Wynn Miller - 1955
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I. Biography Wynn Miller was born in Milford, Connecticut in September of 1955. Miller attended high school in Milford, where he first
decided to become a writer. Several of Miller's teachers showed his how writing conveys ideas. He was enthralled with the thought that he too could convey thoughts and emotions through writing. Miller
then decided to go to Bennington College and learn about writing from authors like John Gardner, Bernard Malamud, and Love Segal. In his attendance at Bennington, Miller worked in the theater. He wrote a script that was
full of plays on words. Miller also learned about many authors like Shakespeare, Chaucer, Joyce, Woolf, Williams, Hemingway, Eliot, Pinter, and Pirandello. he particularly enjoyed
Bob Dylan, Robert Hunter, Herman Herse, Alan Ginsburg, and Jack Keronac. Miller recently finished law school in Denver, Colorado. This too relates to writing in the
judicial opinions that solve complex legal problems for many people. Miller believes that some of these judicial opinions, like the works of Montana justice John Sheehy and
Massachusetts judge Oliver Wendell Holmes, are literary masterpieces. Miller is a part time author. He wrote short vignettes and verse on his own while he worked
as an editor for the McCaffrey & McCall advertising agency in New York. He has also worked in a theater analyzing plays, printing, law office work, as well as dishwashing, ranch
work, and even serving as a first mate on a coastal sailing vessel. Miller writes in several forms. Journalism is one of those styles of writing. Miller explains,
"Journalism requires research- in the library and through line interviews- conveying opposing viewpoints in objective language. The writing style depends on the style of
publication. Wynn has much interest in playwriting, verse, and essays because these forms record the spoken word. "The language of people speaking freely has qualities of
music and color. Successful writing depends on character development and structural integrity." Miller believes Hemingway was correct when he said that the writer's best skill
is listening. Miller also does legal writing. It involves research and it must show ideas from analytical reading. Miller has read and enjoyed several books by Winston Churchill and by his biographer,
William Manchester. He also enjoyed western books by Alan Nevin, Gretel Ehrlich and Wallace Stegner. II. Montana Life
Miller moved to Montana for many reasons, one of which is the people. Once, while driving through Montana in the wintertime, Miller was in a car wreck and stranded in a
blizzard. He was found by a ranch hand and taken to Sand Springs where a man radioed for help. In such a short while, he had gone from precarious conditions to having hot soup in
a café next to a repair shop in Jordan. He was soon back on the road. Wynn believes, "Folks like these-- most Montanans--are plainspoken with colorful language."
Miller also came to Montana for the land. He enjoys time spent in the Beartooth Mountains near Red Lodge for walking, skiing, and writing. Miller arrived in Montana in
1990 with a friend, Micah Morrison (who at the time was writing Fire in Paradise, about the 1988 fires in Yellowstone National Park).
Miller attended the Rock Creek Writer's Gatherings--sponsored by the Montana Free Press--while doing graphic arts work in Red Lodge. The gatherings gave poets and
essayists an opportunity to read aloud. Wynn is grateful for those opportunities to hear and meet the writers who find their inspiration in many aspects of Montana. He was asked to edit Gary Ferguson's book,
Walking Down the Wild, about his 500-mile walk around Yellowstone National Park. He also worked with Kennard Real Bird in Hardin, Montana.
While in Red Lodge, Miller wrote a story about plans to mine gold in Cooke City, and another about the Montana Freemen. Miller has been published in Ski America, Insight Magazine, the Christian Science Monitor
, National Law Journal, newspapers, and trade magazines. To aid his in his works, Miller uses The Elements of Style, by Strunk and White, in which Professor Strunk commands to "omit needless words".
Wynn Miller is a prime example of an author with a wide variety of things in his life that contribute to his talent. Not only has he written and studied many works, the variety of styles and genres he works in is quite large.
II. Miller on the Web For more information concerning Bennington College, go to:
This essay was submitted by a student of Steve Gardiner a teacher at Billings Senior High School in Billings, Montana.