The Millers were a husband-and-wife writing team; Richard is the more well-known. He was clearly influenced by Fort, but found Fort’s theories limited. Together, he and his wife bundled Fortean facts—some from Fort’s books, some they researched themselves—into theory of parapsychology.
Richard DeWitt Miller was born in Los Angeles on 22 January 1910. His father, Kenton, was a lawyer and sturdy Republican, having moved to southern California with his wife, Beatrice in 1905. At the time of Richard’s birth, the family was also living with Vetrice’s parents, Dewitt—a retired doctor—and Electa. Richard was Kenton and Vetrice’s only child. Three other people also lived in the house, a nurse, hotel housekeeper, and someone on his own income.
Two years later, William Isaac Fogle married a woman named Dorothy in Pennsylvania. They were both 22. In 1913, they gave birth to a daughter, whom they named Ellora. William Isaac was a mechanical engineer and, in 1916, began investigating a job opportunity in New York. Traveling back and forth between the two eastern cities, doctor’s believed that he likely brought polio back to Philadelphia. Ellora was the third case of a plague that was then striking down children. Curly-haired and dark-eyed, going by the nickname ‘Dolly,’ Ellora became sick. Doctor’s examined her and thought that, while her legs were paralyzed, she would not die. Still, they put the family’s home at 2205 Lombard under quarantine.
Ellora remained partially paralyzed, as the family moved to Delaware County and later to California. She may have taken some classes at the University of Washington around 1930.
In the meantime, Richard developed an interest in unexplained—call them Fortean events—some time around 1927, according to his later recollections. So when he was about 17. By this time, Fort had published two books and there were also the earlier tomes by Rupert Thomas Gould. Richard started collecting reports from the newspapers himself. The family situation remained about the same, with Kenton, Vetrice and Richard as well as the two grandparents in an expensive home: it cost $40,000 (about half-a-million dollars by today’s standards). The three others were gone, replaced by two black servants. Kenton was the only one working.
The 1930s brought major life-changes for Richard. His grandmother, Electa, died in 1930. Richard graduated from the University of Southern California in 1933 with a BA. Likely, he met Ellora at school. She graduated the next year, having served as president of Phi Beta and won the Appoliad prize for her writing. In 1935, Richard’s grandfather, and his namesake, died.
Richard seems to have started writing shortly after graduating. The first of his stories I can find published appeared The All-America Sports Magazine in March 1936, titled “Flea Flicker.” The same month saw Love Story publish “Tiny Pink Elephant.” In May 1936, his mother died—and so now it was just Richard and his father, after a quarter-of-a-century of the family being five. In 1937, Richard and Ellora married and moved in with Kenneth. Both retained their family’s traditional political alliances, he a Republican, she a Democrat. The 1940 census had them all living together, Kenton retired, Richard making money from his stories as well as commercial photography. Ellora was working for the publicity department of the advertising company Young & Rubicam. Her parents were living in Portland. And then, in February 1941, Kenton died, the family down to just the husband and wife.
Sometime in the 1940s, Ellora went back to school, receiving her MA in 1945. Richard wrote. He continued to put out sports stories, three more through the 1930s, by my count. He also wrote science fiction, six stories between 1936 and 1941. And he started branching out into nonfiction. He wrote to essays for Astounding Science Fiction, one published in 1937 and the other in 1938. In the latter year, he also started writing for Coronet magazine (although he would mis-remember this job starting in January 1940).
With Coronet, Miller switched almost completely from fiction to nonfiction, all of the latter in the genre of ‘forgotten mysteries,’ which was the title of his column for Coronet. Later, he also wrote columns for the same magazine under the titles “Forgotten Experiments,” “Your Other Life” and “Not of Our Species.” The series seemed to run out in 1945, even as Miller continued to write for Coronet as well as a wide range of other magazines, from Tomorrow to American Mercury.
In 1947, he published Forgotten Memories, with material reworked from his Coronet columns and supplemented with additional research. (It was later released under the titles Impossible—but True and True Tales of the Supernatural. In 1951, he published the fantasy The Loose Board in the Floor. You DO Take It with You followed in 1955. (It was also released under the title Strange but True.) His last book appeared in 1956: Reincarnation: The Whole Startling Story. Also in that year Ace published his only novel, The Man Who Lived Forever. It was based on one of his science fiction shorts, “The Master Shall Not Die,” and was co-written with Anna Hunger, a writer who had worked on scripts for the same science fiction television show as Miller.
During this time, Ellora was national editor of Baton, the publication of Phi Beta and helped Richard with his writing.
