Delta of Venus is a book of fifteen short stories by Anaïs Nin published posthumously in 1977[1]—though largely written in the 1940s as erotica for a private collector.

This "Collector" commissioned Nin, along with other now well-known writers (including Henry Miller and the poet George Barker), to produce erotic fiction for his private consumption.

[3] His identity has since been revealed as Roy M. Johnson (1881–1960), a wealthy American businessman from Ardmore, Oklahoma, who had discovered the Healdton Oil Pool.

[4] Despite being told to leave poetic language aside and concentrate on graphic, sexually explicit scenarios, Nin was able to give these stories a literary flourish and a layer of images and ideas beyond the pornographic.

[6] Although at times she scorned her erotica, and feared for their impact on her literary reputation,[7] they have subsequently been seen by sex-positive feminists as pioneering work.