John Mills (writer)

Howard Edwin "John" Mills (June 23, 1930 – January 16, 2016) was a Canadian writer, professor of medieval literature and publisher of novels and essays.

Early life and education

Mills was born in London, England in 1930 to working-class parents.^[1] He went to high school in Sutton, just south of the city. He won a Surrey Agricultural scholarship to The University of Wales at Bangor, but spent most his time mountain climbing and did not graduate.

Career

Mills worked in Scandinavia for a few months, then was conscripted into the British Army in 1950 and served two years, one of them in Germany. He got a job in England as a technical writer, and the immigrated to Canada in 1952. He worked at various jobs, including encyclopaedia salesman and technical writer, and then he became a radar installer first on the Mid-Canada Line, then on the DEW-Line in the Canadian Arctic. He moved to Montreal in 1959 and worked as a tutor and a laundryman.

Mills married in 1960 and moved to Vancouver in 1961. He attended the University of British Columbia. In 1964 he received a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship at Stanford University where he completed a Master’s degree. In 1965 he finished his graduate work at Stanford and got a job at the then newly opened Simon Fraser University. In 1969 he was an assistant professor of English.

Mills wrote a number of novels and essays, and through part time studies at the Vancouver School of Theology he received a Master's of Theological Studies degree in 1988. He served as a professor of medieval literature at Simon Fraser until his retirement in 1995 as a Professor Emeritus.^[2] In 2014 he lived in Vancouver. Mills died January 16, 2016.^[3]

Publications

Some of his essays and books include: The Land of Is (1972),^[4] The October Men, Skevington’s Daughter,^[5][6] Runner in the Dark (1992), Lizard in the Grass,^[7][8] Thank your mother for the Rabbits (1993).^[1]

Much of his material is more fully available in his book of autobiographical essays called "Thank your mother for the Rabbits". This book was shortlisted for the Hubert Evans Non-fiction Prize in 1994.^[9][10]

Books

• The Land of Is Oberon Press, 1972
• The October Men Oberon Press,
• Skevington's Daughter Oberon Press,^[11][12]
• Runner in the Dark Oberon Press, 1992
• Lizard in the Grass ECW Press, 1980
• Thank your Mother for the Rabbits Porcupine's Quill Press, 1993

References