om^ University of California Berkeley \/ \ X x\ Josephine Miles POETRY, TEACHING, AND SCHOLARSHIP Regional Oral History Office The Bancroft Library . JOSEPHINE MILES JULY 1974 Regional Oral History Office University of California The Bancroft Library Berkeley, California University History Series Josephine Miles POETRY, TEACHING, AND SCHOLARSHIP An Interview Conducted by Ruth Teiser and Catherine Harroun in 1977 and 1979 Copy no. / Copyright (c) 1980 by the Regents of the University of California TABLE OF CONTENTS Josephine Miles PREFACE INTERVIEW HISTORY ii BRIEF BIOGRAPHY v INTERVIEW I 7 July 1977 Childhood High School 18 University 27 INTERVIEW II 15 July 1977 34 Study at Berkeley 41 Poetry Groups 48 Ph.D. and Los Angeles 62 INTERVIEW III 21 July 1977 76 Beginning to Teach 76 Courses and Students 95 INTERVIEW IV 28 July 1977 108 English Department 108 Publishing and Research INTERVIEW V 4 August 1977 Public Contexts 139 Developments in Poetry 149 INTERVIEW VI 11 August 1977 170 Writing Poetry Values and Standards 182 INTERVIEW VII 18 August 1977 194 Committees 194 INTERVIEW VIII 25 August 1977 200 University Professors, Readings, Journeys Neighbors and Family Arts and Other Ideas 236 INTERVIEW IX 22 February 1979 246 Winding Down 246 APPENDICES Excerpts from "Bibliographical Introduction to Seventy-five 262 Modern American Authors" September 1976. Gary M. Lepper News Release from Office of Public Information, 1/24/73. 266 Josephine Miles awarded title of "University Professor". Program: The Sixty-third Annual Faculty Research Lectures, 268 "Where Lecturer for 1976, Josephine Miles. Subject, Have . Goodness, Truth, and Beauty Gone?" Article from The Monday Paper, October 13, 1978. "Miles Honored 272 with Top Award for American Poet." IMAGES OF CALIFORNIA. A Session with Josephine Miles, Poet; 273 A Report and Interpretation. By Jim Hughes, March 22, 1979. List of Ph.D. Dissertations - Josephine Miles Director. 280 "A Profile of Josephine Miles", by Katharine Livingston, 1973. 281 UNIVERSITY HISTORY SERIES LIST 328 INDEX 331 INDEX Books by Josephine Miles discussed in the interview 344 PREFACE Under a continuing grant from the University of California, Berkeley Foundation, the Regional Oral History Office has been conducting a series of interviews with persons who have made a significant contribution to the development of the University of California at Berkeley. Many of the inter views receive additional support from University departments and offices, special alumni groups, and individuals who wish to honor a particular memoirist. A list of University History interviews is appended including an earlier group conducted in cooperation with the Centennial History Project, directed by Professor Walton E. Bean and later by Verne A. Stadtman, Univer sity Centennial Editor. The University History interviews have also benefited greatly from the expert advice and assistance of Richard E. Erickson, Assistant Chancellor, Development; and J. R. K. Kantor, University Archivist. The oral history process at the University of California at Berkeley consists of tape-recorded interviews with persons who have played significant roles in some aspect of the development of the West. The purpose is to capture and preserve for future research their perceptions, recollections, and observations. Research and the preparation of a list of proposed topics precede the interviews. The taped material is transcribed, lightly edited, and then approved by the memoirist before final processing: final typing, photo-offset reproduction, binding, and deposit in The Bancroft Library and other selected libraries. The product is not a publication in the usual sense but primary research material made available under specified conditions to researchers. The Regional Oral History Office is under the administrative supervision of Professor James D. Hart, the director of The Bancroft Library. Willa K. Baum, Department Head Regional Oral History Office Harriet Nathan, Project Director University History Series February 1980 Regional Oral History Office Room 486 The Bancroft Library University of California Berkeley, California 11 INTERVIEW HISTORY Josephine Miles s academic career can be outlined briefly in this way: B.A. University of California at Los Angeles, M.A. and .Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley, Professor of English at the University of California at Berkeley, and University Professor. Beyond that however, she is a teacher, scholar, and poet of unusual success in each field of endeavor. The effec tiveness of her teaching is indicated by the accomplishments and loyalty of her students. The effectiveness of her scholarly work and her poetry is indicated by the list of honors and awards they have brought her. Her biblio graphy indicates the scope of her work and her remarkable industry. Because of her outstanding career, suggestions that Professor Miles be asked to create an oral history memoir came from many sources within and out side of the immediate University community. The idea was mentioned to her some years before actual discussion of such an interview began early in 1977. At first she considered delaying it until after her retirement from the Univer sity English Department in 1978, then agreed to make time for it during the summer vacation period in 1977. Consequently, the primary series of interview sessions was held weekly beginning on July 7 and ending on August 25, of that year. To those eight sessions was added a ninth on February 22, 1979. Between the eight and ninth sessions she had retired from teaching, had an illness, won a major national poetry award, and had experienced some change in routine and circumstances, as she indicated in the interview. The interview sessions were held in the living room of Miss Miles s home near the University campus, a comfortable and hospitable room reflecting Josephine Miles s own attitudes. The interviewers had known her for some years and welcomed the opportunity to interview her. As can perhaps be deduced from the interview, they admire her and enjoy talking with her. Nevertheless, Miss Miles s attitude toward the interview was entirely professional, and she shaped it, through her taped conversation and her editing of the transcript, to the final result that she considered proper. Her candor, her intellect, and her wit are evident throughout. In editing the transcript, Miss Miles deleted a few passages, added several, and made minor word changes, but it remains in general, close to the narrative and discussions as taped. Some rearrangement of the sequence with in two sessions was necessitated, however, by a recording error which required Miss Miles s recapitulation of one section of her reminiscences. And, dis satisfied with the section headings made by the interviewers in editing the transcript, she made those which are used here. Many of Josephine Miles s friends contributed informed suggestions for subjects to be discussed, among them Geraldine Knight Scott, Mel G. Scott, J. R. K. Kantor, and Robert Hawley. Marilyn White of the Regional Oral History Office undertook bibliographic and other research and checking, Lee Steinback ill transcribed the tapes and final typed the manuscript, and Mr. Kantor, Univer sity Archivist, proofread the final work. Individual friends and admirers of Miss Miles joined a number of organi zations in making this interview possible. Ruth Teiser Catherine Harroun Interviewers January 1980 Regional Oral History Office 486 The Bancroft Library University of California at Berkeley iv DONORS TO JOSEPHINE MILES ORAL HISTORY PROJECTS James S. and Mildred Ackerman Associated Students of the University of California The Bancroft Library Robert E. Beck California Association of Teachers of English Arthur W. and Finette Foshay Catherine Harroun Dr. James D. Hart Stephanie Opid Holton Helen Schevill Geraldine Knight Scott Mel Scott Ruth Teiser Luella Winkler Topping Katherine Towle University of California, Berkeley Foundation University of California, Berkeley, Department of English Names listed as printed on checks JOSEPHINE MILES 1911: Born 1932: B.A., University of California, Los Angeles campus 1934: M.A., University of California, Berkeley campus 1938: Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley campus 1940-43: Instructor, University of California, Berkeley 1943-47: Assistant Professor, University of California, Berkeley 1947-52: Associate Professor, University of California, Berkeley 1952- Professor, University of California, Berkeley 1973 University Professor of English z * University of California Administrative Service: 1958-60: Chairman, Campus Committee on 1978 Professor Emeritus Prose Improvement, Berkeley campus 1963-64: Member, Committee on Research, Academic Senate, Berkeley campus 1968-71: Member, Committee on Privilege and Tenure, Academic Senate, Berkeley campus 1968-71: Member, Chancellor s Committee on the Arts, Berkeley campus 1970-71: Member, President s Conur.ittee on Search for Chancellor, Berkeley campus Honors and Awards : Phelan Felloe in Writing, 1937-38 Research Fellow in Literature, American Association of University Women, 1939-40 Guggenheim Fellowship, 1948-49 Judge of National Monroe Award for Poetry, 1950 Judge of National Shelley Award for Poetry, 1951 Judge of National Gauss Award for literary scholarship, 1953-54 National Institute of Arts and Letters Grant for Poetry, 1956 Blumenthal Award for poetry, 1959 Fellowship, American Council of Learned Societies, 1965 D.Litt., Mills College, 1965