Walter James Miller’s Followers (7)

Walter James Miller

Born

in McKee City, New Jersey, The United States

January 16, 1918

Died

June 20, 2010

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Walter James Miller was an American literary critic, playwright, poet, translator and publisher. The author, co-author, editor and/or translator of more than sixty books, including four landmark annotated translations of novels by Jules Verne, Miller taught at Hofstra University, Polytechnic Institute of New York University, Colorado State University, and for over 40 years at New York University, where he created and taught a popular "Great Books" course. In 1980, he received the NYU Alumni Great Teacher Award. For fifteen years in the 1960s and 1970s, his Peabody Award-winning show Reader's Almanac was a fixture on WNYC, public radio in New York City, and broadcast interviews with many established and rising authors and poets, including Walter James Miller was an American literary critic, playwright, poet, translator and publisher. The author, co-author, editor and/or translator of more than sixty books, including four landmark annotated translations of novels by Jules Verne, Miller taught at Hofstra University, Polytechnic Institute of New York University, Colorado State University, and for over 40 years at New York University, where he created and taught a popular "Great Books" course. In 1980, he received the NYU Alumni Great Teacher Award. For fifteen years in the 1960s and 1970s, his Peabody Award-winning show Reader's Almanac was a fixture on WNYC, public radio in New York City, and broadcast interviews with many established and rising authors and poets, including Nadine Gordimer, Andrew Glaze, Allen Ginsberg, James Kirkwood Jr., William Packard, Sidney Offit, Joseph Heller, Kurt Vonnegut Jr. and Steven Kunes. (A compilation of Miller's several interviews with Vonnegut was published by Caedmon Audio in 2006.) The author of two published collections of poetry (Making an Angel, 1977, Love's Mainland, 2001), Miller's verse drama Joseph in the Pit was produced off-Broadway in 1993 and 2002.
A pioneering figure of modern Jules Verne studies, Miller's 1965 Washington Square Press edition of Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas included both the first unabridged English translation of the novel and the first scholarly discussion of what he termed the problem of "the two Jules Vernes." European readers, Miller observed,
admire Verne for his attention to scientific method, his concern for technical accuracy, his ability to work wonders with authentic facts and figures.
But American readers have the impression that Verne is somewhat casual with basic data and arithmetic, even with the details of plot and character. Condescendingly, they think of the Voyages Extraordinary as "children's books." American science-fiction writers have clobbered Verne for his "vagueness" and for the "gaps" in his technical explanations.
Could they be talking about the same author?
The answer is tragically simple. Europeans read Verne in the original French or in good, full-length translations. Americans have based their opinions on slashed and slapdash versions rushed into print in the 1870s and reissued ever since as "standard" editions. Ironically, although Verne's books pay full tribute to American daring and know-how, Americans have never been able to judge the true nature and extent of Verne's genius.

Miller's analysis of the abridgment and mistranslation of Verne, and his call for accurate and complete English renderings, initiated a major reassessment by English-speaking critics of Verne's importance, and is credited with fostering the publication of numerous new English editions of Verne and the emergence of Verne studies as a serious academic discipline in the US and UK. Miller's scholarly editions of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1976), From the Earth to the Moon (1978), and (with Frederick Paul Walter) The Meteor Hunt (2006) were the first annotated editions of those novels in any language. His preface to the first English translation of Verne's The Mighty Orinoco (2002) has been described as the best critical commentary on this novel in French or English. A founding member of the North American Jules Verne Society and of the Editorial Board of Verniana – Jules Verne Studies / Etudes Jules Verne, in his later years Miller was a valued mentor to Verne scholars in the US, UK, Europe, and Asia.
Miller died before learning that the North American Jules Verne Society had decided to dedicate the fourth volume in its Palik Series of first-time Verne translations to him; the book dedicated to Miller, The Count of Chanteleine: A Tale of the French Revolution. Miller's last essay on Verne had appeared posthumously in the first vo ...more

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Walter James Miller’s books

Average rating: 3.56 · 10,294 ratings · 1,235 reviews · 37 distinct works • Similar authors

	Joseph Heller's Catch 22 by Walter James Miller, Bonnie E. Nelson 3.84 avg rating — 405 ratings — published 1988 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	نگاهي ديگر به سلاخ خانه شماره پنج by Walter James Miller, Bonnie E. Nelson, علی‌اصغر بهرامی (Translator) 3.98 avg rating — 42 ratings — published 1994 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Upton Sinclair's The jungle (Monarch notes) by Walter James Miller, Monarch Notes 3.67 avg rating — 3 ratings — published 1997 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot and Other Works by Walter James Miller, Monarch Notes, Samuel Beckett 2.33 avg rating — 3 ratings — published 1984 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Eldridge Cleaver's Soul On Ice (Monarch notes) it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 1971	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Annotated Jules Verne: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	1001 Ideas for English Papers: Term Papers, Projects, Reports, and Speeches did not like it 1.00 avg rating — 1 rating	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	E.L. Doctorow's Ragtime: A Critical Commentary 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 1990	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Dashiell Hammett's the Maltese Falcon: A Critical Commentary 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 1989	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	How to Write Book Reports: Analyzing and Evaluating Fiction, Drama, Poetry, and Non-Fiction by Walter James Miller, Elizabeth Morse-Cluley 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 1984	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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