Geary, James 1962–

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Geary, James 1962–

PERSONAL: Born November 24, 1962, in Drexel Hill, PA; son of Paul Aloysius and Theresa (Dever) Geary; married Linda Gilberte Hoetink, September 25, 1992; children: three. Education: Bennington College, B.A., 1985.

ADDRESSES: Home—London, England. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 38 Soho Square, London W1D 3HB, England.

CAREER: Editor, writer, and journalist. Informa, The Hague, Netherlands, editor, 1989–91; Pharmaceutical Marketing Services Inc. Bugamor, Almere-Haven, Netherlands, project manager and editor, 1991–94; Media Partners International, Amstelveen, Netherlands, managing editor, 1994–96; Time, European edition, began as freelance stringer, 1993–96, became deputy editor, 1996–. Editor for Helix, 1991–94, and Orgyn, 1992–94.

WRITINGS:

Words for Refrigerator Doors, 1985.

Seventeen Reasons Why, 1988.

(Author of libretto) Broken English (opera), 1996.

The Body Electric: An Anatomy of the New Bionic Senses, Rutgers University Press (Rutgers, NJ), 2002.

We Are What We Think, John Murray (London, England), 2005, also published as The World in a Phrase: A Brief History of the Aphorism Bloomsbury (New York, NY), 2005.

SIDELIGHTS: Writer and editor James Geary is the author of The Body Electric: An Anatomy of the New Bionic Senses, a popular science volume that addresses the human body and the ways in which technology has been manipulated to heal and assist it. In his second book, The World in a Phrase: A Brief History of the Aphorism, Geary indulges his life-long obsession with clever turns of phrase, an interest that began with his discovery of the "Quotes" section of the Reader's Digest when he was a child. A contributor to Publishers Weekly remarked of the latter volume that "Geary's enthusiasm may overwhelm as much as it enlightens, but fellow fanatics will be delighted." David Pitt, in a review for Booklist, found Geary's effort to be "a pleasant, personal, thoughtful little book and on such an unlikely subject."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, August, 2005, David Pitt, review of The World in a Phrase: A Brief History of the Aphorism, p. 1984.

Publishers Weekly, August 15, 2005, review of The World in a Phrase, p. 50.

ONLINE

James Geary Home Page, http://www.jamesgeary.com (November 20, 2005).