UNDERWOOD-MILLER INC.

   US SMALL PRESS founded in 1976 by Pennsylvania-based Chuck MILLER and Tim UNDERWOOD, who worked in California. Their 1st book, a first hardcover edition of Jack VANCE's THE DYING EARTH (1950; their edn 1976) almost accidentally set them on a course which would identify them with that author, many of whose works, new and old, they have since released. Other ambitious projects have included a well edited 5-vol edn of THE COLLECTED STORIES OF PHILIP K. DICK (coll 1987), which came very close to honouringthe claim made by its title - an accomplishment worth noting in the small-press field, where editing standards sometimes lag significantly behind ambition, especially (as in collected editions) where archive work may be required. UMI remains one of the best-run, most prolific and successful of US small presses, and may be one of the first to move into general publishing and survive.

   JC