Peter Schuyler Miller (February 21, 1912 – October 13, 1974) was an American
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...
writer and critic.
Life
Miller was raised in
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
's
Mohawk Valley
The Mohawk Valley region of the U.S. state of New York is the area surrounding the Mohawk River, sandwiched between the Adirondack Mountains and Catskill Mountains, northwest of the Capital District. As of the 2010 United States Census, th ...
, which led to a lifelong interest in the
Iroquois
The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...
Indians. He pursued this as an amateur archaeologist and a member of the New York State Archaeological Association.
He received his M.S. in chemistry from
Union College
Union College is a private liberal arts college in Schenectady, New York. Founded in 1795, it was the first institution of higher learning chartered by the New York State Board of Regents, and second in the state of New York, after Columbia Co ...
in
Schenectady
Schenectady () is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the 2020 census, the city's population of 67,047 made it the state's ninth-largest city by population. The city is in eastern New Y ...
. He subsequently worked as a technical writer for
General Electric
General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable energ ...
in the 1940s, and for the
Fisher Scientific Company in
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...
from 1952 until his death.
Miller died October 13, 1974, on
Blennerhassett Island
Blennerhassett Island is an island on the Ohio River below the mouth of the Little Kanawha River, near Parkersburg in Wood County, West Virginia, United States.
Historically, Blennerhassett Island was occupied by Native Americans. Nemacolin, ...
,
West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the Bur ...
. He was on an archaeological tour to the "
Fort Ancient
Fort Ancient is a name for a Native American culture that flourished from Ca. 1000-1750 CE and predominantly inhabited land near the Ohio River valley in the areas of modern-day southern Ohio, northern Kentucky, southeastern Indiana and western ...
culture" site west of
Parkersburg
Parkersburg is a city in and the county seat of Wood County, West Virginia. Located at the confluence of the Ohio and Little Kanawha rivers, it is the state's fourth-largest city and the largest city in the Parkersburg-Marietta-Vienna metro ...
at the time.
Works
Miller wrote pulp science fiction beginning in the 1930s, and is considered one of the more popular authors of the period. His work appeared in such magazines as ''
Amazing Stories
''Amazing Stories'' is an American science fiction magazine launched in April 1926 by Hugo Gernsback's Experimenter Publishing. It was the first magazine devoted solely to science fiction. Science fiction stories had made regular appearances i ...
'', ''
Astounding
''Analog Science Fiction and Fact'' is an American science fiction magazine published under various titles since 1930. Originally titled ''Astounding Stories of Super-Science'', the first issue was dated January 1930, published by William Cl ...
'', ''
Comet
A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process that is called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena ar ...
'', ''
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction
''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'' (usually referred to as ''F&SF'') is a U.S. fantasy and science fiction magazine first published in 1949 by Mystery House, a subsidiary of Lawrence Spivak's Mercury Press. Editors Anthony Boucher a ...
'', ''
Marvel Tales'', ''Science Fiction Digest'', ''
Super Science Stories
''Super Science Stories'' was an American pulp science fiction magazine published by Popular Publications from 1940 to 1943, and again from 1949 to 1951. Popular launched it under their Fictioneers imprint, which they used for magazines, payin ...
'', ''
Unknown
Unknown or The Unknown may refer to:
Film
* The Unknown (1915 comedy film), ''The Unknown'' (1915 comedy film), a silent boxing film
* The Unknown (1915 drama film), ''The Unknown'' (1915 drama film)
* The Unknown (1927 film), ''The Unknown'' (1 ...
'', ''
Weird Tales
''Weird Tales'' is an American fantasy and horror fiction pulp magazine founded by J. C. Henneberger and J. M. Lansinger in late 1922. The first issue, dated March 1923, appeared on newsstands February 18. The first editor, Edwin Baird, prin ...
'', and ''
Wonder Stories
''Wonder Stories'' was an early American science fiction magazine which was published under several titles from 1929 to 1955. It was founded by Hugo Gernsback in 1929 after he had lost control of his first science fiction magazine, ''Amazing Stor ...
'', among others.
With his friend
John D. Clark, Miller is also known as a bibliographer of
Robert E. Howard's "
Conan" stories. The two worked out an outline of Conan's career and a map of the world in Howard's work in 1936 from the then-published stories. Their map became the basis of maps that later appeared in the book editions of the Conan stories.
[De Camp, L. Sprague. "John D. ("Doc") Clark" (obituary) in ''Locus'', August 1988, pages 64–65.] Their revised outline, "A Probable Outline of Conan's Career" was published in the
fanzine
A fanzine (blend word, blend of ''fan (person), fan'' and ''magazine'' or ''-zine'') is a non-professional and non-official publication produced by fan (person), enthusiasts of a particular cultural phenomenon (such as a literary or musical genre) ...
''The Hyborian Age'' in 1938.
Miller began a shift to book reviewing in 1945, writing for ''
Astounding Science Fiction
''Analog Science Fiction and Fact'' is an American science fiction magazine published under various titles since 1930. Originally titled ''Astounding Stories of Super-Science'', the first issue was dated January 1930, published by William C ...
