Betty Miller (author)

For other women with the same name, see Betty Miller or Elizabeth Miller.
Betty Miller
Born
Betty Spiro

1910 (1910)
Cork, Ireland
Died24 November 1965(1965-11-24) (aged 54–55)
London, U.K.
Other namesB. Bergson Spiro (pen name)
OccupationsWriter, journalist, novelist
SpouseEmanuel Miller
Children2, including Jonathan Miller

Betty Bergson Spiro Miller (1910 – 24 November 1965) was an Irish author of literary fiction and non-fiction.

Early life and education

Betty Spiro was born in Cork, Ireland, the daughter of Sara Bergson and Simon Spiro, who were Lithuanian Jews.[1][2] She earned a degree in journalism at University College, London, in 1930.[3]

Career

She wrote her first novel, The Mere Living (1933), while she was a university student; it was first published under the pen name "B. Bergson Spiro". Several more novels followed.[4][5] After the Second World Warshe wrote extensively for literary journals including Horizon, The Cornhill Magazine and The Twentieth Century. She also edited a collection of letters from Elizabeth Barrett Browning to fellow writer Mary Russell Mitford, published in 1954.[6]

Miller's literary reputation was established by the publication of her biography of Robert Browning (1952), which earned her election to the Royal Society of Literature.[7] In The New York Times, novelist Francis Steegmuller called Miller's biography of Browning "fascinating and impressive", and wrote that it "supersedes previous lives of the poet".[8] In The Daily Telegraph Guy Ramsey wrote that "It is difficult to know which to admire the most — the industry of research, the delicacy of insight, or the moderation of statement."[9]

Personal life and legacy

In 1933 Betty Spiro married Emanuel Miller, a founding father of British child psychiatry.[10] The couple had two children: Sarah (died 2006), and Sir Jonathan Miller (1934–2019), the theatre and opera director.[11] Betty Miller died in 1965, at the age of 55, in London.[12]

Of Miller's seven novels two have been reprinted: Farewell, Leicester Square (1941), by Persephone Books in 2000, and On the Side of the Angels (1945), by Capuchin Classics in 2012.[13]

Books by Miller

  • The Mere Living (1933)
  • Sunday (1934)
  • Portrait of the Bride (1935)[14]
  • Farewell Leicester Square (1941)[2][15]
  • A Room in Regent's Park (1942)[4]
  • On the Side of the Angels (1945)[13]
  • The Death of a Nightingale (1948)[2]
  • Robert Browning: A Portrait (1952)[8]
  • Elizabeth Barrett to Miss Mitford (1954, editor)[6]

References

  1. ^ Bassett, Kate (October 2014). In Two Minds: A Biography of Jonathan Miller. Oberon Books. ISBN 9781849437387.
  2. ^ a b c Sceats, Sarah. "Betty Miller and the Marrano Self" in Nadia Valman, ed., Jewish Women Writers in Britain (Wayne State University Press 2014): 81-96. ISBN 9780814339145
  3. ^ Lassner, Phyllis; Trubowitz, Lara (2008). Antisemitism and Philosemitism in the Twentieth and Twenty-first Centuries: Representing Jews, Jewishness, and Modern Culture. Associated University Presse. pp. 188–192. ISBN 978-0-87413-029-4.
  4. ^ a b Swinnerton, Frank (1 November 1942). "New Novels". The Observer. p. 3. Retrieved 17 April 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ^ "With Malice Towards Some". Liverpool Daily Post. 14 March 1945. p. 2. Retrieved 17 April 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ^ a b "Letters to Miss Mitford". The Daily Telegraph. 30 July 1954. p. 8. Retrieved 17 April 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ^ Encyclopedia of British Women's Writing, 1900–1950, 1st edition, Pan Macmillan, 2009. ISBN 978-0-230-22177-2
  8. ^ a b Steegmuller, Francis (8 March 1953). "A Love of Dependence (review of Robert Browning: A Portrait, by Betty Miller)". The New York Times. p. 121. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 17 April 2025.
  9. ^ Ramsey, Guy (21 November 1952). "A New Valuation of Browning and His Wife". The Daily Telegraph. p. 20. Retrieved 17 April 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ^ Thom, Deborah. "Miller, Emanuel". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/61403. (Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.)
  11. ^ Glover, Edward; Wolstenholme, Sir Gordon. "Emanuel Miller". RCP Museum. Retrieved 17 April 2025.
  12. ^ "Death notice for Betty Miller". The Daily Telegraph. 26 November 1965. p. 18. Retrieved 17 April 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ^ a b Miller, Betty (2012). On the Side of the Angels. Capuchin Classics. ISBN 978-1-907429-30-9.
  14. ^ "Review of Portrait of the Bride by Betty Miller". The New York Times Book Review. 21 June 1936. p. 55. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 17 April 2025.
  15. ^ Nash, Kate (11 December 2017). "Fixing the Interwar Meal: Positive Eugenics and Jewish Assimilation in Betty Miller's Farewell Leicester Square". Modernism/modernity. 2 (4). doi:10.26597/mod.0031.
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