in 1924 he left beatrice and their child to marry the taxi dancer june edith smith. a taxi dancer was a woman who was paid to dance with men in dance halls. he gave up his job at the telegraph company to work full-time as a writer. miller and june lived in greenwich village. they went to paris in 1928 and stayed for a few months. he separated from june and went back to new york by himself in 1929. she later divorced him in 1934. in 1930 he went back to paris alone. he found a job as a proofreader for the "new york herald tribune" paris edition. a proofreader is a kind of copy editor who checks the first printing of a text for errors. he also worked on his novels. his first important novel, "tropic of cancer", was published in paris by the obelisk press in 1934. "black spring" was published in 1936 and "tropic of capricorn" in 1939. he became a close friend of the writer anaïs nin. she helped him get "tropic of cancer" published and wrote the to it. miller stayed in paris until june 1939.