Alice Duer Miller
Alice Duer Miller (1874 - 1942) was an American poet and novelist whose long poem The White Cliffs was immensely successful throughout the English-speaking world. First published in September 1940, it sold over a million copies, an unheard of number for a book of verse. Broadcast, filmed and talked about, it had a significant influence in bringing the USA into the war. But it was also a very fine narrative poem in the great tradition of English poetry. Its authoress, who died in 1942, had already made a name for herself as a popular novelist and playwright. But poetry was always her greatest love.
The White Cliffs is available on the Internet. But Forsaking All Others, possibly her finest poem, has not been available until now. This site, dedicated to the memory of Alice Duer Miller, will include her otherwise unavailable poetry and later (I hope) biographical material and criticism. Currently it contains early poems (from a collection published with her sister Caroline), Wings in the Night ( a collection published in 1918) and Forsaking All Others. A novel in verse, Forsaking All Others tells the story of a tragic love affair.
Mike Munford
25 September 2006
Alice Duer Miller elsewhere on the net
