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| Contact: WilliamMMiller.com |
I've authored four books and have plans for many more.
Recent
interest in the women pilots who flew for the United States in WWII has made To Live and Die a WASP: 38 Women Pilots WhoDied in WW2 a very popular read.
When the war began, men called these
women “girls.” They didn’t believe this grand experiment could ever work—that
the women of America—sisters and wives—could fly Army airplanes all over the
country. Yet, they were—they did—and these 38 women gave their lives to prove
it. They never saw the war end, never had a future, and never heard their
country say “thank you.”
To Live and Die a WASP, remembers them.
I recently returned from a coast-to-coast book
tour, where I was able to tell the real and nearly lost life story of forgotten
pioneer aviator, Eugene Ely. Ely died before he was 25 years old, but already
was the first and only person to fly an airplane from a ship (1910) and the
first and only person to land an airplane on a ship (1911). His takeoffs and
landings were famous, but until the publication of Eugene Ely, Daredevil Aviator, by McFarland Publishing, his life
was an untold mystery.The book tour managed to visit some of the important places that were milestones in Ely’s life. Visitors to the Naval War College Museum in Newport, Rhode Island were quite interested in the man who nearly single handedly brought the U.S. Navy into the air.. Other notable locations include Rochester, New York, where Gene Ely made one of his most successful early flights, and also to Cleveland, Ohio, where Ely not only amazed crowds with his flying, but also helped his boss and mentor, Glenn Curtiss, set flight distance records.
Of particular interest were the Iowa towns of Davenport and Williamsburg. Eugene Ely was born near Williamsburg, surrounded by Iowa corn, but by age nine, his family had moved to Davenport, where Gene lived though his teenage years. The residents of both cities were excited to hear that their “hometown boy” was finally “getting his due.
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My first book, Silent City on the Hill, tells the never told story of Jacksonville, Oregon’s historic cemetery, from its founding in 1859 through the vandalism that threatened its destruction in the late 20th Century. Along the way, I touch on the lives of some of the cemetery’s 6,000 plus residents. Proceeds from The Silent City are donated to the Friends of Jacksonville’s Historic Cemetery, helping to aid their mission of preserving and protecting the cemetery and its history for future generations.
For nearly nine years, I worked as a newspaper reporter and still continue as history columnist for the Mail Tribune newspaper, in Medford, Oregon. My weekly column, History Snoopin’, still highlights the history of the Pacific Northwest and Northern California, often helping readers return to the scene of a vibrant past.
My most recent book, History Snoopn’: True Tales of Oregon and Northern California is a collection of my previous history columns and stories.
During my time as Historian for the Southern Oregon Historical Society, I contributed hundreds of articles to numerous publications, primarily Southern Oregon Heritage, but also to several other popular journals, including Our Valley, Senior Views, and the Manifest, a monthly publication of the Southern Oregon Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society.
My wife and I love to hike the green forests of Oregon.
We both welcome you to our blog.
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