Merle Dale Miller (May 17, 1919 – June 10, 1986) was an American writer, novelist, and author who is perhaps best remembered for his best-selling biography of
Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. As the 34th vice president in 1945, he assumed the presidency upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt that year. Subsequen ...
, and as a pioneer in the
gay rights movement.
Miller
came out of the closet in an article in the ''New York Times Magazine'' on January 17, 1971, "What It Means to Be a Homosexual." The response of over 2,000 letters to the article, more than ever received by that newspaper, led to a book publication later that year. The book was reprinted by Penguin Classics in 2012, with a new foreword by
Dan Savage
Daniel Keenan Savage (born October 7, 1964) is an American author, media pundit, journalist, and LGBTQ community activist. He writes Savage Love, an internationally syndicated relationship and sex advice column. In 2010, Savage and his husband, ...
and a new afterword by
Charles Kaiser.
Life and career
Merle Miller was born in
Montour, Iowa, and raised in
Marshalltown, Iowa
Marshalltown is a city in Marshall County, Iowa, and is the county seat of the county. With a population of 27,591 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the 16th largest city in the state. Marshalltown is home to the Iowa Vetera ...
, attending the University of Iowa and the London School of Economics. Before World War II, he was a Washington correspondent for the late Philadelphia Record. During the war, Miller served both in the Pacific and in Europe as a war correspondent and editor for ''
Yank, The Army Weekly''.
Following his discharge from the Army, he was an editor at ''Harper'' and ''Time'' magazines. He also worked as a book reviewer for ''The Saturday Review of Literature'' and as a contributing editor for ''The Nation''. His work appeared frequently in the ''New York Times Magazine''.
During the course of a writing career that spanned several decades, Miller wrote numerous novels, including the best-selling classic post war novel, ''That Winter'' (1948). His other novels are ''Island 49'' (1945); ''The Sure Thing'' (1949); ''Reunion'' (1954); ''A Day in Late September'' (1956); ''A Secret Understanding'' (1956); ''A Gay and Melancholy Sound'' (1961); and ''What Happened'' (1972). He also wrote the novel ''The Warm Feeling'', but since the publisher did not give him the opportunity to read and edit the manuscript, he publicly disowned the novel and would not have anything to do with it.
His works of non-fiction include ''We Dropped the A-Bomb'' (1946), a book he wrote in collaboration with Abe Spitzer, a radioman who was on the bomber
The Great Artiste, one of the three B-29s that participated in the atom bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; ''The Judges and The Judged'' (1952); ''Only You Dick Daring'' (1964), Miller's scathing account of trying to make a show with CBS for the 1963-1964 television season; and ''On Being Different: What It Means To Be a Homosexual'' (1971). Miller was a contributor to ''A Treasury of Great Reporting''; ""The Best of Yank''; and ''Yank: The GI Story of the War''.
In 1967 he signed the "
Writers and Editors War Tax Protest," vowing to refuse to pay taxes raised to fund the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...
.
Miller wrote many television plays and was the author of the screenplays for ''
The Rains of Ranchipur
''The Rains of Ranchipur'' is a 1955 American drama and disaster film made by 20th Century Fox. It was directed by Jean Negulesco and produced by Frank Ross (producer), Frank Ross from a screenplay by Merle Miller, based on the 1937 novel ''The ...
'' (1955), which starred
Richard Burton
Richard Burton (; born Richard Walter Jenkins Jr.; 10 November 1925 – 5 August 1984) was a Welsh actor.
Noted for his mellifluous baritone voice, Burton established himself as a formidable Shakespearean actor in the 1950s and gave a memor ...
and
Lana Turner
Julia Jean "Lana" Turner ( ; February 8, 1921June 29, 1995) was an American actress. Over a career spanning nearly five decades, she achieved fame as both a pin-up model and a film actress, as well as for her highly publicized personal life. ...
, and ''
Kings Go Forth'' (1958), featuring
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Honorific nicknames in popular music, Nicknamed the "Chairman of the Board" and "Ol' Blue Eyes", he is regarded as one of the Time 100: The Most I ...
and
Natalie Wood. He wrote several drafts of a screenplay for ''
Walk on the Wild Side'' but by the time the screen version was being shot it was so far removed from what he had written or had in mind that he refused any screen credit. His postwar career as a television script writer and novelist was interrupted by the advent of
Senator Joseph McCarthy and Miller's inclusion on the
Hollywood blacklist
The Hollywood blacklist was the mid-20th century banning of suspected Communists from working in the United States entertainment industry. The blacklisting, blacklist began at the onset of the Cold War and Red Scare#Second Red Scare (1947–1957 ...
