This compilation provides the reader of John William Miller’s published works—five of the six volumes from W. W. Norton & Company as well as articles appearing in various periodicals—with a comprehensive listing of the sources, dates, and organization of those materials. Insofar as the great majority of Miller’s published writings appeared after his death in 1978, and were culled from thousands of pages of manuscript and typescript by his literary executor George P. Brockway, this compilation serves the purpose of showing the diversity of sources drawn upon in composing the W. W. Norton volumes and selecting articles as candidates for publication.
Published Works
Click on the links below or on the right to go to a detailed list of contents and sources.
The Paradox of Cause and Other Essays (New York & London: W. W. Norton, 1978).
The Philosophy of History (New York & London: W. W. Norton, 1980).
The Definition of the Thing With Some Notes on Language (New York & London: W. W. Norton, 1981).
The Midworld of Symbols and Functioning Objects (New York & London: W. W. Norton, 1981).
In Defense of the Psychological (New York & London: W. W. Norton, 1982)
How to Use This Resource
In addition to distinguishing individual sources, each item will be referenced by its location in the Miller Papers kept by Williams College in the Williamsiana Collection of the Archives housed in Stetson Hall. This system of cross-references should assist those doing research in the Miller Papers since it clearly distinguishes the location of published materials. Readers of Miller’s published writings will also benefit from having the various dates and sources of Miller’s writings.
Each source, then, is referenced in five ways:
1. The editorial mark will be noted. The editorial marks were assigned by Brockway when he was organizing Miller’s papers for publication in book form. These notations pertain only to the four volumes published by W. W. Norton between 1980 and 1983; the first volume, The Paradox of Cause (1978), was compiled with Miller’s assistance and thus did not require such a comprehensive reference system. For the four subsequent volumes, in almost every case the typescripts of Miller’s holographic originals were given an editorial mark. The individual sources used in composing the W. W. Norton volumes can be identified by noting these marks on the typescripts presented to the compositor contained in the ‘dead matter’ section of the Miller Papers (Boxes 36-41). (There is also a green tin box that is part of the Miller Papers collection and which contains file cards for all of the sources—grouped by their editorial mark—used in compiling these four volumes.) These marks sort Miller’s papers according to date, subject matter, and type of document (e.g., essay, notes, letters). The editorial marks assist one in locating the item in the box and folder system employed by the archives of Williams College. For while the box and folder system organizes the materials in its own manner, it employs the same three categories. An Appendix to this document details Brockway’s reference system.
2. The type of document will be specified—e.g., letter, essay, notes. Brockway’s reference system will serve as a guide here.
3. Sources will be cited according to their page, and sometimes paragraph, numbers in the published material. Where a paragraph and even a sentence is composed of two different sources the precise break between the two sources will also be noted.
4. Sources will be dated as accurately as is possible relying upon the dates Miller marked on his typescripts and manuscripts. When these documents are unmarked, Brockway’s estimation of the date will be used or my own estimation of the date of a document relying on similarities in paper, ink, and topic to guide my decision. Some of Miller’s papers, however, can only be dated in the very general terms of whether they were written before or after 1970. Brockway made these determinations based upon, again, the character of the holographic originals as well as where he found these papers in Miller’s study after his death.
5. Each source will be referenced by its box and folder number within the Miller Papers. These references are given as follows: the box number first with the folder number following separated by a colon. Occasionally reference will be made to the addition to the Miller Papers made by Edward A. Hoyt. Hoyt’s contribution has its own box and folder system. Thus each reference to the original box and folder system established by archives organizing Brockway’s collection of Miller’s papers will be marked ‘MP’, while each reference to Hoyt’s addition will be marked ‘EAH’. (Many references to ‘EAH’ will only list a box number; Hoyt arranged most of his papers chronologically thus often making folder numbers superfluous.) A detailed listing of the contents of the Miller Papers is available from the Williams College Archivist and, eventually, via the Archives page of this website.
In addition to noting these five reference items for each source, there will occasionally be a need to offer some remarks regarding the source. Most often these remarks will clarify the provenance of the source or offer comments on the circumstances of its writing when that might be of interest. Less often remarks will be necessary due to some incompletion or discrepancy in the matching of these various reference systems.
Unfortunately not every source has a complete list of references. In the case of missing editorial marks and vague or missing dates, the lack is not too significant. However the failure to locate an item in the box and folder system is of more concern. Presently there are 10 sources entries, out of 238, where this is the case. It is possible that for some of these 10 sources the holographic original no longer exists and that Brockway’s or Hoyt’s typescript of one of Miller’s letters, pasted onto a page in the ‘dead matter’ of the relevant volume, is all that remains. In other cases it is possible that the document was never clearly marked before going into the Miller Papers or has become mixed in with thousands of other pages of manuscript. I have not attempted to divine the location of any of these 10 source entries. Rather, where it seemed both possible and relevant, I have indicated which boxes in the Miller Papers might contain the as-yet-unlocated manuscripts. If other researchers come across the items it would be of great assistance to update this source list to indicate their location.
Acknowledgments
Great thanks are owed to the late George P. Brockway for his initial effort of organizing the Miller Papers and editing Miller’s posthumous publications. The suggestions provided by both Brockway and Joseph P. Fell proved to be of assistance in polishing this list. Sylvia Kennick Brown, Archivist of Wiliams College, and Lynne K. Fonteneau-McCann, formerly Assistant Archivist of Williams, are also to be thanked for their invaluable help.
