SOLVED. Utopian Novel by poet Joaquin Miller [s]

[[deleted user]]

What fresh new hell is this?

To enticingly describe a book in a book yet not give the title.

The author is Joaquin Miller, a 19th century poet. Here's everything I know about the book taken from the book in which it was so cruelly described:

"In 1893, Miller wrote a utopian novel that looked askance at the 'extreme selfishness' of a colony of dryland settlers who prayed for rain for their corn even though they knew they would be taking it from their neighbors' thirsty crops of figs. What we now call geoengineering ultimately triumphed in his ideal future society. The impossible caveat was that weather control required utopia, writes the weather historian William B. Meyer -- 'for no society short of a perfectly just and harmonious one was sure to use that power for better.'"

Credit for the above quote to Cynthia Barnett in Rain: A Natural and Cultural History despite the disservice she had done me in an otherwise wonderful book.

I searched through some of the books here under Joaquin Miller's author page; however, many of them have a brand description versus a book description, so you can't tell what the book is about at all. Likewise, my Googling has turned up naught. I will continue my quest, but it would be awfully nice if someone here actually knew.

I've also reached out to the author on her GR page since she takes questions.

Many thanks in advance!

[[deleted user]]

I'm pretty sure it's The Building of the City Beautiful--the Google book version brings up a relevant passage about rain here

[[deleted user]]

Thank you, but I don't think that's it. It was published at the right time and mentions rain and prayer, there is no mention of figs in the book at all, singular or plural. Nor does the phrase "extreme selfishness", which is given in the description I read as a quote, appear.

[[deleted user]]

The figs are here: https://books.google.ca/books?id=lSVD...

I agree there's no "extreme selfishness", but I think the likelihood is that it is this book.

[[deleted user]]

Ahh! I searched fig and found nothing. I just did a test search and it only finds complete words (fig = no results, figs gets a hit). Just above that it says "supreme selfishness". I think she must have gotten the adjective wrong.

Thank you so much!

[Kris]

The Building of the City Beautiful by Joaquin Miller for the GR link.