. He did not re-enter TV until the late 1950s and early 60s.
[
After the success of ''Plain Speaking'' Miller wrote two more biographies, ''Lyndon, A Biography of President Lyndon Baines Johnson'', and ''Ike the Soldier'', a biography of General Dwight David Eisenhower. He had completed all the interviews and research with the intention of writing a second volume, to be titled ''Ike the President'', but died just after finishing the first volume Ike the Soldier.
Miller died on June 10, 1986, in Danbury Hospital in Connecticut, from peritonitis following surgery to remove a ruptured appendix.
Merle Miller Special Collections containing all of his taped interviews, research material, notes and correspondence are housed at three presidential libraries in Missouri, Texas and Kansas, as well as the University of Iowa and Boston University. They are all open and available to the public.
]
''Plain Speaking: An Oral Biography of Harry S. Truman''
In 1962, Miller was hired by producer Robert Alan Aurthur as part of a team to interview and write the script for a proposed series on ex-President Harry Truman
Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. As the 34th vice president in 1945, he assumed the presidency upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt that year. Subsequen ...
. He spent hundreds of hours with Truman both at the Truman Library in Independence, Missouri, and at the Carlyle Hotel in New York City, but all three of the major networks were not interested in the series and turned it down. Miller felt that perhaps the time was not right, that many people were not aware of the greatness of the man, and that it was possible that the country was not ready to look back at the Truman years. He also felt one of the reasons it was never shown on television, even as late as 1962, was that he had been a blacklisted writer.["Sex and Power in High Places. Merle Miller Speaks Out" by John Mitzel. Gay Community News. Vol. 4. No. 42. April 16, 1977.]
Miller did not know what to do with the interviews, some on tape and some taking up four full-sized file cabinets. He wanted to write a book about Truman, but he did not want it to be a biography. Truman died in 1972, and Miller was asked to appear on television and tell some Truman stories, some of which he had been entertaining friends with over the years. Someone at the station suggested that he should write a book that made use of some of the stories. He still had the tapes and the mountains of notes he had made after each conversation, and so he went home and put together a thirty-page proposal. It was turned down by at least eight publishers before it was picked up by G. P. Putnam's Sons.
''Plain Speaking'' is a book based on conversations between Miller and the 33rd president of the United States, as well as others who knew Truman over the years. Robert A. Aurthur said, "No one will ever study or write about the time of Truman again without a bow of gratitude to Merle Miller. Never has a President of the United States, or any head of state for that matter, been so totally revealed, so completely documented...."
In October 1974, on a stop in Independence, Missouri
Independence is a city in and one of two county seats of Jackson County, Missouri, United States. It is a satellite city of Kansas City, Missouri, and is the largest suburb on the Missouri side of the Kansas City metropolitan area. In 2020 Unite ...
, promoting the book, Miller was presented the key to the city by Mayor Richard King, who stated: "You captured the spirit of Harry S. Truman, and President Truman represents the spirit of Independence." While there Miller was interviewed by the editor of a local newspaper and asked if he had received any serious criticism of his treatment of the Truman tapes. "Only minor criticism," Miller replied. "One of the controversial points was Mr. Truman's interpretation of the meeting with MacArthur at Wake Island. I'm satisfied that the account Mr. Truman gave me is correct."
The book received generally positive reviews, although one later critic—Dr. Robert Ferrell of Indiana University—has questioned the authenticity and accuracy of some of the statements that Miller attributed to Truman.
Within a short time of publication, ''Plain Speaking'' was listed as number one on the New York Times best-selling list where it remained for over a year. It stayed in print, either in hard or soft cover for many years and, as late as 2004, was published as a "Classic Bestseller" by Black Dog and Leventhal.
''Plain Speaking'' was adapted for television in 1976 by the Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia
Arlington County, or simply Arlington, is a County (United States), county in the ...
, for which Ed Flanders received an Emmy Award
The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...
for his portrayal of Truman.
Controversy
In 1995 ''Plain Speaking'' became the focus of a controversy. Robert H. Ferrell, a historian who had also published a biography of Truman, asserted that Miller had fabricated many of the quotes in his book.
