Walter M. Miller, Jr.
| Walter M. Miller Jr. | |
|---|---|
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| Born | Walter Michael Miller Jr. January 23, 1923 New Smyrna Beach, Florida, USA |
| Died | January 9, 1996 (aged 72) Daytona Beach, Florida |
| Occupation | Novelist, short story writer |
| Language | English |
| Nationality | American |
| Period | 1951–1959, 1997 (publications as writer) |
| Genre | Science fiction |
| Notable works | A Canticle for Leibowitz |
| Notable awards | Hugo Award for Best Novelette (1955) Hugo Award for Best Novel (1961) |
| Spouse | Anna Louise Becker (1945-1995) |
| Children | 4 |
Walter Michael Miller Jr. (January 23, 1923 – January 9, 1996) was an American science fiction writer. He is known primarily for A Canticle for Leibowitz (1959), the only novel he published in his lifetime. Prior to its publication he was a prolific writer of short stories.
Miller was born in New Smyrna Beach, Florida. Educated at the University of Tennessee and the University of Texas, he worked as an engineer. During World War II, he served in the Army Air Corps as a radioman and tail gunner, flying more than fifty bombing missions over Italy. He took part in the bombing of the Benedictine Abbey at Monte Cassino, which proved a traumatic experience for him. Joe Haldeman reported that Miller "had Post Traumatic Stress Disorder for 30 years before it had a name", and that Miller displayed a photograph he had taken of Ron Kovic prominently in his living room.
After the war, Miller converted to Catholicism. He married Anna Louise Becker in 1945 and they had four children. He lived with science-fiction writer Judith Merril in 1953.
Between 1951 and 1957, Miller published over three dozen science fiction short stories, winning a Hugo Award in 1955 for the story "The Darfsteller". He also wrote scripts for the television show Captain Video in 1953. Late in the 1950s, Miller assembled a novel from three closely related novellas he had published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in 1955, 1956 and 1957. The novel, entitled A Canticle for Leibowitz, was published in 1959.
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