'Phillip Kaufman (I)' first came into contact with Miller's works in the '50s while at the University of Chicago. He recalled that 'Tropic of Cancer' (mentioned in the film as the book Henry is in the process of writing) "was the ultimate secret book everybody was reading".
When Anais flips through the stack of erotic postcards in the beginning of the film, one of them is of a woman propped up in a chair with a hat on and is shown hiking up her skirt with one hand. The image is the same one used on the first edition cover of Anais Nin's short story collection titled, "Delta of Venus."