The Lancashire Authors’ Association aims to celebrate writers from the local area which still runs to this day. One such author who worked very closely with the LAA was poet, Alice Miller. Some of her most popular works include poems such as ‘Northern Lassie’ and ‘Black Berryin’.
Even though these poems were immensely popular amongst the members of the LAA they were never formally published, only being found in the archives collected at the university. The case is the same with much of Miller’s work; there is next to nothing about her on the internet meaning that information had to be gathered through hands-on archival research when drafting this article.
While digging through the collection of materials we have on Alice Miller, I found lots of remarkably interesting items ranging from old photographs, newspaper clippings, short collections, and many of Miller’s original scripts. One of these scripts was The Bread Maker, which follows the story of two people retelling their account of seeing Jesus perform miracles such as enabling the blind to see. Miller gives us insight into her personal life by showing her Christian beliefs.
After reading the script for The Bread Maker I was surprised to find zero praise for any of the other scripts she had written. Newspapers labelled her a ‘poet extraordinaire’, while leaving her many scripts completely unmentioned. This is a real shame, and it is a waste of her wonderful writing skills that these scripts were never used for the purpose of being performed on stage. Miller’s connections to the LAA could very easily allow her work to resurface for a new audience and could help many young people take a greater interest in both reading and the theatre.
Bibliography
Miller, A. (N.A.) The Bread Maker. N.A. (1) Oswaldtwistle N.A.
Miller A. (1) (N.A.) Poems. Black Berryin’. Oswaldtwistle. N.A.
Miller A. (1) (N.A.) Poems. Northern Lassie. Oswaldtwistle. N.A.
Moore, B (1990) Alice Miller… Poet Extraordinaire. Lancashire Magazine. September N.A (N.A.) Pp70.
N.A. (N.A.) Photograph of Alice Miller. [Photograph] N.A. N.A
Bibliography
Colby, Robert A. (1985) “Tale Bearing in the 1890s: The Author and Fiction Syndication”. Victorian Periodicals Review. Vol.18, No.1, pp. 2-16.
Hilliard, Christopher (2009) “The Provincial Press and the Imperial Traffic in Fiction, 1870s-1930s”. Journal of British Studies. Vol.48, No.3, pp. 653-673.
Johanningsmeier, Charles (1995) “Newspaper Syndicates of the Late Nineteenth Century: Overlooked Forces in the American Literary Marketplace”. Publishing History. Vol. 37, No.1, pp. 61-82.
Jones, Aled (1984) “Tillotson’s Fiction Bureau: The Manchester Manuscripts”. Victorian Periodicals Review. Vol.17, No.1, pp. 43-49.
Singleton, Frank (1950) Tillotson’s 1850-1950: Centenary of a Family Business. Bolton: Tillotson & Son Ltd.
