Master of the Mission Inn

Book excerpt: This captivating story recounts Miller's local and state-wide political impact, his influence on the planning and appearance of his home town, his peace advocacy, his almost endless creativity for civic improvement and his penchant for ceremony. At his death the city of Riverside halted for fifteen minutes. Beyond being known as "the man who built the Mission Inn" Frank Augustus Miller's personal and public life have been shrouded in obscurity since his death in 1935. This new biography, based extensively on unpublished sources tells the fuller story of a colorful life. The narrative traces Miller's sometimes conflicted journey toward personal and intellectual maturity, first in frontier Wisconsin then in Riverside California. Readers trace Miller's lifelong growth and his driving sense of "firstness." They sit with him among presidents and princes, travel with him in Europe and Asia, agonize with him in the loss of his first wife and share his happiness in his marriage to Marion Clark. Author Maurice Hodgen has lived in Riverside California since 1968, has guided tours of the Historic Mission Inn since 2001 and has published on the Mission Inn as a National Historic Landmark and Miller's Asian interests as expressed in hotel architecture and decoration.