Joaquin Miller

Born Cincinnatus Hiner Miller in Indiana in 1837, he later took the pen name Joaquin Miller and built a reputation as a poet, journalist, and colorful public figure. Reliable reference sources agree that he became closely associated with the American West and with writing that celebrated its scale, danger, and romance.

Miller traveled west with his family when he was young, lived in Oregon and California, and drew heavily on those experiences in his work. He is especially known for Songs of the Sierras and for the poem "Columbus," with its famous "On, sail on!" refrain, and he was often called the "Poet of the Sierras."

Part of his fame came from the adventurous image he created around himself, and biographical accounts note that legend and fact sometimes mixed in the stories he told. Even so, his writing helped shape a lasting literary picture of the nineteenth-century West, full of grandeur, motion, and frontier drama.