Contact: Maridith Geuder
Stories of turn-of-the-century life in frontier Texas, first published early in the 1900s, are finding new readers thanks to two Mississippi State University professors who are descendants of the original author.
Duane I. Miller, a psychology professor, and his wife, Nancy Verhoek-Miller, a professor in curriculum and instruction, have contributed their fictional recreations of the era to those written more than half a century earlier by Duane's uncle Lewis. "The Cross Timber Stories" has recently been issued by Pequea Publishers, an Amish press in Gordonville, Pa.
During his lifetime, Lewis Miller published more than 20 novels and about 100 short stories in the local color tradition of American writer Bret Harte. In stories such as "The Panthers in the Cotton Field" and "The Steer in School," he writes of the hardships and the humor of life on Blocker Creek near Hico, Texas.
"He started writing at the age of 8 or 9," said his great-nephew Duane, "and he wrote throughout most of his life. I have the last story he was working on when he became ill and died in 1933."
Serialized in collections such as The Youths' Companion when they were first written, the stories eventually went out of print. Some of Lewis Miller's novels found their way to family bookshelves, and others were lost. "I'd read only about half of his stories," said Duane Miller.
But the local color fiction surfaced in an unexpected place. About 15 years ago, an Amish teacher discovered one of Lewis Miller's stories in a magazine in her family attic, tried it out on her students and became a fan.
She approached Pequea about publishing it. When the story became a success, the publisher researched Miller at the Library of Congress, found other stories, and began to re-issue the collections.
"The stories were appealing because they're realistic, but not coarse," Duane Miller said. After the publisher exhausted the supply, he called the Miller family. With only about half the stories needed for a book-length collection, the publisher proposed that Duane and Nancy complete the book with stories they had written in the Lewis Miller style.
The result is "The Cross Timber Stories," published for the first time in book form.
"The stories are very much in the oral tradition, providing a sense of excitement and action while recreating the lives of everyday people," said Nancy Verhoek-Miller. The Lewis B. Miller stories appear exactly as they were originally published.
The 300-page collection is available at the Mississippi State University bookstore and at Starkville area bookstores.