- Creator
- Miller, Mary Britton, 1883-1975
- Call number
- MssCol 2001
- Physical description
- .8 linear feet (2 boxes)
- Language
- Materials in English
- Preferred Citation
Mary Britton Miller papers, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library
- Repository
- Manuscripts and Archives Division
- Access to materials
- Request an in-person research appointment.
Mary Britton Miller (1883-1975) was a novelist and poet who wrote under the name of Isabel Bolton. She lived in New York City for most of her adult life and at one time was a volunteer social worker in Greenwich Village. Collection contains correspondence, legal papers, writings of Miller and others, and photograph. Correspondence consists of incoming letters from writers and artists; legal papers concern contracts and royalty statements; writings include poetry, short story and novel typescripts, galley proofs and reviews, and poems of other poets; and photograph of sculpture.
Biographical/historical information
Mary Britton Miller, whose nom de plume as a novelist was Isabel Bolton, was born in New London, Connecticut on August 6, 1883 (along with a twin sister, (Grace). She was the daughter of a wealthy lawyer, Charles P. Miller of New York, and Grace Rumrill of Springfield, Massachusetts, Her parents died in 1887 and until 1897 she and her sister were raised by grandparents and other relatives. In 1897 her sister was drowned and Mary was left with no immediate family. She studied at a boarding school in Cambridge, Massachusetts and traveled in Europe. She lived in New York City for most of her adult life and at one time was a volunteer social worker in Greenwich Village where she also lived. She began her writing career as a poet, her first book of poetry bring Songs of Infancy. Her career as a novelist did not begin until after her sixtieth birthday. She wrote five novels and book-length memoirs. Her novels were IN THE DAYS OF THY YOUTH (1943), DO I WAKE OR SLEEP (1946), CHRISTMAS TREE (1949), MANY MANSIONS (1952), and UNDER GEMINI (1966), the last an acclaimed novel about life as a twin. Miller never married. She died on April 5, 1975. These papers include incoming correspondence, of which there are letters from Babette Deutsch, Edmund Wilson and an artist visiting Peruvian cities, hinterland and jungle; legal papers concerning contracts and royalty statements; writings - including poetry, short story and novel typescripts and reviews; poems of other poets and a photograph, of an untitled sculpture.
Administrative information
Source of acquisition
1975, Received from Harry Smith
Processing information
Accessioned by Genna Rae McNeil, December 29, 1982
Using the collection
Location
Manuscripts and Archives DivisionStephen A. Schwarzman Building
Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street, New York, NY 10018-2788
Brooke Russell Astor Reading Room, Third Floor, Room 328