miller was born in new york city. his parents were german-americans. his father worked as a tailor. miller always wanted to be writer, but he worked at several different jobs when he was a young man. during world war i he worked as a clerk in the us war department (now called the department of defense). then he got a job as a reporter on "the washington post". he quit that job after three days and returned to new york city. in new york he worked for the western union telegraph company. in 1917 he married beatrice sylvas wickens, a pianist.