In Joaquin Miller's case,

He lied - A LOT

Joaquin Miller's most notable character defect was his propensity to lie. Not just to embellish facts to make a good story better, but to commit such blatantly outrageous falsehoods as to border on the felonious. He often said things which, if anyone who knew him happened to be drinking something when they read it, there was a real danger that they would gasp and splutter so violently as to suffer bodily harm. This week our Poetry section contains an excellent example. In Miller's commentary on Kit Carson's Ride when he states: "Never robust, I had always abhorred meat; and milk, from a child, had been my strongest drink." I cannot speak for the part about meat, but as for milk being his strongest drink, not only is that not true, but it is the diametrical opposite of true. Miller was notorious not only for drinking strong waters but several acquaintances testify that his favorite drink was not even hard liquor but "white lightning" or moonshine which typically is well over 100 proof.

Winnowing the Wheat

From the chaff

Ordinarily, first hand information from the subject is the most reliable form of biographical data. People usually know when and where they were born, where they went to school, and what they did with their lives. Miller may have known all these things but it would be foolish to take his word for any of them. His birth dates range from 1835 to 1841. It is so bad that I have found one site on Miller that gives one birth year in the headline and another in the first paragraph. Compounding the problem is the fact that he cannot be counted on to always lie. Some of the wilder tales are true. In 1864 in Canyon City Miller was elected by the citizens to head a punitive expedition against the local Indians. Consider, Canyon City was a gold rush town full of rough characters, experienced adventurers and Indian fighters. And out of that pool they chose Miller. Why? Apparently they knew something about him that has not made it into the historical record. There are other examples; I don't doubt that he was in the gold fields of northern California as a very young man although whether young means 14 years old or 20, I cannot say. And so it goes with almost every stage of Miller's career: some of it really is true, most of it is not, and there is no simple way to tell the difference.

Gossip

Is good

In Miller's case, the artist is more interesting than the art. I have previously remarked on Miller's laziness but that only applies to what is conventionally considered art. Regarding self-promotion Miller was both focused and tireless. I Suspect that a part of Miller's problems with veracity sprang from a need to be the bride at every wedding and the corpse at every funeral. One of the gifts of any great con man is the willingness to tell each and every audience exactly what they most wanted to hear and here Miller shines. If we want something slightly more accurate, we must look to another source. Fortunately we have such a source because Miller was the original publicity hound. The volume of contemporary writing about Miller probably outweighs the volume of writing by Miller by a factor of 10 to 1.

People Talk

About people

Miller made an easy mark for journalism. Everyone knew who he was. He went out of his way to be a character worth talking about. It helps that he was mostly a likable character. He could be careless or even thoughtless in some of his pronouncements but I do not know of any instance of his being mean-spirited. If Miller did not have a great many admirers, especially in America, he also had few enemies. Even Abrose Bierce who was notorious for the vituperative bile of his judgements is relatively gentle in his reviews of Miller's work.

Life Trumps Art

Sometimes

Miller is that unusual case where the artist overshadows his art. Of the examples of his work that I have found to date, the best is not too bad and the worst is embarrassing. The man himself on the other hand is rather fascinating. How and why someone who was the product of the rawest pioneer life going back for generations decided to become a Byronic poet is not easy to explain. That he managed to more or less pull it off is even stranger. He pioneered the trail of Western Showman that Buffalo Bill, and Wyatt Erp and a host of lesser lights later trod. The nearest thing I can think of a as predecessor is Davy Crockett and there the times and the career are so different as to be unrelated. Someday someone may write a biography of Miller worthy of his life. I would advise this biographer to ignore everything Miller ever wrote and use the rich vein of contemporary observers which is both more accurate and more entertaining.