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Contributing Institution:
Special Collections and Archives, University of California, Irvine Libraries
Title: Jack Miles papers
Identifier/Call Number: MS.F.045
Physical Description:
18.15 Linear Feet
(14 records cartons, 4 document box, 1 flat box, 1 trophy box, 1 small artifact box, 1 audiovisual box, 1 digital media box,
and 1 oversize folder)
Physical Description:
0.00705 Gigabytes
(15 digital files)
Date (bulk): 1950-2022
Date (inclusive): 1904-2022
Abstract: This collection comprises the papers of Jack Miles, Pulitzer Prize winning author, MacArthur Fellow, and Distinguished Professor
Emeritus of English and Religious Studies at the University of California, Irvine. The papers consist of professional, scholarly,
and personal materials documenting his life and career, including publications, books, correspondence, teaching materials,
speaking engagements, fellowships and memberships, and biographical material.
Language of Material:
English
.
The collection is open for research. Access to original audiovisual material and digital media is restricted; researchers
may request viewing or listening copies.
Property rights reside with the University of California. Copyrights are retained by the creators of the records and their
heirs. For permission to reproduce or to publish, please contact the University Archivist. Digital material is provided for
private study, scholarship, or research. Transmission or reproduction of any material protected by copyright beyond that allowed
by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. The authors or their heirs retain their copyrights to
the material. Contact the University of California, Irvine Libraries, Special Collections and Archives for more information
(spcoll@uci.edu).
Jack Miles papers. MS-F045. Special Collections and Archives, The UC Irvine Libraries, Irvine, California. Date accessed.
For the benefit of current and future researchers, please cite any additional information about sources consulted in this
collection, including permanent URLs, item or folder descriptions, and box/folder locations.
Gift of Jack Miles, 2017-2022.
This collection was processed by Sarah Glover, 2018-2021. Updated by Gabrielle Wood, 2023.
John R. "Jack" Miles is a Pulitzer Prize winning author, MacArthur Fellow, and Distinguished Professor Emeritus of English
& Religious Studies at the University of California, Irvine.
Miles was born in Chicago, Illinois, on July 30, 1942. He attended high school at St. Ignatius College Preparatory School.
Between 1960-1970, he was a Jesuit seminarian studying at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and the Hebrew University
in Jerusalem. He completed a Ph.D. in Near Eastern languages at Harvard University in 1971.
Miles is a writer whose work has appeared in
The Atlantic,
The New York Times,
The Washington Post,
The Los Angeles Times,
The Boston Globe,
Commonweal, among others. His book
God: A Biography won a Pulitzer Prize in 1996 and has been translated into sixteen languages. A sequel to the book entitled,
Christ: A Crisis in the Life of God, was published in 2001 and led to Miles being named a MacArthur Fellow in 2002. The third book in the God in Three Classic
Scriptures series,
God in the Qur'an, was published in 2018. In 2022 Miles published another books titled,'A Friendship in Twilight: Lockdown Conversations on
Death and Life' with Mark C. Taylor, composed of letters written by the pair between March 15 to May 14, 2020 detailing their
thoughts on the Covid-19 Pandemic, racial inequality in US, higher education, the 2020 election, religion, philosophy,family,
history, and a host of other topics.
Between 1975 and 1995, Miles was an editor at Doubleday; executive editor at the University of California Press; literary
editor at the
Los Angeles Times; and a member of the Times Editorial Board, writing on politics and culture. For ten years, he served on the Committee of
Selection of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. He was also the general editor of
The Norton Anthology of World Religions, which was published in 2014.
Miles is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of English and Religious Studies at the University of California, Irvine, and
Senior Fellow for Religion and International Affairs with the Pacific Council on International Policy. He has been a Mellon
Visiting Professor of Humanities at Caltech, Director of the Humanities Center at the Claremont Graduate University, Scholar
in Residence and Senior Advisor at the J. Paul Getty Trust, and a Visiting Fellow with the Committee on the Conceptual Foundations
of Science, University of Chicago.
Miles is married to Catherine "Kitty" Miles and is the father of Kathleen Miles.
Collection Scope and Content Summary
This collection comprises the professional and personal papers of Jack Miles, which document his career as a writer, editor,
and professor of English and Religious Studies. Materials in the collection include drafts and copies of his books and articles,
unpublished works, edited anthologies and articles, correspondence, teaching materials, speaking engagements, fellowships
and memberships, and biographical material which includes documentation of his early life, high school memorabilia, and awards.
The collection is organized in the following six series:
- Writings and editing, 1969-2021. 9.75 linear feet and 0.00102 GB
- Correspondence, 1960-2021. 2.2 linear feet
- Teaching materials, 1966-2017. 0.75 linear feet
- Speaking engagements, 1975-2021. 1 linear foot
- Fellowships and memberships, 1997-2008. 0.5 linear feet
- Biographical, 1904-2021. 2.75 linear feet and 0.00602 GB
- Writing and correspondence, 2019-2022
During processing the collection was reduced from 23.75 linear feet to 16.95 linear feet by discarding duplicate materials,
material under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), and materials outside of the scope of the collection.
A file list inventory of the digital files is available via this link:
Jack Miles papers born digital directory.