Collection context
Summary
- Title:
- Joaquin and Juanita Miller collection
- Dates:
- 1878-1941
- Creators:
- Miller, Joaquin, 1837-1913 and Miller, Juanita Joaquina, 1880-1970
- Abstract:
- The collection contains correspondence, photographs, printed materials, and manuscript materials from 1878-1941. Among the manuscript material is an unpublished manuscript titled "When I was Emperor." All of the photographs are of Joaquin Miller, some accompanied by his daughter and Dr. Frederick Cook.
- Extent:
- 2 boxes
- Language:
- Languages represented in the collection: English
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], Joaquin and Juanita Miller collection. Special Collections, Honnold/Mudd Library, Claremont University Consortium.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
The collection contains correspondence, photographs, printed materials, and manuscript materials from 1878-1941. Among the manuscript material is an unpublished manuscript titled "When I was Emperor." All of the photographs are of Joaquin Miller, some accompanied by his daughter and Dr. Frederick Cook.
- Biographical / historical:
-
Cincinnatus Hiner (not Heine) Miller, better known by his pen-name, Joaquin Miller, American poet and journalist (1837-1913), was born near Liberty, Indiana.
His father, a Quaker schoolmaster brought the family west in 1852, settling in Oregon, where young Miller received a cursory education. When he was seventeen he set out for California and lived among the Indians and in mining camps. This was a period of highly colored adventuring and lasted until 1858 when he returned to Oregon and completed his education at Columbia: College in Eugene. After an interval as pony-express rider, Miller became a newspaper editor, in Eugene, in 1862 and 1863. It was at this time that he began to write verse. His first volume of poems was published at his own expense in 1868. In 1870, after visiting the eastern states, Miller went to England, posing as a romantic Wild West figure and budding genius. He was lucky enough to be sponsored by Tom Hood and to have his Songs of the Sierras published by Longmans. Overnight he became the "literary lion" of London. He "had it made." A compulsive traveler, Joaquin Miller wrote as he went, profusely--in prose and in verse--describing places visited, the life and character of the people and the political aspects of the time. His wanderings carried him to Europe, up, down and across the United States, to Canada, the Klondike, Mexico, China and Japan.
When the real-estate boom of the late eighties brought new life to the west, Miller returned to California to establish a permanent base. He bought one hundred acres in the hills above Oakland and built a house and guest cottages which he called "The Hights" [sic.] and began to be accepted as one of the California circle of writers which included Ina Coolbrith, Bret Harte, Charles Warren Stoddard, Prentice Mulford, Edmond Clarence Stedman, George Sterling, Jack London, Samuel L. Clemens, and others.
In his later years "the poet of the Sierras" became something of a legend, but his fame was based perhaps more on Joaquin the personality, than on Joaquin the writer of memorable verse.
- Acquisition information:
- Purchased with John Kemble Western Americana Fund, 2007.
- Arrangement:
-
The collection has been arranged into 4 series: Series 1. Correspondence Series 2. Printed materials and ephemera Series 3. Manuscripts Series 4. Photographs
- Physical location:
- Please consult repository.
- Rules or conventions:
- Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: a Content Standard
Indexed terms
About this collection guide
- Date Prepared:
- © 2007
- Date Encoded:
- Machine-readable finding aid created by Kelley Wolfe Bachli. Machine-readable finding aid derived from MS Access Database. Date of source: September 11, 2007.
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
Collection open for research.
- Terms of access:
-
All requests for permission to publish must be submitted in writing to Special Collections.
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], Joaquin and Juanita Miller collection. Special Collections, Honnold/Mudd Library, Claremont University Consortium.
- Location of this collection:
-
800 N. Dartmouth Ave.Claremont, CA 91711, US
- Contact:
- (909) 607‑3977