I Cover the Waterfront Book

News commentator Elmer Davis declared, "This is the sort of book we get too rarely." And even the snobbish New Yorker said: "Thoroughly delightful....It's a book you really ought to read." Max Miller considered the Pacific Coast his home. He worked for the San Diego Sun after an adventurous life that included travels in the South Seas and, in 1927, a visit to China. He was a reporter on the waterfront beat for six years when he first typed, "I have been here so long that even the seagulls must recognize me...." That was more than 70 years ago, and while the country was in the depths of the Depression, I Cover the Waterfront made a quiet initial appearance. Neither the 28-year-old author nor his publisher expected much from a series of simple strung-together real-life tales. But there was something about the loneliness and purity of Miller's writing that created a kind of magic. The book became a runaway national bestseller. Two movies were made from I Cover the Waterfront. The major one starred Claudette Colbert and Ben Lyon, and is credited with the phrase, "Not tonight, Josephine." The title also inspired a popular jazz tune by Cannonball Adderly. The success of I Cover the Waterfront launched Miller on his dream: a lifetime book-writing career. He wrote and published 27 additional books. The Max Miller Archive is held at the Mandeville Special Collections Library, Geisel Library, University of California, San Diego.Read More