Edmund Morris Miller, CBE (14 August 1881 – 21 October 1964) was an Australian author, professor, and vice-chancellor of the University of Tasmania between 1933–1945.
Born in Pietermaritzburg, Colony of Natal, Miller moved with his family to Melbourne in 1883. He was educated at University High School and Wesley College. In 1900 he began working at the State Library of Victoria. He enrolled at the University of Melbourne obtaining a B.A. and in 1907 an M.A. with 1st class honours in philosophy.
He, along with F. J. Broomfield, Sir John Quick and others wrote the bibliographic Australian Literature from its Beginnings (two volumes, 1940). Authors he described include Carlton Dawe, Simpson Newland, John Henry Nicholson and Hume Nisbet. In 1956 this book was revised and extended to include works to 1950, edited by Frederick T Macartney. He also wrote on the beginnings of philosophy in Australia.
He also wrote Pressmen and Governors: Australian Editors and Writers in Early Tasmania (1952).
He was awarded the gold medal of the Australian Literature Society and elected a fellow of the British Psychological Society (1943) and of the International Institute of Arts and Letters.
Morris Miller was Professor of Psychology and Philosophy at the University of Tasmania from 1922 until his retirement in 1950, and Vice-Chancellor from 1933 to 1945. In 1930-40 Miller took pride in organizing the transfer from the Commonwealth, of a new site for the University at Sandy Bay.
The social science and humanities library on the Sandy Bay Campus at the University of Tasmania is named after Morris Miller.
From 1924 Morris Miller was also president of the Mental Deficiency Board. A trustee of the State Library of Tasmania, he became chairman in 1923 and was a founder of the Library Association of Australia in 1928.
References
- Australian Literature a Bibliography to 1938 Extended to 1950 (Angus and Robertson, 1 volume, 1956), Preface, page v., by Miller and Macartney.
- Franklin, James (2003). "Ch. 6: Idealism and Empire" (PDF). Corrupting the Youth: A History of Philosophy in Australia. Macleay Press. p. 120. ISBN 1876492082.
- Miller, E. Morris (Edmund Morris) (1973), Pressmen and governors : Australian editors and writers in early Tasmania, Sydney University Press, ISBN 978-0-424-06720-9
- Australian Literature a Bibliography to 1938 Extended to 1950 (Angus and Robertson, 1956), page 336, by Miller and Macartney.
- "Morris Miller Library - University of Tasmania Library". Archived from the original on 18 September 2008. Retrieved 12 September 2008.
- Michael Roe, John Reynolds, Miller, Edmund Morris (1881 - 1964)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Vol. 10, MUP, 1986, pp. 507–509.
External links
- Online exhibition about Edmund Morris Miller from the University of Tasmania Library
- Libraries Australia search results for Edmund Morris Miller
- Full text of Australia's First Two Novels: origins and backgrounds, by E. Morris Miller
- Australian Dictionary of Biography entry for 'Miller, Edmund Morris'
- Article by E. Morris Miller, "Some Public Library Memories, 1900–1913" with a biographical introduction
- Edmund Morris Miller 1881 - 1964
Further reading
- Roe, Michael (1984). "Edmund Morris Miller: 1881–1964". Nine Australian Progressives: Vitalism in Bourgeois Social Thought 1890–1960. University of Queensland Press. pp. 280–314. ISBN 0702219746.