His works contain detailed accounts of sexual experiences. His first published book, "Tropic of Cancer" (1934), was published by Obelisk Press in Paris and banned in the United States on the grounds of obscenity. The dust jacket came wrapped with a warning: "Not to be imported into the United States or Great Britain." He continued to write novels that were banned; along with "Tropic of Cancer", his "Black Spring" (1936) and "Tropic of Capricorn" (1939) were smuggled into his native country, building Miller an underground reputation. While the aforementioned novels remained banned in the US for over two decades, in 1939, New Directions published "The Cosmological Eye", Miller's first book to be published in America. The collection contained short prose pieces, most of which originally appeared in "Black Spring" and "Max and the White Phagocytes" (1938).