WALTER M. MILLER, JR.

Walter Michael Miller, Jr. (January 23, 1923 – January 9, 1996) was an American science fiction author. Today he is primarily known for A Canticle for Leibowitz, the only novel he published in his lifetime. Prior to its publication he was a prolific writer of short stories.

Life

Miller was born in New Smyrna Beach, Florida. Educated at the University of Tennessee and the University of Texas, he worked as an engineer. During World War II, he served in the Army Air Corps as a radioman and tail gunner, flying 53 bombing missions over Italy. He took part in the bombing of the Benedictine Abbey at Monte Cassino, which proved a traumatic experience for him.

Between 1951 and 1957, Miller published over three dozen science fiction short stories, winning a Hugo Award in 1955 for the story "The Darfsteller". Late in the 1950s, Miller assembled a novel from three closely related novellas he had published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in 1955, 1956 and 1957. The novel, entitled A Canticle for Leibowitz, was published in 1959.

A Canticle for Leibowitz is a post-apocalyptic novel and is considered a masterpiece of the genre. It won the 1961 Hugo Award for Best Novel. The novel is also a powerful meditation on the cycles of world history and Roman Catholicism as a force of stability during history's dark times; a faith Miller espoused in 1947.

After the success of A Canticle For Leibowitz, Miller never published another new novel or story in his lifetime, although several compilations of Miller's earlier stories were issued in the 1960s and 70s. As well, a radio adaptation of A Canticle for Leibowitz was produced by WHA Radio and NPR in 1981 and is available on CD.

Miller married Anna Louise Becker in 1945 and they had four children. In his later years, he became a recluse, avoiding contact with nearly everyone including family members. He shot himself after having written most of a sequel to A Canticle for Leibowitz, titled Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman. It was finished by Terry Bisson and published in 1997.

Writings by Miller

Novels

1959. A Canticle for Leibowitz
1997. Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman (finished by Terry Bisson)

Short stories

Anybody Else Like Me? (1952)
The Big Hunger (1952)
Big Joe and the Nth Generation (1952)
Bitter Victory (1952)
Blood Bank (1952)
Cold Awakening (1952)
Command Performance (1952)
Conditionally Human
Crucifixus Etiam (1953)
The Darfsteller (1955)
Dark Benediction (1951)
Death of a Spaceman (1954)
Dumb Waiter (1952)
The First Canticle (1955)
Gravesong (1952)
The Hoofer (1955)
I, Dreamer (1953)
I Made You (1954)
Izzard and the Membrane (1951)
Let My People Go (1952)
The Lineman (1957)
The Little Creeps (1951)
Memento Homo (1954)
No Moon for Me (1952)
The Reluctant Traitor (1952)
Secret of the Death Dome (1951)
Six and Ten Are Johnny (1952)
"The Darfsteller"
The Song of Marya (1957)
The Song of Vorhu (1951)
The Soul-Empty Ones (1951)
The Sower Does Not Reap (1953)
The Space Witch (1951)
The Ties that Bind (1954)
The View from the Stars
The Will (1954)
The Yokel (1953)
Vengeance for Nikolai (1957)
Way of a Rebel (1954)
Wolf Pack (1953)
You Triflin' Skunk! (1955)

Writings about Miller

Roberson, W. H., and Battenfeld, R. L., 1992. Walter M. Miller, Jr.: A Bio-Bibliography.
Secrest, Rose, 2002. Glorificemus: A Study of the Fiction of Walter M. Miller, Jr.

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
Walter M. Miller, Jr.
Brief biography at Kirjasto (Pegasos)
Brief biography & Bibliography
Terry Bisson, "A CANTICLE FOR MILLER; or, How I Met Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman but not Walter M. Miller, Jr."
Study Guide for Walter M. Miller, Jr.: A Canticle for Leibowitz
Reviews of A Canticle for Leibowitz at Slashdot
Review of A Canticle For Leibowitz at Yet Another Book Review Site
A possible soundtrack for A Canticle For Leibowitz by sonic/visual artist John Kannenberg.
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