Earl Roy Miner (February 21, 1927 – April 17, 2004) was a professor at Princeton University, and a noted scholar of Japanese literature and especially Japanese poetry[1]; he was also active in early modern English literature (for instance, his obituary in The New York Times notes that a critical edition of John Milton's Paradise Lost was in the process of being published when he died). He was a major critical authority on John Dryden. He earned his bachelor's degree in Japanese studies and master's and doctoral degrees in English from the University of Minnesota; with this PhD, he joined the English faculty at Williams College (1953–1955) and at UCLA (1955–1972), whereupon he joined Princeton in 1972.
Miner was president of the Milton Society of America, the American Society for 18th Century Studies and the International Comparative Literature Association. He was honored with Princeton's Behrman Award for distinguished achievement in the humanities in 1993.
After a prolonged illness, Miner died in his home in Hightstown, New Jersey, on April 17, 2004.
Selected works
In a statistical overview derived from writings by and about Miner, OCLC/WorldCat encompasses roughly 100+ works in 300+ publications in 8 languages and 20,000+ library holdings.[1]
Japanese Linked Poetry, by Earl Miner. 1979, Princeton University Press, ISBN0-691-06372-9
The Monkey’s Straw Raincoat and Other Poetry of the Basho School, trans. Earl Miner and Hiroko Odagiri. 1981, Princeton University Press, ISBN978-0-691-06460-4
Paradise Lost, 1668-1968: Three Centuries of Commentary, ed. by: Earl Roy Miner, William Moeck, Steven Jablonski. 2004, Bucknell University Press, ISBN0-8387-5577-1
Obituary in The New York Times. (Late Edition (East Coast)). New York, N.Y.: Apr 21, 2004. pg. B.9
^ "As this special East-West issue of CLS goes to press, we are reminded of the passing of Earl Miner, one of the pioneers of East-West poetic relations. Earl Miner played a decisive role in shaping the discipline of comparative literature in the United States and to him we are greatly indebted." [2]
Europa Publications. (2003). International Who's Who of Authors and Writers 2004. London: Routledge. ISBN978-1-85743-179-7