1939

Primary Sources
Miller, Joaquin. Columbus. Music by Christopher Thomas, words by Joaquin Miller. (Chorus for men's voices). (Wood octavo series No. 489.) B. F. Wood Music Co., (18 December 1939] [MGK]

Secondary Sources
“Brief Reviews of New Books in a Variety of Fields.” Rev. of A Guide to Alaska: Last
American Frontier. By Merle Colby. American Guide Series. Federal Writers
Project. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1939. 427 pp. New York Times
(30 July 1939) [Online: BR5] Brief note that Dawson was made famous by its temporary residents including Joaquin Miller [MCK]
California. American Guide Series. New York, 1939. [MAR] [MCK]
Dana, Julian. The Sacramento. River of Gold. New York and Toronto: Farrar &
Rinehart, 1939. 294pp. 6, 251, 254-255 [entry sic.] 268. [WC] [PSU] [MGK] [MCK] Brief mentions, with the longest being Joaquin Miller’s version of the Battle of Castle Crags [Also published in 1971] [WC]
Dobie, Charles Caldwell. San Francisco: A Pageant. NY: D. Appleton-Century
Company, 1939. 153, 382, 383-386. [MCK] Detailed description of “The Hights” and on making a modern day pilgrimage.
Hart, James D. Review of San Francisco’s Literary Frontier. California Historical Society Quarterly 18.3 (1939): 281 [MGK]
Odell, George C. D. Annals of the New York Stage. New York: Columbia University
Press, 1939. Vol. 10: 400-401; Vol. 11: 243. [RCL 91] [MGK] [MAR] [MCK]
Turnbull, George S. History of Oregon Newspapers. Portland, Oregon: Binfords &
Mort, 1939. 560pp. [WC] [MULT] [MCK]
Turner, Arlin. “Joaquin Miller in New Orleans.” Louisiana Historical Quarterly 22 (January 1939): 216-225 [Information based primarily on newspaper interviews and articles by Miller [RCL] [MGK] [Also cited by [RCL] [MAR] [WC] as New Orleans: T.J. Moran’s Sons 1939 12pp.] [MCK]
Walker, Franklin. San Francisco’s Literary Frontier. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. 1939 [and 1943] [OAK] [MES has first ed.] Reprinted in 1969 and 1970, Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press. [OHS] [RCL] [WC] [MULT] [MAR] [MGK] [MCK] pp. 55-57, 82-88, 112, 113, 146-152, 274-279, 324-335, 342-347, 354, 359, 362.
Walterhouse, Roger Rilus. Bret Harte, Joaquin Miller, and the Western Local Color Story: A Study in the Origins of Popular Fiction. Unpublished dissertation, 1936, University of Chicago. Privately printed 1937. [LAW] [HUN has private edition distributed by University of Chicago Libraries. pp. 67-73 and passim.] [MGK]
“New Editions, Fine & Otherwise.” New York Times (12 March 1939): 10. [MCK]
Story of Edwin B. Hill, whose hobby is printing and lists Miller’s memories of
Adah Isaacs Menken as one of his treasured possessions.
“Queries and Answers - Queries.” New York Times (16 April 1939) [Online: BR16] [MCK] A note that a reader is looking not for copy of Miller’s “Defense of the Alamo” but a copy of Harte’s story of the same name.
Howe, Ward Allan. “Fete at Sacramento: Old Days of ‘Roaring Camp’ to Live Again in
California Capital’s Centennial.” New York Times (23 April 1939): 135. [MCK]
Joaquin Miller listed as one of the literary figures of the Gold Rush days.
Tinker, Edward Larocque. “Our ‘Good Gray Poet’: The National Library Celebrates
Whitman, His Foothold Still ‘Mortis’d in Granite.’” New York Times (28 May 1939): 7, 19. 19:
Article on Walt Whitman’s relationship with Anne Gilchrist. Miller is only mentioned because Whitman would sometimes take Miller on his daily visits to the Gilchrist home in 1876.
Moffett, Anita. “Two Golden____? Review of San Francisco’s Literary Frontier. By Franklin Walker. New York Times (16 July 1939): 74-75. A fairly lengthy review [MCK]
Thompson, Ralph. “Books of the Times.” Rev. of San Francisco’s Literary Frontier. By
Franklin Walker. New York Times (17 July 1939): 22 [MCK]
Thompson noted that Menken’s life was not nearly as curious as the careers of Miller and Bierce and expressed his approval of Walker’s sketches of the two, more curious characters.
“Golden Era.” Time Magazine 34 (17 July 1939): 67, 70. [RCL] [MGK] [MCK]
Abbie Leland Miller died July 24, 1939 [MGK]
Abbie Leland Miller. San Francisco News. (25 July 1939): 3: 5 [CAL]
“According to family records, Abbie Leland was Miller’s second wife. His first was an Eastern [sic Oregon] poetess named Minnie Myrtle. Then, said Miss Miller, came a slight “Indian episode” during which the poet met and under tribal ceremony plighted his troth to a Shasta county Indian girl...” [sic - sequence wrong, Indian wife was first and Minnie Myrtle was reputedly from Port Orford.] [MGK]
Abbie Leland Miller. Necrology. Oregon Historical Quarterly 40.3 (25 July 1939): 302 [89 year-old widow of Joaquin Miller. Oakland, California.] [MGK]
“Obituary: Mrs. Joaquin Miller: Widow of ‘Poet of the Sierras’ Dies in Oakland, Calif.”
New York Times (26 July 1939: 19 [MCK]
Abbie Leland Miller died at age 89 on July 24 at “the Hight.” Very short
obituary which includes essentially merely the following information: that her husband died 26 years earlier, her father, Major William W. Leland, served on General Grant’s staff and that her grandfather was Judge Eben Hosmer of Cleveland.
Death sketch of Mrs. Joaquin (Abbie Leland) Miller. San Francisco Chronicle (26 July 1939): 6: 1 [CAL] [MGK]
Mrs. Abbie Leland Miller legal notice. Oakland Tribune (28 July 1939): 43: 4 [CAL] [MGK]
Funeral of Abbie Leland Miller. San Francisco Chronicle. (27 July 1939): 9: 1; (29 July 1939): 7: 1; (30 July 1939): 9: 1 [CAL] [MGK] Portion of notice in July 30 article: “At the Heights[sic] in the Oakland hills a group of friends gathered at memorial services yesterday for Mrs. Abbie Leland Miller, widow of Joaquin Miller, who died Monday at the age of 89.”
“Joaquin Miller Memorial Service Will Honor Widow.” [Oakland Tribune or San Francisco Examiner.] (11 August 1939) [LHM] [MGK]
“California’s annual memorial to its favorite poet, Joaquin Miller will be combined this year with a memorial to his widow, Abbie Leland Miller.
Juanita Miller, only child of the couple, announced yesterday that a death mask she made of her mother who died July 24, will be displayed beside a bust she made of her father.

