Volume 12 of A Café in Space features excerpts from Anais Nin's unpublished diary revealing the truth about the famous "come as your madness" party in 1953, at which Nin's daring costume caused a sensation and where Kenneth Anger got inspiration for his underground classic film "Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome." Previously unpublished photos accompany Nin's commentary. In her article, "Political Nin," Kim Krizan unearths previously unknown letters by Nin about JFK's assassination which prove she was not, as some critics charge, an insular, self-obsessed narcissist who didn't care about the outside world. In 1934, Nin had her first (and by now most discussed) abortion, the trauma of which forever changed her life and how she wrote. Katja Holmes examines how Nin turned the trauma into not only literature, but a life philosophy--the birth of the artist. Volume 12 also contains scholars' examinations of Nin' fiction, her sexual awakening, the French village where her legendary house dubbed "the laboratory of the soul" was located, poetry, art, and book reviews of a new Miller biography and a new book on the Beats by John Tytell.