Ernest Callenbach

Books

Ecotopia (1975), a novel, portrays a future ecologically sustainable society established through the secession of Northern California, Oregon, and Washington. In Ecotopia Callenbach offers a detailed, practical vision of a human-scale, self-supporting future society. The book captures the imagination of readers yearning for alternatives to the accepted outlook of exponential growth and degradation of the natural and social environment. It is also a love story with a happy ending, and it has become an underground classic. Issued in mass-market paperback by Bantam, and used in college and high-school classrooms from Washington State to Florida, Ecotopia has sold almost a million copies. It has been translated into nine languages and is still influential in Germany, where it appeared just at the time the Green Party was being formed. A 30th-anniversary edition, with an Author’s Afterword, is being published through Heyday Books.

To order new Anniversary edition from Heyday,

click here: http://heydaybooks.com/public/home.html

To order Bantam edition from Amazon,

click here: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/subst/home/home.html

Ecotopia Emerging (1981) is a "prequel" that recounts how Ecotopia comes into being. A multi-strand novel involving some of the same characters who appear in Ecotopia, its heroine is a high-school student who invents a better solar cell and changes the world. Vera Allwen, later the first president of Ecotopia, also appears as the leader of the Ecotopian secession movement. The book reveals the movement’s origins in environmental outrages and protests, its novel political organization techniques, its reactions to wars for oil and conflicts over water, and the actual outbreak of secession. The story also foreshadows Ecotopian family and sexual life, ideas for implementing sustainability, interactive use of media, and many other trends.

To order from Heyday,

click here: http://heydaybooks.com/public/home.html

To order from Amazon,

click here: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/subst/home/home.html

Ecology: A Pocket Guide (1998) is a handy, compact, non-technical guide to 60 fundamental ecological terms, arranged from A to Z. Citizens, business people, political leaders, and students down to the high-school level will find easy access here to the basic understandings they need to argue intelligently about environmental issues. The entries give readers a quick grasp of the intricate and beautiful interrelationships of living systems: Gaian planetary regulation of the atmosphere, the mysterious beauties of decomposition, the subtle complexity of food webs, and much else. Implications for personal life-style choices and social policies are included throughout.

To order from University of California Press,

click here: http://www.ucpress.edu/books/

To order from Amazon,

click here: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/subst/home/home.html

Living Cheaply with Style (revised and updated three times since 1977) was Callenbach’s first book - a pioneer work in the now widespread simple-living movement. People seeking more free time, more effective use of scarce dollars, and less stress will find inspiration here. Also, living lightly and thus reducing our impacts on the earth’s living systems has recently become a watchword of the environmental movement. Callenbach offers a wealth of advice, including use of what he calls The Green Triangle, on independent ways of living better while spending less.

To order from Ronin Books,

click here: http://www.roninpub.com/LivChe.html

To order from Amazon,

click here: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/subst/home/home.html

Bring Back the Buffalo! A Sustainable Future for America’s Great Plains (1996) is a non-fiction book that applies the Ecotopian logic of sustainability to the real world. It offers a new perspective on the magnificent bison whose dignity and tragic history of near-extinction give them a strong claim to be our National Animal. Their heartland, the Great Plains, make up a neglected region which has enormous resources of wind power - and grass for bison. With only a sparse population, the Plains probably have better prospects of genuine sustainability in our lifetimes than any other place on the planet. This book offers a refreshingly positive vision for the future of this dry and windy area.

To order from University of California Press,

click here: http://www.ucpress.edu/books/

To order from Amazon,

click here: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/subst/home/home.html

Humphrey the Wayward Whale (1986) is a children’s book written by Ernest Callenbach and Christine Leefeldt. It’s the story of a humpback whale who swam far inland past San Francisco Bay until he got stuck in a narrow waterway, became a media star beloved by worried millions, and ultimately returned safely to his ocean home. The book also presents a brief summary of what’s scientifically known about humpbacks. Artful and scrupulously accurate illustrations by Carl Dennis Buell. A wonderful gift book for all ages.

To order from Heyday,

click here: http://heydaybooks.com/public/home.html

To order from Amazon,

click here: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/subst/home/home.html

A Citizen Legislature (with Michael Phillips, 1985) outlines a bold solution to the election-finance corruption of American electoral politics - by reviving, with modern sampling techniques, the ancient Athenian practice of selecting representatives by random lot. As timid campaign-finance reforms are repeatedly tried and predictably fail, this radical solution gains in appeal.

Out of print. For free download, go to: http://www.well.com/user/mp/citleg.html

With Christine Leefeldt, Callenbach co-authored The Art of Friendship (1979), an interview-based book now out of print and available only from used-book sources like www.abebooks.com or www.Amazon.com.

Publisher’s Lunch: How Publishers Think and What Authors Can Do About It (1989) is a romantic-comedy novel in dialogue form, full of information about the often painful realities of publishing. Out of print but available used from www.abebooks.com or www.Amazon.com.

EcoManagement: The Elmwood Guide to Ecological Auditing and Sustainable Business (Berrett-Koehler Publishers), by Callenbach and others. Available from www.abebooks.com or www.Amazon.com.

Film Quarterly: Callenbach was the founding editor of this journal of film criticism and edited it until 1991; he is still on its Editorial Board. To subscribe or download a sample copy, click here:

http://www.ucpress.edu/journals/fq