Copyright, Flavia Reed Owen Special Collections & Archives, McGraw-Page Library,
Randolph-Macon College
J. Rives Childs, class of 1912, started collecting the writings of Henry Miller in 1939. In 1947, he began an active correspondence with Miller, who confided his attitudes toward his reading and his writing to Childs. In addition to Miller’s publications, the collection includes a rare portfolio of Miller’s artwork, inscribed to the library by Miller, that contains several prints and an original Miller watercolor.
Mr. Childs' Miller Collection also includes other writers and artists who came within Miller's orbit. A self-proclaimed defender of the underdogs in literature, Mr. Childs was of the opinion that Miller, although hailed in Europe as one of America's outstanding writers, suffered from appalling misjudgments by critics in his own country.
