Casey Geddes Miller

Background

Casey Geddes Miller was born on February 26, 1919, in Toledo, Ohio, United States, to Walter and Laura Miller. By 1930 her father had died and her mother and sisters moved from Perrysburg, Ohio to New York City.

Education

Miller received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1940 from Smith College, where she was a philosophy major. She also studied graphic arts at Yale University.

Career

Miller began working in the publishing field as an editorial assistant for the D. Appleton-Century Co., Inc., in 1941. After serving in the U.S. Naval Reserve and working a six-year stint at Colonial Williamsburg, Inc., Miller accepted a post at Seabury Press, Inc., in Greenwich, Connecticut, in 1954.

Ten years later, she became a freelance editor, working at her home in Greenwich and after 1967 in East Haddam, where she formed her editorial partnership with Kate Swift. They wrote numerous articles on the effects of language and gender which appeared in periodicals such as Ms. and Washington Post. Miller and Swift wrote two books, Words and Women and Handbook of Nonsexist Writing.

In 1977, Miller also became an associate director of the Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press (WIFP).

Achievements

• Miller gained prominence as the feminist whose influence changed many terms in the English language that were deemed degrading to women. She wrote many articles on sexism in English that appeared in national periodicals and in more than 30 anthologies and textbooks.
  
  

Works

More photos

• book

  • The handbook of nonsexist writing (Perennial Library)

    (Uses hundreds of examples, mainly from published writing,...)

    1981
  • Words And Women

    (Details evidence of sexual prejudice in the English langu...)

    1977

Views

Throughout her life, Miller was an active feminist and philanthropist. She served as a foster parent for dozens of children and donated generously to Smith College, Planned Parenthood, and NAACP.

Connections

Miller wasn't married.

Father:

Walter Miller

Mother:

Laura Miller

Sister:

Kate R. Gregg

Sister:

Caroline S. Cooper

Friend:

Kate Swift