UNPUBLISHED AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT: ALASKAN. "LET THERE BE LIGHT"

First Edition. Hardcover. Fine and rare, beautifully bound. Folio (8-1/4" x 11-3/4") consisting of 53 pages numbered to 54 (one page contains two numbers) on lined yellow paper with a few additions at the end on white paper pasted to the yellow pages with a calligraphic title page facing a photographic reproduction of Miller. Bound in 3/4 maroon morocco leather and marbled boards housed in a slipcase of full burgundy morocco leather. Though some of the phrases, such as the title, are used in other of Miller's works, this long narrative poem appears to be unpublished. The poem begins: "In the morning of the world;/Ere the holy stars were born--/Early morning of the world;/O, that wondrous, wondrous morn!" We have at this point not read much else because our lives are short and Miller's handwriting is trying, but we are fairly confident that the text deals at least in part with the Alaskan Gold Rush of the 1890s as Miller visited the Klondike during that time returning to California after six months, exhausted from his adventures, with thousands of dollars of gold dust and $6,000 from a publisher for his Alaskan letters.

The "Poet of the Sierras," also known as the Buffalo Bill of American literature, Miller was indeed one of the more colorful authors of the late 19th century, known for fabricating many features of life. While still a boy he headed from Oregon to California during the early gold rush where he worked in a number of mining camps. He survived several battles with Indians as well as several altercations with the law. He earned his keep mostly from mining and the Pony Express before his writing sustained him.