Joaquin Miller by O. W. Frost (review)

Reviews 173 and they remain as firm today. Unfortunately, she cannot be as positive on the matter of London’s death, saying, “He had taken a lethal dose, but who could say whether it had been with suicidal intention, or merely an overdose miscalculated in the midst of his agony?” Much conjecture and subsequent study have surrounded the circumstances of London’s death. Whether or not the mystery will ever be solved, other than in a conjectural way, is doubtful. Although the book was written thirty years ago, the prose remains as fresh and captivating today as the day it was written. And one is impressed by the effectiveness with which the author has organized and presented the myriad details and experiences relating to London’s early struggles to become a writer, his worldwide adventures and travels, his socialist leanings, his home life, his friends, and his many published books and short stories. The press has produced a convenient, well-designed book, somewhat smaller in format than the first edition, but alike in every other respect, in­ cluding the frontispiece portrait of London as a young man, and a working index. All London collectors, scholars, young students learning about Jack for the first time, and readers looking for a good book, will want this edition. It is indispensable to an understanding of a great American author. G eorge H. T w eney, Seattle, Washington Joaquin Miller. By O. W. Frost. (New York: Twayne Publishers, 1967. 140 pages, $3.95.) Like other volumes of the Twayne United States Authors Series, this study commences with a biographical chapter. Then follow sections on Joaquin Miller’s early poems, his autobiographical western heroes, his search for the ideal woman, and his literary ideas. A final chapter describes Miller’s partici­ pation in the Klondike gold rush of the 1890s and details his last years in California. The strongest section deals with Miller’s early years. Here Frost draws upon his extensive research in manuscript letters and diaries and adds fresh information about his subject. He demonstrates that Miller often distorted the facts about himself and that his autobiographical statements must be used with caution. The poetry o£ Miller is treated chronologically and analytically. The poet early showed a tendency toward descriptive, narrative, and non-philosophical verse and continued these tendencies throughout his life. He chose to imitate slavishly the forms and ideas of Byron and had difficulty in develop­ ing his own poetic style. Miller was more an appreciator, a celebrator than 174 Western American Literature a penetrating critic or profound thinker. He was a “utopian primitivist,” a man who sought “to re-create a very old world that never existed.” Miller’s prose bears the recognizable brands of Bret Harte and Mark Twain. When he deals with his western experiences, Miller writes well, but too often his stories are sentimental and melodramatic. And his last prose works are mere propaganda for the Indian. In the late 1870s Miller turned to writing drama, and his efforts were rewarded, for his The Danites in the Sierras was a popular stage success in New York and London and made for its author a small fortune. His plays were fast-moving and suspenseful, but they hold little interest for modern readers. Miller’s last literary effort was a series of journalistic articles describing his experiences in the Yukon. These pieces were graphic and entertaining and found a ready market in the Hearst newspapers. It is evident that Frost does not have a high regard for the literary artistry of Joaquin Miller. Of the latter’s poetic abilities he says: Miller “is a moralist who lacks precision, subtlety, and originality . . . . he is no thinker, no philosopher; and he is, therefore, in the most elevated conception of the word—no poet.” Those things for which he praises Miller—his immediacy in newspaper accounts of Indian conflicts, his championing of the Indian cause earlier than most other writers, and his promoting of frontier legends in an era of adventure—seems lame and ineffectual in comparison to the weaknesses that he details on nearly every page. If these negative critical comments are the more persuasive (and they are), one wonders if...