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Joaquin Miller collection

 Collection — Folder: S0958
Identifier: S0958

Scope and Contents

This collection includes one poem, entitled "To Russia" by Joaquin Miller, undated and a program for Joaquin Miller Day at the Panama-Pacific Exposition on November 10, 1915.

Dates

  • 1915

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Legal title, copyright, and literary rights reside with Rare Books and Manuscripts, Indiana State Library, Indianapolis, IN. All requests to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted to Rare Books and Manuscripts.

Biographical Note

Joaquin Miller, pseudonym of Cincinnatus Hiner (or Heine) Miller (born Sept. 8, 1837, near Liberty, Indiana—died Feb. 17, 1913, Oakland, California) American poet and journalist whose best work conveys a sense of the majesty and excitement of the Old West. His best-known poem is “Columbus” with its refrain, “On, sail on!”—once familiar to millions of American schoolchildren.

Miller went west with his family and led a picaresque early life in California among miners, gamblers, and Indians. He attended Columbia College (Eugene, Ore.) briefly in 1858–59 and was admitted to the Oregon bar in 1860. Between 1862 and 1866 he owned a pony express and a newspaper (the Eugene Democratic Register) and was a county judge in Canyon City, Ore. For the Register he wrote an article defending the Mexican brigand Joaquin Murietta, whose given name he later used as a pseudonym. His first books of poems, Specimens (1868) and Joaquin et al. (1869), attracted little attention.

In 1870 he traveled to England, where his exotic manners and flamboyant western costume made him a great favourite with the literati. Pacific Poems (1871) was privately printed there. Songs of the Sierras (1871), upon which his reputation mainly rests, was loudly acclaimed in England, while generally derided in the United States for its excessive romanticism. His other books of poetry included Songs of the Sunlands (1873), The Ship in the Desert (1875), The Baroness of New York (1877), Songs of Italy (1878), Memorie and Rime (1884), and the Complete Poetical Works (1897).

Source:

"Joaquin Miller, American Writer." Encyclopaedia Britannica. Last updated: July 7, 2009. Accessed November 22, 2016. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Joaquin-Miller.

Extent

0.01 Cubic Feet (1 folder)

Language of Materials

English

Arrangement

This collection is arranged by subject.

Custodial History

This collection was received by Rare Books and Manuscripts as a donation from Kitty Werick on 1935/02/23.

Accruals

No further additions are expected.

Processing Information

Collection processing completed 2016/11/22 by Lauren Patton. EAD finding aid created 2016/11/22 by Lauren Patton.
Title
Joaquin Miller collection
Status
Completed
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Repository Details

Part of the Rare Books and Manuscripts Repository

Contact:
140 North Senate Avenue
Indianapolis, Indiana 46204 U.S.A.
317-232-3671