Miller was born in Newport News, Virginia, on March 5, 1928, to Nell Martin (née Crizer) and J. Hillis Miller Sr.[3][4] His mother was a homemaker and his father a Baptist minister who was professor of psychology at the College of William & Mary, and would go on to serve as the president of the University of Florida.

[4] Miller graduated from Oberlin College (BA summa cum laude, 1948) switching his major of study from Physics to English.

"[5] This was also the time that was introduced to Paul de Man who was a member of a faculty and Jacques Derrida, a visiting professor, with whom he would remain associated.

[7] During the same year, he served as president of the Modern Language Association, and was honored by the MLA with a lifetime achievement award in 2005.

[9] Both at Yale and UC Irvine, Miller mentored an entire generation of American literary critics including noted queer theorist Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick.

These built on ideas and themes that Derrida and de Man had brought along from Europe, while Miller joined them.

[4] The movement continued to gain popularity through the next decade, presenting a paper called "Triumph of Theory" at the 1986 session of the Modern Language Association.

[4] He leaned on ideas that he termed 'ethics of learning' where he countered critics by arguing that it was the reader's obligation to try and find meaning in the text even when it appeared impossible.