Miller, Bertha Mahony (1882–1969)

American bookseller, editor, children's literature specialist, and originator of the Horn Book Magazine. Name variations: Bertha Everett Mahony Miller; Bertha E. Miller. Born Bertha Everett Mahony in Rockport, Massachusetts, on March 13, 1882; died of a stroke at her home in Ashburnham, Massachusetts, on May 14, 1969; daughter of Daniel Mahony (a railroad station passenger agent) and Mary Lane (Everett) Mahony (a music teacher); graduated from Gloucester (Massachusetts) High School; attended training class at high school and served as a student-teacher there for one year (1901–02); completed special one-year secretarial course intended for college graduates, Simmons College for Women, 1903; married William Davis Miller (president of a furniture concern), in 1932; no children.

Was assistant secretary, Women's Education and Industrial Union (WEIU), Boston (1906); opened the Bookshop for Boys and Girls (1916); co-founded Horn Book Magazine (1924). Awards: Constance Lindsay Skinner Award, Women's National Book Association (1955); American Library Association tribute (1959); Regina Medal, Catholic Library Association (1967).

Selected writings:

(with Elinor Whitney Field) Realms of Gold in Children's Books (1929), Contemporary Illustrators of Children's Books (1930), Five Years of Children's Books (1936), Newbery Medal Books: 1922–1955 (1955), Caldecott Medal Books: 1938–1957 (1957); compiler or editor with others: Illustrators of Children's Books, 1744–1945 (1947), Writing and Criticism: A Book for Margery Bianco (1951), Illustrators of Children's Books, 1946–1956 (1958).

Bertha Mahony Miller instituted innovative ideas to promote children's interest in reading. As an editor, she was responsible for the discovery and promotion of children's writers and artists, and co-founded the first American magazine to deal exclusively with children's literature.

The eldest of four children and the first of two daughters of Daniel and Mary Lane Mahony , Miller spent an idyllic childhood wandering the woods and meadows near her home on Cape Ann in Massachusetts. Her father, a passenger agent for the local Boston and Maine Railroad station, and her mother, a music teacher, shared a common love of music and books, which they passed on to their children. At age 11, Miller's life changed radically with the death of her mother. Although she now had added responsibilities within the household, she graduated from high school with honors, and then went on to attend a training class at the high school and serve as a student-teacher there for a year (1901–02). She enrolled in a one-year secretarial course designed for college graduates at Simmons College for Women, and completed it with distinction in 1903.

Miller began her career in books as a shop assistant at the New Library, a combination bookstore and lending library in Boston. In 1906, she moved to the Women's Education and Industrial Union (WEIU), a nonprofit social service agency begun by prominent Boston women, where she worked as assistant secretary to president Mary Morton Kehew and treasurer Helen Peirce . She also organized an amateur theater group, The Children's Players. While looking for material for this group, she was exposed to children's literature, which led her eventually to two of this field's biggest names, Alice M. Jordan of the Boston Public Library and Anne Carroll Moore of the New York Public Library, both of whom had set up children's rooms in their institutions. Miller was inspired by their work and began to plan her own reading room. In October 1916, with the financial support of the WEIU, she opened the Bookshop for Boys and Girls in the Union's headquarters. Among her innovations at her book shop were Books for Boys and Girls—A Suggestive Purchase List (1916, 1917, 1919, 1922) and the Caravan, a mobile extension of the bookshop which toured New England during the summer. Elinor Whitney (Field) , who taught English at the private Milton Academy in Milton, Massachusetts, joined Miller in the book shop in 1919; their collaboration would continue for 50 years. Together they added an adult room stocked with books about children, and started storytelling sessions and art exhibits. In 1924, they founded the Horn Book Magazine, the first American magazine to focus solely on children's literature.

After her marriage in 1932 to William Davis Miller, president of the furniture concern W.F. Whitney Company, Bertha Mahony Miller divided her time between Boston and the Millers' farmhouse in Ashburnham, Massachusetts. After the marriage of Elinor Whitney to William Field, headmaster of Milton Academy, in 1936, the foursome, along with the magazine's printer, Thomas Todd, formed the Horn Book, Inc., publishing company. (This endeavor finally ended Miller's long relationship with the WEIU.)

Horn Book, Inc., was a major force in the discovery and promotion of children's writers and artists, publishing such authors as Wanda Gág, Beatrix Potter , and Nora Unwin . Miller's achievements brought her many honors, including the Constance Lindsay Skinner Award (1955), a tribute from the American Library Association (1959), and the Catholic Library Association's Regina Medal (1967). In 1959, her career was capped with A Horn Book Sampler. After the death of her husband that year, Miller remained as chair of the board of Horn Book, Inc., although her activities were limited by arteriosclerosis. After her death from a stroke at her Ashburnham home in May 1969, the Jordan-Miller Memorial Course in Children's Literature was instituted at the Boston Public Library. In 1974, the University of Southern California opened the Bertha Mahony Miller Seminar Room. At the start of the 21st century, the Horn Book Magazine, in accordance with Bertha Mahony Miller's stated purpose, continues "to blow the horn for fine books for boys and girls."

sources:

Sicherman, Barbara, and Carol Hurd Green, eds. Notable American Women, The Modern Period. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1980.

Jo Anne Meginnes , freelance writer, Brookfield, Vermont