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Henry Darger's family were European, but he fantasised that he had Brazilian nationality. His mother died in childbirth and his little sister was adopted very young, never to be seen by Darger again. When his father became too frail to look after him, Darger was sent to a Catholic boys' home. In 1905 he was transferred to an asylum from which he absconded several times. Dismissed from the army in 1918, he was employed as a janitor in a hospital and rented a room in Webster Street, Chicago, from Nathan and Kiyoko Lerner. After Darger's death, Nathan Lerner discovered forty years worth of accumulated debris: comics, magazines, spectacles, religious bric-a-brac, balls of string. Amongst these items were 13 volumes, handwritten and illustrated, which contained over 13,000 pages of a fiction entitled In the Realms of the Unreal. This fantasy tells of a Catholic planet and the war between 'the Glandelinian rebels' and their child slaves 'the Vivian girls'. In 1966 Darger had begun writing My Life History,a fusion of real and fictional events.

i 'At Journall are discouvered by the Glandelinians and are trapped in an enclosure' undated (Double-sided triptych) Watercolour and pencil on paper © 2005, Kiyoko Lerner. All Rights Reserved. Courtesy of the Musgrave Kinley Outsider Collection view larger image		ii 'The enemy blows the building up but in the mean time the girls escape through an underground tunnel' undated (Double-sided triptych) Watercolour and pencil on paper © 2005, Kiyoko Lerner. All Rights Reserved. Courtesy of the Musgrave Kinley Outsider Collection view larger image		iii- 'At Journall secure queerly formed plans of the enemy undated (Double-sided triptych) Watercolour and pencil on paper © 2005, Kiyoko Lerner. All Rights Reserved. Courtesy of the Musgrave Kinley Outsider Collection view larger image
Henry Darger's apartment January 1994 © 2005, Kiyoko Lerner. All Rights Reserved. Courtesy of Tate Archive Photo credit: Monika Kinley view larger image		Inside Henry Darger's apartment January 1994 © 2005, Kiyoko Lerner. All Rights Reserved. Courtesy of Tate Archive Photo credit: Monika Kinley view larger image		Inside Henry Darger's apartment January 1994 © 2005, Kiyoko Lerner. All Rights Reserved. Courtesy of Tate Archive Photo credit: Monika Kinley view larger image
Henry Darger's manuscripts January 1994 © 2005, Kiyoko Lerner. All Rights Reserved Courtesy of Tate Archive view larger image		Inside Henry Darger's apartment January 1994 © 2005, Kiyoko Lerner. All Rights Reserved. Courtesy of Tate Archive Photo credit: Monika Kinley view larger image		Henry Darger's apartment January 1994 © 2005, Kiyoko Lerner. All Rights Reserved. Courtesy of Tate Archive Photo credit: Monika Kinley view larger image

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