Miller, Max, 1899-1967

Harlan Ware (1902-1967) (whose full name was William Harlan Ware) was born in Lakota, North Dakota, and educated in the public schools of Winnetka, Illinois. He was a police reporter for the City News Bureau in Chicago. He wrote novels, plays, and radio scripts. His best-known scripts are for the radio programs "The Bartons," written from 1939 to 1941, and "One Man's Family," written from 1944 to 1959 for Carlton E. Morse. He also wrote a novel titled Come fill the Cup, which was made into a movie staring James Cagney.

American author and newspaper reporter employed by the San Diego Sun, Max Miller was born in Treverse City, Michigan, in 1899. Miller is best known for his novel titled I Cover the Waterfront (1932) and has published numerous books on Southern California and Baja California topics.

Biography

Max Miller (1899-1967) was born in Traverse City, Michigan. After attending the University of Washington, Miller wrote for the EVERETT DAILY NEWS, then took a job in San Diego as a waterfront reporter for the SAN DIEGO SUN. He became an active member of the La Jolla, California community, where he lived with his wife, Margaret Ripley Miller, until his death in December 1967. Miller left newspaper writing after publishing his best-selling book, I COVER THE WATERFRONT (1932), and continued to publish a book annually over the next twenty years. His subjects often included the modern U.S. military and the regions of Southern California and Baja California (Mexico). Miller served as a writer and information gatherer for the U.S. Naval Department Office of Public Information during World War II and the Korean War.

Max Carlton Miller (1899-1967) was born February 9, 1899, at Traverse City, Michigan. The Miller family moved to Everett, Washington while Max was a child, and then to a homestead on the Montana prairie. Miller returned to Everett to attend high school and enlisted in the Navy during WWI. Following his discharge, he finished high school and attended the School of Journalism at the University of Washington. At the time he was to graduate, he was at Shelby, Montana covering the Demsey-Gibbons fight which took place July 4, 1923.

Miller then went to Australia and the South Pacific, working as a reporter in Melbourne. In 1924 he returned to America, settling in San Diego, where he was waterfront reporter for the Sun. His dockside experiences became his first book, I Cover the Waterfront, published in 1932. It became a best seller and was make into a motion picture starring Claudette Colbert. Miller wrote twenty seven books in thrity years.

In 1942 Miller rejoined the Navy as an officer. He spent the war years in the South Pacific, part of the time with a friend from Scripps-Howard newpaper days, Ernie Pyle. Miller was recalled for the Korean action. After his release, he returned to La Jolla, near San Diego, where he lived until his death, December 27, 1967.