Josephine Miles

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Josephine Miles (June 11, 1911 - 1985), poet and literature critic, was the first woman to be tenured in the English Department at the University of California, Berkeley. She wrote over a dozen books of poetry and several works of criticism.

Born in Chicago in 1911, she moved around a lot with her family, eventually relocating to Southern California. Due to a disabling athritis, she was educated at home by tutors, but was able to graduate from Los Angeles High School in a class which included the composer John Cage.

Miles attended the University of California in Los Angeles, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in English literature before moving to the University of California in Berkley to pursue her doctorate. She remained in Berkley for the rest of her life,receiving several highly-coveted fellowships and awards until her death in May of 1985. She was the first woman to receive tenure in the English Department at Berkeley and, at the time of her death, held the positional of University Professor, a rare honor issued by the University of California system as a whole.

She was fascinated with Beat poetry and was both a host and critic to many Beat poets from her chair at Berkeley. Most notably, she helped Allen Ginsberg publish Howl by recommending it to Richard Eberhart, who would publish an article in the New York Times praising the poem.