Karl Miller

For the German footballer, see Karl Miller (footballer). For people of a similar name, see Carl Miller (disambiguation).

Karl Miller FRSL
Born	Karl Fergus Connor Miller (1931-08-02)2 August 1931 Loanhead, Midlothian, Scotland
Died	24 September 2014(2014-09-24) (aged 83)
Nationality	Scottish
Alma mater	Downing College, Cambridge
Occupation(s)	Literary editor, critic and writer

Karl Fergus Connor Miller FRSL (2 August 1931 – 24 September 2014) was a Scottish literary editor, critic and writer.^[1]

Biography

Miller was born in the village of Loanhead, Midlothian, and was educated at the Royal High School of Edinburgh and Downing College, Cambridge, where he studied English; he was a Cambridge Apostle.^[2] He became literary editor of The Spectator and the New Statesman. Miller resigned from the latter over a disagreement with the magazine's editor Paul Johnson, over the extent to which the literary pages treated difficult subjects and also Johnson's disapproval of The Beatles and their fans.^[3]

He was then editor of The Listener (1967–73) and subsequently of the London Review of Books, which he founded, from 1979 to 1992. He was also Lord Northcliffe Professor of Modern English Literature and head of the English Department at University College London from 1974 to 1992.

Miller died on 24 September 2014, at the age of 83.^[4][5]

Works

• Poetry from Cambridge 1952–4. Oxford, 1955 (editor)
• Writing in England Today: the last fifteen years. London: Penguin, 1968 (editor)
• Memoirs of a Modern Scotland. London: Faber, 1970 (editor)
• Cockburn's Millennium. London: Duckworth, 1975 (a biography of Henry Cockburn, which won Miller the James Tait Black Memorial Prize)
• Doubles: Studies in Literary History. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985 (criticism)
• Authors. Oxford: Clarendon, 1989
• Rebecca's Vest: a memoir. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1993
• Boswell and Hyde. London: Syrens, 1995
• Dark Horses: an experience of literary journalism. London: Picador, 1998 (memoir)
• Seamus Heaney in conversation with Karl Miller. London: BTL, 2000
• Electric Shepherd: a likeness of James Hogg. London: Faber, 2003 (biography)
• Tretower to Clyro: essays. London: Quercus, 2011

Reviews

• Murray, Tom, Review of Electric Shepherd: A Likeness of James Hogg, in Colton, Julian & Murray, Tom (eds.), The Eildon Tree, Issue 10: Winter 2004, Scottish Borders Council, Selkirk, pp. 4 & 5

References

1. "Weekend birthdays". The Guardian. 2 August 2014. p. 51.
2. Karl Miller – Loanhead, Midlothian-born and educated at The Royal High School
3. Neil Berry (2002), Articles of Faith: The Story of British Intellectual Journalism, London: The Waywiser Press, p. 214. ISBN 1-904130-08-9.
4. Alison Flood (25 September 2014). "Karl Miller, founding editor of London Review of Books, dies at 83". The Guardian.
5. Sutherland, John (25 September 2014). "Karl Miller obituary". The Guardian.

External links

• Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library, Emory University: Karl Miller papers, 1949–2007