All Scholars
MILLER, Frank Justus
- Date of Birth: November 26, 1858
- Born City: Clinton
- Born State/Country: TN
- Date of Death: April 23, 1938
- Death City: Norwalk
- Death State/Country: CT
- Married: Lida Willett, 10 July 1883.
- Education:
A.B. Denison, 1879; A.M., 1882; Ph.D. Yale, 1892; study at Halle, Munich, & Jena, 1902-3; LL.D. Denison, 1909.
- Dissertation:
"The Latinity of the Younger Pliny" (Yale, 1892).
- Professional Experience:
Prof. Lat. Clinton Coll., 1880-1; vice princ. Plainfield (NJ) HS, 1881-7; instr. Lat. Worcester (MA) Acad., 1887-90; asst. & examiner affiliations U. Chicago, 1892-8; dean affiliations, 1898-1904; examiner for sec. schools., 1904-11; dean in colleges, 1911-23; instr. to prof. Lat., 1892-1925; vis. prof. U. Iowa, 1925-9; U. Missouri, 1929-30; U. Illinois, 1933; ed. CJ, 1908-28; pres. ACL, 1922-34; pres. CAMWS, 1925-6; asst. chief ed., Standard American Encyclopedia, ed. Walter Miller (Chicago, 1940); Commendatore della Corona d'ltaha, 1930.
- Publications:
Selected Works of Vergil (Eclogues and Six Books of the Aeneid) (New York, 1892); Ovid. Text Edition, ed. with William Rainey Harper (New York, 1898); Selected Works of Ovid (New York, 1900); Dido, An Epic Tragedy (trans.) (Boston, 1900); Studies in Roman Poetry, Chatauqua Assembly (New York, 1901); A Second Latin Book, ed. with Charles H. Beeson (Chicago, 1902); The Tragedies of Seneca (trans.) (Chicago, 1907); Two Dramatizations from Vergil: (I) Dido the Phoenician Queen. II The Fall of Troy (trans.) (Chicago, 1908); "Topical Method in the Study of Vergil," CJ 3 (1908-9) 141-9; "Incompleteness of the Aeneid;' CJ 4 (1909-10) 341-55; "Features of Ovid's Style: Personification of Abstractions," CJ 11 (1915-6) 385, 516-34; Ovid. Metamorphoses (trans.) LCL, 2 vols. (New York & London, 1916; rev. 1921); Seneca Tragedies (trans.) LCL, 2 vols. (New York & London, 1917; rev. 1929); "Dramatic Elements in the Metamorphoses;' CJ 15 (1919-20) 417-35; "Features of Ovid's Style: Ordering and Transition in Metamorphoses," CJ 16 (1920-1) 464-76; "Ovid's Aeneid and Vergil's," CV 23 (1927-8) 33-43; "Motivation of the Aeneid," C7 24 (1928-9) 28-44, 631-3; "Chats on Vergilian Books," CJ 25 (1929-30) 483-5, 570-2, 645-7, 720-2; "Tribute to Vergil," CJ 26 (1930-1) 2; "Translation Plus," CJ 29 (1933-4) 494-506; "The Philosophic Vergil," Vergilius 1 (1938) 9-26.
- Notes:
Of the original members of the University of Chicago faculty who stayed until retirement, Frank Justus Miller was one of the most versatile and influential. He was a classicist who made his mark as a teacher, scholar, editor, and administrator. While he was a graduate student at Yale he had the undoubted good fortune to meet the brilliant young professor of Semitic languages, William Rainey Harper, who resigned in 1891 to head the new University of Chicago. As soon as Miller received his doctorate in 1892 Harper offered him an instructorship in Latin and appointed him assistant university Examiner, with special duties for "affiliations" with secondary schools. His edition of the Eclogues and Aeneid 1-6, together with a number of articles dealing with the study and teaching of Virgil, led to his appointment as chairman of one of the committees making plans for celebration of the Bimilleniarum Vergilianum in 1930, under the sponsorship of the American Classical League. His work in this connection as (in the words of his citation) a "member of the staff of the Vergil pilgrimage in 1930 and his Latin inscription for Vergil's tomb at Naples" won for him the coveted decoration Commendatore della Corona d'ltalia.In the words of Walter Miller, "As a teacher and scholar he was thorough and inspiring; but it was as Dean of the Colleges that the influence of his fine personality and sterling character was most widely felt. He was predominantly the friendly teacher, dean, and co-worker, beloved of associates and students." Ms. M. Julia Bentley of the Hughes High School in Cincinnati said that he probably had more friends than any member of CAMWS and that "His wholehearted devotion to the classics ... his spontaneous smile of good cheer, and happy words of greeting to his friends will be greatly missed."
- Sources:
M. Julia Bentley, "A Tribute to Frank Justus Miller," CJ 34 (1938-9) 68-9; Walter Miller, Vergilius 1 (1938) 42-3; NYTimes (25 Apr. 1938) 15; (6 Feb. 1939) 13; WhAm 1:841.
- Author: John Francis Latimer
