Development
By 1955, Walter M. Miller Jr. had published over 30 science fiction short stories in such magazines as Astounding Science Fiction, Amazing Stories, and Fantastic Adventures.[1] Significant themes of his stories included loss of scientific knowledge or "socio-technological regression and its presumed antithesis, continued technological advance", its preservation through oral transmission, the guardianship of archives by priests, and "that side of [human] behavior which can only be termed religious".[2][3] These thematic elements, combined with the growing subgenre of the "post-disaster" story and Miller's own experiences during World War II, set the stage for the short story that would become the opening section of A Canticle for Leibowitz.[4]
During World War II, Miller served as a radioman and tail gunner in a bomber crew that participated in the destruction of the 6th-century Christian monastery at Monte Cassino, Italy, founded by St. Benedict and recognized as the oldest surviving Christian church in the Western world. This experience impressed him enough to write, a decade later, the short story "A Canticle for Leibowitz", about an order of monks whose abbey springs from the destroyed world around it.[5][6] The story, which would evolve into "Fiat Homo", the first of three parts of the fix-up novel, was published in the April 1955 edition of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (F&SF).
Although not originally intended as a serialization, the saga continued in "And the Light Is Risen", which was published in August 1956 (also in F&SF). That work would later grow into "Fiat Lux", the second part of the novel. It was while writing the third story, "The Last Canticle", for magazine publication in February of the following year[7] that Miller realized he was really completing a novel: "Only after I had written the first two and was working on the third did it dawn on me that this isn't three novelettes, it's a novel. And I converted it".[6]
The publication of the three "Canticle" stories,[8] along with Miller's "The Lineman", in F&SF, marked a significant evolution in the writer's craft. Under the editorship of Anthony Boucher, F&SF possessed a reputation for publishing works with "careful writing and characterization". Walker Percy considered the magazine "high-class sci-fi pulp".[9] The appearance of these stories in the magazine is indicative of the direction Miller's writing had taken toward "'human' stories, less crowded with incident, more concerned with values".[3]
A Canticle for Leibowitz was the only novel Miller published during his lifetime.[10] For the fix-up, Miller did not just collate the three short stories. He changed the title and the names of some characters, added new characters, changed the nature and prominence of existing characters, and added Latin passages. These revisions affected the religious and recurrence themes of the story.[3]
The Latin phrases in the novel relate to Roman Catholic Church practices, rituals and official communications. Susan Olsen writes that Miller did not include the Latin phrases just to "add dignity" to the work, but to emphasize its religious themes, making it consonant with the tradition of Judeo-Christian writings.[11]
Changing the name of the abbot of the first part from "Father Juan" to "Abbot Arkos" strengthened the cyclical/recurrence motif, since the name of the first abbot encountered, "Arkos", begins with the first letter of the Latin alphabet and the name of the last abbot, "Zerchi", begins with the last letter.[11] Miller also expanded certain scenes, increasing their importance: for instance, the initial encounter between Brother Francis and Abbot Arkos in "Fiat Homo" grew from two pages in the short story to eight pages in the novel. Abbot Arkos was shown to possess doubts and uncertainty, unlike the dogmatism of Father Juan.[11]
Miller also used the adaptation process to add a layer of complexity to the story. Walker Percy recognized this dimension of the novel, which he compared to a "cipher, a coded message, a book in a strange language".[12] David Seed deemed the novel "charged with half-concealed meaning", an intricacy that seems to have been added as Miller was revising the stories for publication as a novel. Decoding messages such as this is an important activity in Miller's works, both in A Canticle for Leibowitz and in his short stories.[2] For example, in the original version of "Fiat Homo", Miller limits his "wordplay" to an explicit symbolism involving the letter "V" and Brother Francis' "Voice/Vocation" during Francis' encounter with the wandering pilgrim. In the novel, however, "Miller reserves such symbolistic cross-references to the more intellectual analysts and builds a comedy of incomprehension around Francis".[2]
Miller's experience in writing for science fiction magazines contributed to his writing of A Canticle for Leibowitz. His background was with the medium lengths of the short story, novelette, and short novel, where he combined character, action, and import. This full-length novel has a tripartite structure: each section is "short novel size, with counterpoint, motifs, and allusions making up for the lack of more ordinary means of continuity".[3]
Publication
A Canticle for Leibowitz was published by J. B. Lippincott & Co. as a hardcover in 1960 with a 1959 copyright,[13] and two reprints appeared within the first year.[1] More than 40 new editions and reprints have appeared for the book, which has never been out of print. It often appears on "best of" lists, and has been recognized three times with Locus Poll Awards for best all-time science fiction novel.[1][6][10][14]
