Elinor Miller was an English professor at Embry Riddle University and a renowned scholar of the work of Michel Butor. After their first meeting in 1977, Miller and Butor became friends and close colleagues, collaborating on translations, catalogues, and lectures. Miller's long study of Butor's work resulted in the publication of several essays and translations, and culminated with the publication of her book, Prisms and Rainbows: Michel Butor's Collaborations with Jacques Monory, Jiri Kolar, and Pierre Alechinsky, in 2002.
Michel Butor was one of the pioneers of the Nouveau roman in France. The New Novel surfaced in France in the early 1950s (though some works predate this estimate by several years), and remained the dominant form of avant-garde literature throughout the 1950s and early 1960s. Michel Butor, whose novel La Modification won the Prix Renaudot in 1957, helped this bold new écriture gain wider acclaim both in France and abroad. He later branched out to work on critical essays, poetry, non- fiction, non-non-fiction, translations, artistic and musical collaborations, and much more.
From the guide to the Elinor Miller Papers, 1977-2004