'', later renamed ''Analog'', for which he wrote a monthly review column, "The Reference Library", from 1951 to 1963. As a critic he was notable for his enthusiasm for a wide coverage of the science fiction field. He was awarded a special
Hugo Award
The Hugo Award is an annual literary award for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year, given at the World Science Fiction Convention and chosen by its members. The Hugo is widely considered the premier a ...
for book reviews in 1963.
After his death his sister Mary E. Drake donated his extensive collection of papers, maps, books and periodicals, accumulated largely as a result of his review work, to the
Carnegie Museum. They now form the basis of the P. Schuyler Miller Memorial Library at the Edward O'Neill Research Center in Pittsburgh.
Bibliography
Short fiction
![Avon Fantasy Reader 4](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/14/Avon_Fantasy_Reader_4.jpg)
* "The Red Plague" (Jul. 1930)
* "Dust of Destruction" (Feb. 1931)
* "Through the Vibrations" (May 1931)
* "Cleon of Yzdral" (Jul. 1931)
* "The Man from Mars" (Sum. 1931)
* "The Arrhenius Horror" (Sep. 1931)
* "Tetrahedra of Space" (Nov. 1931)
* "Red Spot on Jupiter" (1931) (with Paul McDermott and Walter Dennis)
* "Duel on the Asteroid" (Jan. 1932) (with Paul McDermott and Walter Dennis)
* "Forgotten" (also known as "The Forgotten Man of Space") (Apr. 1933)
* "Red Flame of Venus" (Sep. 1932)
* "Jeremiah Jones, Alchemist" (May 1933)
* "Alicia in Blunderland" (1933)
* "The Atom Smasher" (Jan. 1934)
* "The Pool of Life" (Oct. 1934)
* "The Titan" (Win. 1934–35)
* "The People of the Arrow" (Jul. 1935)
* "The Chrysalis" (Apr. 1936)
* "The Sands of Time" (Apr. 1937)
* "Coils of Time" (May 1939)
* "Pleasure Trove" (Aug. 1939)
* "Spawn" (Aug. 1939)
* "In the Good Old Summertime" (Mar. 1940)
* "Living Isotopes" (May 1940)
* "The Flayed Wolf" (Jul. 1940)
* "Old Man Mulligan" (Dec. 1940)
* "Trouble on Tantalus" (Feb. 1941)
* "Bird Walk" (Apr. 1941)
* "Over the River" (Apr. 1941)
* "The Facts of Life" (May 1941)
* "Smugglers of the Moon" (May 1941)
* "The Frog" (Oct. 1942)
* "The Cave" (Jan. 1943)
* "John Cawder's Wife" (May 1943)
* "The Hounds of Kalimar" (Jun. 1943)
* "Gleeps" (Jul. 1943)
* "Fricassee in Four Dimensions" (Dec. 1943)
* "As Never Was" (Jan. 1944)
* "Cuckoo" (May 1944)
* "Plane and Fancy" (Jul. 1944)
* "Ship-in-a-Bottle" (Jan. 1945)
* "Ghost" (Jul. 1946)
* "The Thing on Outer Shoal" (Sep. 1947)
* "Daydream" (1949)
* "Status Quondam" (1951)
* "For Analysis" (Nov. 1958)
Verse
* "Man's Question" (Jun. 1931)
* "Meteor" (Aug. 1931)
* "Space" (Feb. 1933)
Novels
* ''
Genus Homo'' (1941, rv.1950) (with
L. Sprague de Camp
Lyon Sprague de Camp (; November 27, 1907 – November 6, 2000) was an American writer of science fiction, fantasy and non-fiction. In a career spanning 60 years, he wrote over 100 books, including novels and works of non-fiction, including biog ...
)
Collections
* ''
The Titan'' (1952)
Sources
*
Moskowitz, Sam
Sam Moskowitz (June 30, 1920 – April 15, 1997) was an American writer, critic, and historian of science fiction.
Biography
As a child, Moskowitz greatly enjoyed reading science fiction pulp magazines. As a teenager, he organized a branch of ...
. Obituary, in ''Analog'', February 1975.
* Moskowitz, Sam (1975). ''A Canticle for P. Schuyler Miller''.
* Obituary in ''Pennsylvania Archaeologist'', Vol 46, no. 1/2.
* ''Catalogue of the Fantasy and Science Fiction Library of the Late P. Schuyler Miller'' (1977).
References
External links
*
*
P. Schuyler Miller Collectionat th
Kenneth Spencer Research Libraryat the
University of Kansas
The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. Tw ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Miller, P. Schuyler
1912 births
1974 deaths
20th-century American male writers
20th-century American non-fiction writers
20th-century American novelists
20th-century American short story writers
American male non-fiction writers
American male novelists
American male short story writers
American science fiction writers
American speculative fiction critics
Analog Science Fiction and Fact people
Science fiction critics