Science fiction writer best known for his amazing, far-future
post-apocalypse novel 'A Canticle for Leibowitz' (1960), which at this
writing [2003] is still predicted by most in the field to remain one of
the finest, most insightful SF works dealing with religion in a formal,
critical, and yet compassionate way. Miller converted to Catholicism in
1947. After flying combat missions in WWII, he began publishing science
fiction in 1951. His work was widely admired and thematically
influential upon what followed. His Hugo Award-winning novelette "The
Darfsteller" sounds in summary like just another story about robots
replacing people, yet Miller's handling of it creates a deeply
sympathetic and haunting Passion Play about an unemployed actor (the
Darfsteller; the word is from the German) who sabotages an android so
that he may act in one final performance. He was deeply mourned by fans
after his suicide, which was attributed by many to depression caused by
writer's block; he left a manuscript that was completed by the
remarkable, quirky SF writer Terry Bisson: a sequel to 'Canticle'
entitled 'Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman'.
