Sitting or sleeping in a cold, drafty cabin in the wintery rain can do a number on your psyche. Because of this, it’s important to pick up some “winter hobby” of some sort.

Y’know, basket weaving or Soduku or perhaps…ping pong. These two winter-survival “must-dos” coalesce in entertaining fashion when Henry Miller knocked on Nepenthe’s doors late one night, long ago.

Take it away, Nepenthe Stories!!!

Many know of Henry Miller’s years in Big Sur, but few are aware that his first home on the coast was in the Log House, above Nepenthe. Novelist Lynda Sargent took in the penniless Henry Miller and gave him a place to set up his typewriter during the day and lay his head at night.

It is rare to meet the person who has heard the story of novelist Lynda Sargent, who lived in the Log House after it was the Trails Club and before Lolly and Bill bought it and built Nepenthe, and who took in the penniless Henry Miller and gave him a place to set up his typewriter during the day and lay his head at night…

Miller and Sargent didn’t get along so well, but they say you could hear the sound of their two typewriters clacking away from the highway!
Miller eventually found his own place on Partington Ridge, but he came back frequently after Nepenthe was built. Bill Fassett liked to tell the story of Henry’s mid-night dreaming that brought him to his door late one winter night.

“Damn it, Fassett,” Henry raged. “My astrologer came to me in a dream and said I’d beat you at ping-pong tonight, and damned if I won’t!”

Daddy Bill said he trounced Henry with little fanfare, while Lolly sat quietly by and knitted. “Time to get yourself another astrologer,” she commented as Henry went back into the night.