Page:History of Oregon Literature.djvu/267

 visit to Canyon City in 1907, he used to walk along the street with the ex-judge and poet, passing old timers idly congregated in groups. Several of these men had known the poet well in the late 60’s, and Joaquin Miller greeted them as he passed but often they, on their part, refused to speak to him.

His first book, Specimens, was printed in Portland in 1868. “Its reception,” says Martin S. Peterson, “was far from warm. Miller’s friends disregarded it except for a few good-humored jibes—all of which and a very temperate comment of derogatory nature in The Overland, written by Bret Harte himself, failed to dampen his ardor.” The next year, in 1869, his second book, Joaquin, Et Al., was published in Portland.

George H. Himes, now the aged curator of the Oregon Historical Society Museum, printed both books, Specimens directly for Miller, and Joaquin, Et Al. for S. J. McCormick, 105 Front Street, Portland the formal publisher.

Mr. Himes, from memory and from reference to his notebooks, gave in an interview for this history, the following account of the publication of Joaquin Miller’s first two books:

The Express in those days took a man of quick thinking and ready-witted—a man with qualities of leadership. Miller fitted it beautifully. He worked for the I. B. Mossman Express Company. He was a dare-devil makeshift, letting Mossman do the work and he taking the money.

Miller entered my office, a shabbily dressed man, unkempt in appearance, with a long beard, shaggy and clay-colored, and long hair. One pantaloon was stuck in a boot, and the other one drooped over a boot. He had a very