Misc.: Walter Miller

Science-fiction writer Walter M. Miller wrote many a short story, but his one-shot celebrity came from the sole novel he published during his lifetime: A Canticle for Leibowitz. The book appeared in 1959 and met with considerable success.

Miller was a gunner and radio operator during World War II. He was a practicing Catholic, and it is said that he was traumatized by the bombing run that destroyed Europe's oldest monastery, the Abbey at Monte Cassino.

Miller became depressive and kept to himself much of the time. In 1996, he shot himself to death in Datona Beach.

Miller's sequel novel, Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman, was completed by writer Terry Bisson and came out in 2000.