Mills, Stephanie (Ellen) 1948-

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MILLS, Stephanie (Ellen) 1948-

PERSONAL: Born September 11, 1948, in Berkeley, CA; daughter of Robert C. and Edith (Garrison) Mills; married Philip Thiel (divorced, July, 1990). Education: Mills College, B.A., 1969. Politics: "Bioregional." Religion: "Animist." Hobbies and other interests: Swimming, cooking.

ADDRESSES: Agent—Katinka Matson, Brockman, Inc., 5 East 59th St., New York, NY 10022.

CAREER: Planned Parenthood, campus organizer in Alameda, San Francisco, and Oakland, CA, 1969-70; Earth Times, San Francisco, CA, editor in chief, 1970; Earth, San Francisco, CA, story editor, 1971; Mills College, Oakland, CA, conference facilitator, 1973-74; Emory University, Atlanta, GA, writer for Family Planning Program, 1974; Friends of the Earth, San Francisco, CA, director of Outings Program, 1975-76, director of membership development, 1976-78, editor in chief, 1977-78; Foundation for National Progress, San Francisco, CA, fellow, 1978-80; CoEvolution Quarterly, Sausalito, CA, began as assistant editor, became guest editor and editor, 1980-82; California Tomorrow, San Francisco, CA, editor in chief and research director, 1982-83; World College West, San Rafael, CA, director of development, 1983-84; freelance writer and lecturer, 1984—. Farallones Institute, member of board of directors, 1976-78; Earth First! Foundation, vice president, 1986-89; Northern Michigan Environmental Action Council, president, 1987-88; Great Lakes Bioregional Congress, member of planning committee, 1991; Oryana Natural Foods Cooperative, president of board of directors, 1992-93; member of board of advisors, Center for Sustainable Development and Alternative World Futures, Alliance for a Paving Moratorium, Northwoods Wilderness Recovery, The Onion Society, and Wildlands Center for Preventing Roads.

MEMBER: Planned Parenthood Federation of America (member of board of directors, 1970-76).

AWARDS, HONORS: Award from Mademoiselle, 1969; grant for Sweden from Point Foundation, 1972; resident of Blue Mountain Center, 1983, 1986; award from Friends of the United Nations Environment Program, 1987; grant from IRA-HITI Foundation, 1992; named as an Utne Reader Visionary, 1996.

WRITINGS:

(Editor, with Robert Theobald) The Failure of Success: Ecological Values vs. Economic Myths, Bobbs-Merrill (Indianapolis, IN), 1973.

Whatever Happened to Ecology? (memoir), Sierra Books (San Francisco, CA), 1989.

(Editor and contributor) In Praise of Nature, Island ress (Washington, DC), 1990.

In Service of the Wild: Restoring and Reinhabiting Damaged Land, Beacon Press (Boston, MA), 1995.

(Editor) Turning away from Technology: A New Vision for the 21st Century, Sierra Club Books (San Francisco, CA), 1997.

Epicurean Simplicity, Island Press (Washington, DC), 2002.

Also author of Hay Foot, Straw Foot. Correspondent for Wild Earth. Contributor to magazines. Editor, Not Man Apart, 1977-78; editorial adviser for E magazine.

WORK IN PROGRESS: Collected essays, for University of Georgia Press, 2002.

SIDELIGHTS: Author, activist, and lecturer Stephanie Mills first came to public attention in 1969 when, as commencement speaker at Mills College in Oakland, California, she raised eyebrows by predicting a bleak future in which "humanity was destined for suicide, the result of overpopulation and overuse of natural resources," as the author was paraphrased by First Monday interviewer Ed Valauskas. The address made national headlines, with a New York Times reporter calling it "perhaps the most anguished [valedictory] statement" of the year.

Mills's interest in the fate of the Earth has not waned in the subsequent decades. She is the author of several works that address environmental issues and the rise of technology. Regarding the latter issue, Mills has acknowledged herself as a Luddite, a word popularly used for a person who rejects forms of modern gadgetry in favor of a more technologically unencumbered lifestyle. "It's not that I'm proud of being a Luddite, it's that I'm content with the pace, volume and style of communication I do enjoy," she explained in the First Monday piece. Noting that the rise of technology, from moveable type to cyberspace, has made a quantitative change in communications, "whether technological change actually enhances human relationships and social organizations is not so clear." First Monday also noted that the interview between Mills and Valauskas took place via postcards, since Mills "does not use a computer or the Internet."

The author elaborated on her ideas in the 2002 book Epicurean Simplicity. In recent times the word epicurean has come to be equated with gourmet; Mills reaches farther back to refer to the philosopher Epicurus, who focused on the basic joys of life. "The pleasures and riches of simplicity, it seems to me, arrive mainly through the sense, through savoring the world of a given moment," Mills writes. Though Mills does not "offer us much hope for the future," commented Reeve Lindbergh in a review for Washington Post Book World, Epicurean Simplicity does provide "a bouquet of simple pleasures." Continuing a somewhat mixed review, Lindbergh cited "one or two awkward places" in the book, but added that overall Epicurean Simplicity is graced with "clear and simple language, along with much beautifully phrased wisdom." To Booklist contributor Donna Seaman, the author's messages about the consequences of consumerism run wild "are grounded in deep ecological understanding and sensitivity to the demanding realities of people's lives"; Seaman also noted that Mills's book projects "simplicity without undue simplification."

Living in harmony with the land is the subject of Mills's In Service of the Wild: Restoring and Reinhabiting Damaged Land. For this book the author visited five restoration sites and describes the people involved in the site's rehabilitation; her own site in the Leelanau Peninsula in Michigan was also chronicled. In writing the story of nature returning to its original state, said Anne Bell in Alternatives Journal, Mills offers "an uncommonly lyrical account of the possibilities inherent in ecological restoration." A Whole Earth critic called Mills a "tutelary sprit, guiding her heart, the reader's, and the heart of place; shepherding them through watersheds of ideas as well as landscapes."