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Miller's masterful book, based on his years during the 1850s among the mining towns and Indian camps of northern California, is an account of epic sweep, with a grandeur and tone never before heard in the literature of the West.
About the author
Joaquin Miller, born Cincinnatus Hiner Miller in 1837, was a colorful, controversial, and important figure in early California literature.Malcolm Margolin is the publisher emeritus of Heyday, an independent nonprofit publisher and unique cultural institution, which he founded in 1974. Margolin is author of several books, including The Ohlone Way: Indian Life in the San Francisco–Monterey Bay Area, named by the San Francisco Chronicle as one of the hundred most important books of the twentieth century by a western writer. He has received dozens of prestigious awards among which are the Chairman's Commendation from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Fred Cody Award Lifetime Achievement from the San Francisco Bay Area Book Reviewers Association, the Helen Crocker Russell Award for Community Leadership from the San Francisco Foundation, the Carey McWilliams Award for Lifetime Achievement from the California Studies Association, an Oscar Lewis Award for Western History from the Book Club of California, a Hubert Bancroft Award from Friends of the Bancroft Library, a Cultural Freedom Award from the Lannan Foundation, and a Distinguished Service Award from the Society of Professional Journalists. He helped found the Bay Nature Institute and the Alliance for California Traditional Artists.Alan Rosenus, a historian and writer, has reintroduced a number of California classics, including The Indian History of the Modoc War, Joaquin Miller's Life Amongst the Modocs, and Selected Writings of Joaquin Miller. A grantee of the National Endowment for the Arts, Rosenus has taught at Coe College, the College of Marin, and San Francisco State University.
Summary
First printed in 1873, Life Amongst the Modocs is based on Miller’s years among the mining towns and Indian camps of northernmost California during the tumultuous 1850s. As a nature writer, he was among the first to capture the fierce power and sublime beauty of California’s wild landscape. He was also a maverick in his portrayal of the state’s emotional landscape, dealing as no one has before or since with themes such as loneliness and defeat, melancholy and rage, weakness and strength, joy and loyalty.
