Miller, Tom

This interview is with Tom Miller. Part 1 was recorded on May 30th, 2018 and covers the following themes:

  • Childhood and college.

  • Interest in the underground press.

  • Draft resistance and antiwar sentiment.

  • Move to Tucson.

  • Early writing career.

  • UFW grape boycott.

  • Typology of underground, radical, and alternative presses.

  • The DNC convention in 1968.

  • Activism in Tucson versus elsewhere in America.

  • John Brown Party.

  • Country music in Tucson.

  • Yippies.

  • Jerry Rubin speaking in Tucson.

  • Major moments of activism:

  • Bear Down Eight protest. Nelson Barr shooting.

  • Old Main takeover in the aftermath of Kent State shooting.

  • Federal subpoena to testify about antiwar movement in early 1970s.

  • Communes in Tucson.

  • Lifestyle of an underground writer.

  • Francisco Palacios murder of Dennis Murphey.


Part 2 of 3 was recorded on June 12th, 2018 and covers the following themes:

  • Writing about the Guantanamo Navy Base in 1975.

  • Developing interest in writing about the border. Experience with Border Patrol in mid-1970s. Hannigan case. Compiling On the Border. Work with major New York presses.

  • Tucson’s writing community in the 1970s.

  • Writing The Panama Hat Trail.

  • Interest in writing about, and living in, Cuba.

  • Reflections upon the US-Mexico borderlands.

  • How writing and publishing have changed over Miller’s career.


Part 3 of 3 and was recorded on June 19th, 2018 and covers the following themes:

  • Work with 60 Minutes during the mid-1970s. Story of the British mercenary John Dane.

  • Worked with other broadcast outlets, tried to pitch NBC on a TV story about Ed Abbey.

  • End of Miller’s TV work.

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