In ''Plain Speaking,'' Miller quoted Truman as referring to General Douglas MacArthur
Douglas MacArthur (26 January 18805 April 1964) was an American general who served as a top commander during World War II and the Korean War, achieving the rank of General of the Army (United States), General of the Army. He served with dis ...
as a "dumb-son-of-a-bitch" and quoted Truman as asserting that Dwight Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was the 34th president of the United States, serving from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, he was Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionar ...
, his successor in the Oval Office
The Oval Office is the formal working space of the president of the United States. Part of the Executive Office of the President of the United States, it is in the West Wing of the White House, in Washington, D.C.
The oval room has three lar ...
, tried to divorce his wife Mamie in order to marry Kay Summersby, his English chauffeur and secretary during World War II. In Miller's recounting, Truman claimed that General George C. Marshall wrote Eisenhower a letter threatening to ruin his career if he divorced his wife. According to Ferrell, Truman never actually said any of this, and he accused Miller of simply making up Truman's quotes to make his book more interesting and lively. A similar issue occurred with comments that Miller claimed Truman said about his former attorney general and later Supreme Court appointee, Justice Tom C. Clark. Ferrell claimed that Miller's papers on file in the Truman presidential library include no references to a number of Truman's quotes in ''Plain Speaking'', and in his opinion the quotes are most likely forgeries created by Miller, and are not real Truman quotes or statements. Ferrell also noted that Miller waited until nearly two years after Truman's death to publish ''Plain Speaking''. In 1963 Truman wrote a letter to Miller which read: "I thank you for sending me the article which you illerproposed for the ''Saturday Evening Post''. I am not in favor of such articles, especially this one which has so many misstatements of fact in it. I am sorry that that is the case and if you publish it I shall make that statement public." According to Ferrell, Truman did not mail the letter to Miller, but instead chose to hire a law firm and threatened to sue, which forced Miller to withdraw the proposed article for the ''Saturday Evening Post'', and, in Ferrell's view, led him to wait until after Truman's death to publish ''Plain Speaking'' to avoid the possibility of any legal action.
Truman biographer David McCullough
David Gaub McCullough (; July 7, 1933 – August 7, 2022) was an American popular historian. He was a two-time winner of both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. In 2006, he was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United S ...
also criticized the historical accuracy of ''Plain Speaking,'' noting that in Truman's famous meeting with General MacArthur on Wake Island in 1950, "MacArthur n the bookwould be pictured deliberately trying to upstage Truman by circling the airstrip, waiting for Truman to land first, thus putting the President in the position of having to wait for the general. But it did not happen that way. MacArthur was not only on the ground, he had arrived the night before." McCullough also wrote that " nmany of his observations to Miller, rumanwas more harsh than he meant or that he indicated at the time."
With regard to any criticism of the book, Miller had this to say in the preface to ''Plain Speaking'': "Truman told it the way he remembered it. So as I think Mr. Truman would have said, the hell with the purists. There are already hundreds of books and there will be hundreds more to clear up those small details that Mr. Truman and his friends may have misremembered...."[Preface to ''Plain Speaking'' by Merle Miller. P. 18.]
Notes
References
* ''Plain Speaking an Oral Biography of Harry S. Truman''. G.P. Putnam Sons. New York. 1974.
*''On Being Different: What It Means to Be a Homosexual'', Penguin Classics, 2012 reprint.
* Book of the Month Club News. February 1974. Merle Miller: A Sense of History by Robert Alan Aurthur
* Merle Miller's journals and other writings. 1936 to 1986. Property of the Estate of Merle Miller. Carol V. Hanley, Executrix
* The Examiner. Eastern Jackson County's Daily Newspaper. Independence, Missouri.Wednesday. October 30, 1974
*
*McCullough, David. ''Truman.'' Simon & Schuster. New York. 1992.
External links
*Harry S. Truman Library
Merle Miller Papers.
*University of Iowa Library Manuscript Register
* Boston University Special Collections. Archival Research Center. https://aspace.lib.uiowa.edu/repositories/2/resources/599
{{DEFAULTSORT:Miller, Merle
20th-century American novelists
American male novelists
20th-century American biographers
20th-century American memoirists
American tax resisters
Novelists from Iowa
Writers from Danbury, Connecticut
Alumni of the London School of Economics
1919 births
1986 deaths
People from Marshalltown, Iowa
American LGBTQ novelists
American male biographers
20th-century American male writers
LGBTQ people from Iowa
20th-century American LGBTQ people