Walter M. Miller, Jr. (January 23, 1923 - January 11, 1996) was a Catholic science fiction author who wrote the novel A Canticle for Leibowitz in 1959. He was born in New Smyrna Beach, Florida. Miller served in the Army Air Force in World War II, flying 53 bombing missions over Italy. Among these was the bombing of the Benedictine Abbey at Monte Cassino, which became for him a traumatic experience.
In his later years, Miller became pathologically reclusive, avoiding contact with most people including family members. Miller shot himself while working on a sequel to A Canticle for Leibowitz. That novel, Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman , was finished by ghost writer Terry Bisson in 2000.
A Canticle for Leibowitz was the only novel by Miller that was published during his lifetime. It won him the 1961 Hugo Award for Best Novel, and is considered one of the best post-apocalyptic novels. He also published about 40 science-fiction short stories.
Bibliography
Novels
Short Stories
- Anybody Else Like Me? (1952)
- Big Joe and the Nth Generation (1952)
- Bitter Victory (1952)
- Blood Bank (1952)
- Cold Awakening (1952)
- Command Performance (1952)
- Conditionally Human
- Cucifixus Etiam (1953)
- Dark Benediction (1951)
- Death of a Spaceman (1954)
- Dumb Waiter
- Gravesong (1952)
- I, Dreamer (1953)
- I Made You (1954)
- Izzard and the Membrane (1951)
- Let My People Go (1952)
- Memento Homo (1954)
- No Moon for Me (1952)
- Secret of the Death Dome (1951)
- Six and Ten Are Johnny (1952)
- The Big Hunger (1952)
- The Darfsteller (1955)
- The First Canticle (1955)
- The Hoofer (1955)
- The Little Creeps (1951)
- The Song of Marya (1957)
- The Song of Vorhu (1951)
- The Soul-Empty Ones (1951)
- The Sower Does Not Reap (1953)
- The Space Witch (1951)
- The Ties that Bind (1954)
- The View from the Stars
- The Will (1954)
- The Yokel (1953)
- Vengeance for Nikolai (1957)
- Way of a Rebel (1954)
- Wolf Pack (1953)
- You Triflin' Skunk! (1955)
