Ron Miller
From The Space Library
| Birth Date | May 8 1947 |
|---|---|
| Birth Place | Minneapolis Minnesota |
| Occupation | Artist, Author |
| Nationality | United Kingdom |
| Notable Works | The Grand Tour, World's Beyond |
Contents |
Overview
Ron Miller (born May 8, 1947 in Minneapolis, Minnesota) is an artist and author who lives and works in South Boston, Virginia in the United States. His current work is primarily the writing and illustration of books specializing in astronomical, astronautical and science fiction subjects for young adults.
Career
Miller holds a BFA from Columbus, Ohio, College of Art and Design. He worked as a commercial artist and designer for six years, before taking a position as art director for the National Air and Space Museum's Albert Einstein Planetarium. He left there in 1977 to became a freelance illustrator and author; to date he has more than forty book titles to his credit, and his illustrations have appeared on scores of book jackets, book interiors and in magazines such as National Geographic, Reader's Digest, Scientific American, Smithsonian, Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Starlog, Air & Space, Sky & Telescope, Science et Vie, Newsweek, Natural History, Discover, GEO and others.
Miller has translated and illustrated new editions of Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, From the Earth to the Moon and Journey to the Center of the Earth as well as a companion/atlas to Verne's works, Extraordinary Voyages. He has acted as a consultant on Verne for Walt Disney Imagineering (for the Paris Disneyland) and A&E Television Network's Biography (TV series) series. Miller's book The Dream Machines, a comprehensive 744-page history of manned spacecraft, was nominated for the International Astronautical Federation's Manuscript Award. His original paintings are in numerous private and public collections, including the Smithsonian Institution and the Pushkin Museum (Moscow).
He designed a set of ten commemorative postage stamps for the U.S. Postal Service. One of the stamps in the Space Exploration series (1991), is credited with helping inspire the New Horizons mission to that planet. He has been a production illustrator for motion pictures, notably Dune and an unproduced version of Total Recall; and he designed and co-wrote the computer-generated show ride film, Comet Impact! for SimEx. He has provided concept and special effects art for numerous other films.
Miller has taken part in international space art workshops and exhibitions, including seminal sessions held in Iceland and the Soviet Union. He was invited by the Soviet government to the 30th anniversary celebration of the launch of Sputnik, and has lectured on space art and space history in the United States, France, Japan, Italy and Great Britain. He was featured on Hour 25 Science Fiction Radio program in early 2003.
Awards
An authority on the work of astronomical artist Chesley Bonestell, his book The Art of Chesley Bonestell received a Hugo Award in 2002; other books have received awards, including a Silver Award for best fiction from ForeWord magazine for Palaces & Prisons and the Violet Crown Award from the Writers' League of Texas for Bradamant. His Worlds Beyond series received the American Institute of Physics Award of Excellence. The Grand Tour has gone through three editions, multiple printings, several translations, was a Hugo Award nominee and has sold over 250,000 copies. It was also twice a Book-of-the-Month feature selection. This and other books have been selections of the Science, Quality Paperback and Science Fiction Book Clubs. His book, Digital Art, was listed on the VOYA (Voice of Youth Advocates) Nonfiction Honor List in 2009. In all, he has 75 works in 142 publications in 6 languages in 16,977 libraries world-wide.
Associations
Miller has been on the faculty of the International Space University. He is a contributing editor for Air & Space/Smithsonian magazine; a member of the International Academy of Astronautics; a Life Member, Fellow and past Trustee of the International Association of Astronomical Artists; an Honorary Member of the Sociétè Jules Verne (Paris); a past member of the North American Jules Verne Society and a past Fellow of the British Interplanetary Society.
A recent project has been Black Cat Press, which Miller has devoted to publishing new editions of rare and obscure science fiction, fantasy and science fact books. Among these are new, original translations of several Jules Verne novels.
Books written or co-written
- The Space Art Poster Book (Stackpole, 1979)
- Space Art (Starlog, 1979)
- The Grand Tour (Workman, 1981; revised edition, 1993; revised edition, 2005) with William K. Hartmann
- Worlds Beyond: The Art of Chesley Bonestell (Donning, 1983) with Frederick C. Durant, III
- Out of the Cradle (Workman, 1984) with William K. Hartmann
- Cycles of Fire (Workman, 1987) with William K. Hartmann
- Stars and Planets (Doubleday, 1987) Illustrator
- Mathematics (illustrator: Doubleday, 1989) Illustrator
- 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Unicorn, 1988) Illustrator and translator
- In the Stream of Stars (Workman, 1990) with William K. Hartmann; foreword by Ray Bradbury
- The Bronwyn Trilogy: Palaces & Prisons, Silk & Steel, Hearts & Armor (Ace, 1991–1992) Novels [rewritten and published as A Company of Heroes, Baen Books, 2014, along with a fourth and fifth volume]
- The History of Earth (Workman, 1992) with William K. Hartmann
- The Dream Machines (Krieger, 1993) Foreword by Arthur C. Clarke
- Extraordinary Voyages (Black Cat Press, 1994) Foreword by Forrest J. Ackerman
- BrainQuest (Workman, 1994)
- Firebrands (Paper Tiger, 1998) Illustrator
- 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Dorling Kindersley, 1998) Adaptation
- The History of Rockets (Grolier, 1999)
- Bradamant (Timberwolf, 2000) Novel [Slightly revised edition from Baen Books, 2014]
- The History of Science Fiction (Grolier, 2001)
- The Art of Chesley Bonestell (Paper Tiger, 2001) with Frederick C. Durant, III
- Mermaids & Meteors (Black Cat Press, 2005) Novel
- Velda (Timberwolf Press, 2003) Novel
- Worlds Beyond (eleven-book series, Millbrook Press, 2002–2005): Earth & Moon; Saturn; The Sun; Mars; Venus; Uranus & Neptune; Extrasolar Planets; Mercury & Pluto; Jupiter; Asteroids, Comets & Meteors; Stars & Galaxies
- Special Effects in the Movies (Millbrook Press, 2006)
- The Elements (Millbrook Press, 2004)
- 13 Steps to Velda (Black Cat Press, 2005) Short story collection
- Captain Judikah (Black Cat Press, 2005) Novel
- Pathetic Selections (Black Cat Press, 2005) Editor
- Journey to the Center of the Earth (Barnes & Noble, 2009) Translator
- The Conquest of Space (four-book series, Lerner, 2007–2008): Rockets, Satellites, Robot Explorers, Space Exploration
- Extreme Wonders: Aircraft (HarperCollins, 2007)
- Digital Art (Lerner, 2007)
- Cleopatra (Chelsea House, 2008) with Sommer Browning; foreword by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
- The Seven Wonders of Engineering (Lerner, 2009)
- The Seven Wonders of the Gas Giants (Lerner, 2010)
- The Seven Wonders of the Rocky Planets (Lerner, 2010)
- The Seven Wonders of Comets, Asteroids and Meteors (Lerner, 2010)
- Is the End of the World Near? (Lerner, 2011)
- Journey to the Exoplanets (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011) iPad book app; with Edward Bell
- Recentering the Universe (Lerner, 2013)
- Storm Chasers (Lerner, 2013)
- Exploring Mars (Lerner, 2013)
- The Art of Space (Elephant Books, 2014)
- Return to Skull Island (Baen Books, 2014) with Darrell Funk
