Document Type
Book
Publication Date
1980
Abstract
When Joaquin Miller died in 1913, he had been conspicuous on the American literary scene for over forty years. Given to seeing his literary career as an analogue to the actual exploration and settling of the West, he conceived, enacted, and recorded an eventful life in which he himself figures most prominently. Miller had created a public image, which was probably a self-image as well, of himself as writer and as Westerner. His prose and poetry are sometimes marked by the romantic excesses of Byron or Swinburne; and his life and work include picturesque posings as the Wild Westerner. But the two impulses are not always reconciled. Like Mark Twain, whose genius, some say, was thwarted by his early environment, Miller’s expression might have found more natural, appropriate outlets in other surroundings. At least we can say that his readers often find a jarring contrast between his native American materials and his self-conscious poeticizing of them in European modes. It is nonetheless as a Western writer that Miller made his mark.
Recommended Citation
Lawson, Benjamin S. Joaquin Miller. Boise, ID: Boise State University, 1980. Digital. Western Writers Series, 43.