It wasn't until the liberated 1960s that she became widely recognized as a daring and innovative artist. Her work, at once familiar and exotic, is today considered among the most important literary achievements of the twentieth-century.

In this excerpt, recorded in 1972 at the 92nd St YM/YWCA Poetry Center in New York City, Anaïs reads excerpts from her diary which she began at the age of eleven. The film "Henry & June" was also based on this diary.

Listen to an excerpt from the HarperAudio release "Anaïs Nin Reads," in which Nin recounts conversations with Henry Miller and Lawrence Durrell.