.

What: Henry Valentine Miller came to Big Sur in the 1940s after nearly a decade in Paris. He was by then author of “Tropic of Cancer” and “Tropic of Capricorn,” which were banned as obscene in America until 1961. Naturally they sold well, and Miller soon became a hero of renegade literature. After Miller’s death in Pacific Palisades in 1980, Emil White, a friend, opened a memorial library that bore Miller’s name. With the help of the Big Sur Land Trust, the library has become a nonprofit cultural space, art gallery, bookshop and destination for artists, writers, musicians and students.

Info: Henry Miller Memorial Library, 48603 Highway 1, Big Sur; (831) 667-2574, henrymiller.org. Open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesdays-Mondays.

Ricardo DeAratanha Los Angeles Times BOOKS and art are on view at the Henry Miller Memorial Library.