Mirage

by Helen Topping Miller

The Channing family were pioneers who went to seek their fortunes on the new lands of the American West."

306 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1949

About the author

Helen Topping Miller was born December 8, 1884 in Fenton, Michigan, the eldest of eight children. Under the influence of her literary mother, she began writing children’s stories for St. Nicholas Magazine when she was fifteen. She went on to attend Michigan State College and graduated in 1905.

She taught for two years in rural and city schools before her family moved to Fremont, Ohio. In 1908 they moved to Morristown, Tennessee. Two years later on June 16, 1910, she married Frank Roger Miller, the owner of a newspaper and later executive of the United States Chamber of Commerce.

In 1918 the Millers moved to Macon, Georgia and over the following years Helen would begin to write the first of 11 serial stories that were published in a variety of national magazines including The Saturday Evening Post, Good Housekeeping and McCall’s. During this time she also taught modern fiction writing at Mercer University.

Beginning in 1924 the Millers made the first of several moves which that included Asheville, Washington, and Dallas. In 1939 they bought an antebellum mansion built around 1857, in Talbott, Tennessee named the Watkins-Witt House. It had been used by both the Union and Confederacy during the Civil War as a command post and hospital. Confederate General James Longstreet was among its guests for a night. Mrs. Miller named it “ArrowHill” for the mountain retreat she and her husband had owned in Asheville. One of her historical Christmas stories entitled No Tears For Christmas is based on the 1863 holiday at ArrowHill. Though her husband died in 1944, she would live there until 1958.

During her lifetime Mrs. Miller wrote over 300 short stories and more than 40 books,mostly historical romance in nature, and many dealing with the Reconstruction period in the South. Her children’s books include a Christmas series with such titles as Christmas at Monticello with Thomas Jefferson,Christmas at Mount Vernon with George and Martha Washington, and Christmas with Robert E. Lee.

She has been quoted as saying, “To me the unchanging loveliness of the holy days is proof of the unchanging love of God.”

Helen Topping Miller died on February 4, 1960 at age seventy-five and is buried in Morristown, Tennessee.

First Book –Sharon (1931): Sharon

Last Book - A Sound of Chariots (1994): A Sound of Chariots

Source: http://library.cn.edu/speccoll/miller...

Reviews

[Terri · Rating 2 out of 5]

Been a very long time since I last read this book. It's a bit depressing. Takes place about 15 years after the Civil War, and follows an Alabamian family who must have been fairly high up in society, but have lost nearly everything in the war. They decide the best thing to do is to move to Texas. You have a very sick, almost wimpy dad, a mother who tries to keep the peace, a grandmother who is angry, a bitch of an older sister, 1 very proud brother, 1 young brother, and, the focal point of the book, a young red-haired girl who deals with everything that's thrown at her as an adventure. Well-written.

[Dianna Rogan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book over 20 years ago when I was a kid. My aunt is a now a retired middle school English teacher (she also taught high school, art, did administration and many other things during her career as an educator). But while she was still working, she used to bring us boxes of books that had been discarded from her school’s library. This was in one of them and my sister and I read it multiple times. Every summer, we would read through our book collection, and this was always included. We thought Dan Lee was hilarious and were amused at Victoria Channing. I am probably going to read it again as it has been quite some time since I have read it.

[Brent Krebs · Rating 3 out of 5]

Huh.... 306 pages of "struggle." No good guys, no bad guys, just a family that heads to Texas from Alabama after losing the Civil War. It took me reading some of the other reviews to figure out who the "main" character was out of the bunch. Otherwise, there was work, discomfort, a dance - of course... minimal conflict, some characters died.... I think. But even those were, "meh..." not even in a "He got what he deserved!" sort of way. The book ends roughly in the same spot it started, except you have a half-built house, some cows, and a few less people. You get the feeling that there will continue to be work, discomfort, and maybe another dance at some point.

[Tweety]

It's arrived!!