Brenda Venus

Brenda Gabrielle Venus was born on November 10, 1947, in Biloxi, Mississippi. Venus is of Spanish descent and Sicilian ancestry.{{IMDb name|0893457}} Retrieved July 29, 2018.

Venus is the author of Secrets of Seduction{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/secretsofseducti00venu |url-access=registration |quote=ISBN9780525936015. |last1=Venus |first1=Brenda |title=The Secrets of Seduction: How to Be the Best Lover Your Woman Ever Had |date=May 1, 1993 |publisher=Dutton |isbn=978-0525936015 |access-date=May 12, 2019}} and Secrets of Seduction for Women{{cite news |url=https://www.questia.com/read/1P2-33048631/making-book-on-lots-of-flirtatious-maneuvers |title=Making Book on Lots of Flirtatious Maneuvers |last=Corrigan |first=Patricia |date=1 February 1997 |work=St. Louis Post-Dispatch |df=mdy-all |access-date=25 August 2017 |archive-date=20 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180720022404/https://www.questia.com/read/1P2-33048631/making-book-on-lots-of-flirtatious-maneuvers |url-status=dead }}{{cite book |last1=Venus |first1=Brenda |title=Secrets of Seduction for Women |date=February 1, 1996 |publisher=Dutton |isbn=978-0525941033 |url=https://archive.org/details/secretsofseducti0000venu |url-access=registration |quote=ISBN9780525941033. |access-date=May 12, 2019}} and a 2012 novella titled "Twelve Hours".{{cite web |url=http://twelve-hours.com/ |title="Twelve Hours" by Brenda Venus |website=twelve-hours.com |access-date=May 12, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120107185440/http://twelve-hours.com/ |archive-date=January 7, 2012}} Her books have been translated into 37 languages.{{Cite web |url=http://liftoph.com/wp/brendavenus/ |title=Brenda Venus – Secrets of Seduction |website=liftoph.com |access-date=2015-01-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110919034018/http://liftoph.com/wp/brendavenus/ |archive-date=2011-09-19 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all}} Publishers William Morrow and E.P. Dutton sent her on a worldwide publicity tour{{cite web |url=http://www.omnilexica.com/?q=brenda+venus |title=Who is Brenda Venus? |website=Omnilexica |access-date=29 July 2018 |df=mdy-all}}{{cite web |url=http://www.paperbackswap.com/Brenda-Venus/author/ |title=Brenda Venus : Early Career, Images, Film and TV, Russian Play, and a List of Books by Author Brenda Venus |website=PaperBackSwap |access-date=29 July 2018 |df=mdy-all}} making various appearances on TV,{{cite web |url=http://www.paleycenter.org/collection/item/?q=johnny+carsonp=11item=t:42941&p=136&item=B:44241 |title=The Paley Center for Media |website=The Paley Center for Media |access-date=29 July 2018 |df=mdy-all}}{{cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1J2zsV-INU |title=Brenda Venus & Masters |first=Brenda |last=Venus |date=24 January 2009 |access-date=29 July 2018 |website=YouTube |df=mdy-all}}{{cbignore}}{{Dead Youtube links|date=February 2022}} radio{{cite web |url=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/brenda_venus/biography |title=Brenda Venus |website=Rottentomatoes.com |access-date=29 July 2018 |df=mdy-all}} and press interviews. For over six years, starting in 1998, Venus wrote a popular column for Playboy magazine called "Centerfolds on Sex."{{Cite web |url=http://www.ingenio.com/detail/relationship-coaching/brenda-venus/6656989 |title=Brenda Venus in Love Advice {{!}} Love Advice Advisor at INGENIO |access-date=2015-01-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305024122/http://www.ingenio.com/detail/relationship-coaching/brenda-venus/6656989 |archive-date=2016-03-05 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all}} She also produced, directed, shot and narrated the documentary film Love and Sex in LA with seven Playboy Centerfolds and up-coming actors in LA.

When Venus was a college student, she purchased at auction a book that contained an envelope with the address of famed writer Henry Miller. Venus wrote to Miller and they became pen pals. Eventually Miller became her mentor and Brenda his muse.{{cite web |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-02-02-bk-3218-story.html |title=Dear, Dear Brenda THE LOVE LETTERS OF HENRY MILLER TO BRENDA VENUS; text by Brenda Venus; edited by Gerald S. Sindell; introduction by Lawrence Durrell (Morrow: $17.95; 191 pp.) |first=Noel |last=Young |date=2 February 1986 |website=Los Angeles Times |access-date=29 July 2018 |df=mdy-all}} Miller wrote 1,500 letters that were collected into the 1986 book Dear, Dear Brenda – The Love Letters of Henry Miller to Brenda Venus.{{cite book |last=Davidson |first=Cathy N. |title=The Book of Love: Writers and Their Love Letters |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gnZEljQSHsIC |access-date=3 July 2011 |date=1996-03-21 |publisher=Plume |isbn=978-0-452-27594-2 |page=291 |df=mdy-all}}{{cite news |title=Miller's letters show love of life |last=Whitman |first=Alden |date=1 January 1986 |work=Chicago Sun-Times |df=mdy-all}}{{cite news |url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-1063353.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140629085848/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-1063353.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=29 June 2014 |title=Naughty Boy Of American Literature |last=Tytell |first=John |date=5 May 1991 |newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=27 July 2013 |df=mdy-all}}

