Mitch Miller

Edgar Lee Masters's Mitch Miller follows a boy's awakening in a small town, where family life, local customs, and hidden violence slowly come into focus. Through the reflective voice of Skeet, the novel traces the shift from dreamy childhood confusion to clear-eyed understanding, with Mitch Miller emerging as the bold, magnetic older boy who opens the door to adventure, secrecy, and risk. Skeet's friendship with Mitch pulls him away from the safe respectability of Bob Pendleton's world and into a series of vivid encounters: a brutal riverbank prizefight, a dazzling wedding interrupted by a pistol-waving zealot, afternoons of Tom Sawyer-inspired escapades in the woods, and glimpses of the wider world through a freight train and a farm boy's departure. Along the way, the novel explores class, courtship, money, religion, war, and the rough codes that govern adult life. Both humorous and unsparing, it captures the excitement and disillusionment of growing up, as ordinary days reveal the larger truths beneath them. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.