R DeWitt Miller died in 1958. He was 48. Ellora Fogle Miller died in 1982.
MORE TO COME
Richard DeWitt Miller was born in Los Angeles on 22 January 1910. His father, Kenton, was a lawyer and sturdy Republican, having moved to southern California with his wife, Beatrice in 1905. At the time of Richard’s birth, the family was also living with Vetrice’s parents, Dewitt—a retired doctor—and Electa. Richard was Kenton and Vetrice’s only child. Three other people also lived in the house, a nurse, hotel housekeeper, and someone on his own income.
Two years later, William Isaac Fogle married a woman named Dorothy in Pennsylvania. They were both 22. In 1913, they gave birth to a daughter, whom they named Ellora. William Isaac was a mechanical engineer and, in 1916, began investigating a job opportunity in New York. Traveling back and forth between the two eastern cities, doctor’s believed that he likely brought polio back to Philadelphia. Ellora was the third case of a plague that was then striking down children. Curly-haired and dark-eyed, going by the nickname ‘Dolly,’ Ellora became sick. Doctor’s examined her and thought that, while her legs were paralyzed, she would not die. Still, they put the family’s home at 2205 Lombard under quarantine.
Ellora remained partially paralyzed, as the family moved to Delaware County and later to California. She may have taken some classes at the University of Washington around 1930.
In the meantime, Richard developed an interest in unexplained—call them Fortean events—some time around 1927, according to his later recollections. So when he was about 17. By this time, Fort had published two books and there were also the earlier tomes by Rupert Thomas Gould. Richard started collecting reports from the newspapers himself. The family situation remained about the same, with Kenton, Vetrice and Richard as well as the two grandparents in an expensive home: it cost $40,000 (about half-a-million dollars by today’s standards). The three others were gone, replaced by two black servants. Kenton was the only one working.
The 1930s brought major life-changes for Richard. His grandmother, Electa, died in 1930. Richard graduated from the University of Southern California in 1933 with a BA. Likely, he met Ellora at school. She graduated the next year, having served as president of Phi Beta and won the Appoliad prize for her writing. In 1935, Richard’s grandfather, and his namesake, died.
Richard seems to have started writing shortly after graduating. The first of his stories I can find published appeared The All-America Sports Magazine in March 1936, titled “Flea Flicker.” The same month saw Love Story publish “Tiny Pink Elephant.” In May 1936, his mother died—and so now it was just Richard and his father, after a quarter-of-a-century of the family being five. In 1937, Richard and Ellora married and moved in with Kenneth. Both retained their family’s traditional political alliances, he a Republican, she a Democrat. The 1940 census had them all living together, Kenton retired, Richard making money from his stories as well as commercial photography. Ellora was working for the publicity department of the advertising company Young & Rubicam. Her parents were living in Portland. And then, in February 1941, Kenton died, the family down to just the husband and wife.
Sometime in the 1940s, Ellora went back to school, receiving her MA in 1945. Richard wrote. He continued to put out sports stories, three more through the 1930s, by my count. He also wrote science fiction, six stories between 1936 and 1941. And he started branching out into nonfiction. He wrote to essays for Astounding Science Fiction, one published in 1937 and the other in 1938. In the latter year, he also started writing for Coronet magazine (although he would mis-remember this job starting in January 1940).
With Coronet, Miller switched almost completely from fiction to nonfiction, all of the latter in the genre of ‘forgotten mysteries,’ which was the title of his column for Coronet. Later, he also wrote columns for the same magazine under the titles “Forgotten Experiments,” “Your Other Life” and “Not of Our Species.” The series seemed to run out in 1945, even as Miller continued to write for Coronet as well as a wide range of other magazines, from Tomorrow to American Mercury.
In 1947, he published Forgotten Memories, with material reworked from his Coronet columns and supplemented with additional research. (It was later released under the titles Impossible—but True and True Tales of the Supernatural. In 1951, he published the fantasy The Loose Board in the Floor. You DO Take It with You followed in 1955. (It was also released under the title Strange but True.) His last book appeared in 1956: Reincarnation: The Whole Startling Story. Also in that year Ace published his only novel, The Man Who Lived Forever. It was based on one of his science fiction shorts, “The Master Shall Not Die,” and was co-written with Anna Hunger, a writer who had worked on scripts for the same science fiction television show as Miller.
During this time, Ellora was national editor of Baton, the publication of Phi Beta and helped Richard with his writing.
R DeWitt Miller died in 1958. He was 48. Ellora Fogle Miller died in 1982.
MORE TO COME