Miller's long-time friend and confidant, fellow novelist and poet Lawrence Durrell wrote in the introduction to Miller's book Dear, Dear Brenda that: "The role of Brenda Venus will keep its interest and importance also as a memorial of his last great attachment--an Ariel to his Prospero... She enabled him to dominate his infirmities and to experience all the Joys of Paradise."{{cite web |url=http://www.librarything.com/topic/146785 |title=75 Books Challenge for 2013: brenpike reads - 75 Books Challenge for 2013 |website=Librarything.com |access-date=29 July 2018 |df=mdy-all}}

According to writer Ed Millis, "Venus was a source of inspiration to the aging and ailing Miller. Brenda was all of 24 years of age, Henry was 84. She was a beautiful Southern belle, "The Boticelli of Mississippi"—he called her. Henry, the renegade intellectual, the writer, had taken millions of us to the sexy Tropic of Cancer and Capricorn. Now he was sick and slowly recuperating. He needed a lift in spirits... Brenda the Muse breathed life into her mortal charge and gave him reason to live. Miller gave her focus and fine tuning and wrote Venus over 1,500 letters which amounted to four-thousand hand-written pages. She responded in kind for over four years—the last four years of his life. "{{cite web |url=http://www.todocoleccion.net/rrabia-si-no-tienes-deberias-tenerla-primavera-2003-henry-miller-brenda-venus~x46529462 |title=RRABIA. ¡ si no la tienes deberias tenerla !. primavera 2003. henry miller. brenda venus. |website=todocoleccion.net |access-date=29 July 2018 |df=mdy-all}}

Venus appeared in the Clint Eastwood film The Eiger Sanction and several other films. She also appeared as a host/narrator in Love & Sex in LA.

Her movie appearances include:

Venus, a play about her life,{{cite web |url=http://www.russiajournal.com/node/13414 |title=Russia's top gymnast turns to acting |last=Terex |first=Natasha |date=22 February 2002 |work=The Russian Journal |access-date=27 July 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304032321/http://www.russiajournal.com/node/13414 |archive-date=2016-03-04 |url-status=usurped |df=mdy-all}} featured Olympic Gold Medalist Svetlana Khorkina in the title role. The cast also included members of the Bolshoi Ballet .{{cite news |url=https://www.questia.com/read/1P2-1875429/olympic-countdown-toxteth-teenager-takes-aim-at-russian |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130727203143/http://www.questia.com/read/1P2-1875429/olympic-countdown-toxteth-teenager-takes-aim-at-russian |url-status=dead |archive-date=July 27, 2013 |title=OLYMPIC COUNTDOWN: Toxteth Teenager Takes Aim at Russian Queen |last=Rich |first=Tim |date=17 July 2004 |work=The Independent |df=mdy-all}}

Brenda has been the subject of several artists besides Henry Miller, including painter Harold Frank,{{cite web |url=http://www.thematthewsgallery.com/Artist-Detail.cfm?ArtistsID=237 |title=Art Galleries Santa Fe - Canyon - Matthews Gallery - Harold Frank - Artist-Detail |last=ManagedArtwork.com |website=Thematthewsgallery.com |access-date=29 July 2018 |df=mdy-all}} photographer Ken Marcus, and former boxer Gary Dobry.{{cite web |url=http://www.onthecanvas.com |title=On The Canvas |access-date=2015-01-14 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141218020543/http://onthecanvas.com/ |archive-date=2014-12-18 |df=mdy-all}}

In the spring of 1997, Venus posed for a celebrity nude pictorial in Playboy Magazine.[http://www.brendavenus.com/?page_id=9 Bio], brendavenus.com

She also appeared in Playboy in July 1986.[http://www.nudography.com/Celebrities/brenda_venus.aspx#3533 Brenda Venus], nudography.com According to the Playboy website:

:"One of the women with whom Miller had a romantic, yet platonic, relationship was Brenda Venus.[https://xcelebs.org/view/celeb/s1095/sydney-sweeney Brenda Venus], xcelebs.org Her friendship with Miller lasted four years, until his death in 1980. In 1986, some of the hundreds of letters Miller wrote to Venus were published in the book Dear, Dear Brenda. Following the book's release, Venus posed for the July 1986 issue of Playboy."[http://www.playboy.com/brenda-venus Brenda Venus] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170930180228/http://www.playboy.com/brenda-venus |date=2017-09-30 |df=mdy-all}}, playboy.com

{{Commons category|Brenda Venus}}

• {{Official website|1=http://www.brendavenus.com}}
• {{IMDb name|0893457}}

{{Henry Miller}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Venus, Brenda}}

Category:American film actresses

Category:American radio actresses

Category:American soap opera actresses

Category:Living people

Category:People from Biloxi, Mississippi

Category:Actresses from Salt Lake City

Category:1947 births

Category:Muses (persons)

Category:21st-century American women

Category:Seduction