The joint memorial will be held in the California building on Treasure Island on November 10. It was on November 10, 1841, that Joaquin Miller was born [more likely 1840] and each year since his death a memorial service has been held for him.

Descendants of Miller’s longtime literary friends together with California literary and civic leaders will pay tribute to the “Poet of the Sierras” at the memorial.”

Letters and Archival Papers
Letter, 1939, Oakland, California to Mr. Edwin Markham, Long Island, N. Y. In
Markham Manuscript Collection, Wagner College, Staten Island, New York.
[WC] [MCK]
“Eva writes a long letter discussing the memories of Markham reading to her and learning from him. She makes many reference to many people, such as Miss White, Maude Lyons, Swedenborg, Ina Coolbrith, Ambrose, George Sterling, Joaqin [sic] Miller and their writings. She remiembers [sic] the live [sic] they all had in California together. It was great to be a part of it. She talks about Anna Catherine and how well she could write. She would like Markham and Virgil to come back to California for a visit.”
Letter, January 11, 1939. [WC] [University of Oregon].
“Letter from Gonter to Phernie [Pherne] Miller mentioning a 1912 pamphlet
containing a poem on Columbus written by Joaquin Miller, and excerpts from the journal Columbus kept during his first voyage” [WC]

 
Bibliography: Printable

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