, a New York book industry legend who founded the in 1976 and directed it for 33 years, died Oct. 8 at her residence in Naples, Fla. Famously cryptic about her age, she graduated from Hood College in 1947.
Geiser was a dynamo whose life revolved around books, especially reference and publishing education. She had a gift for making each person she met feel like the most fascinating individual on Earth.
She spent more than 40 years in the New York publishing world, holding key positions at ., and serving on the education committee for the among others.
The contacts she made proved invaluable when Geiser established the , a four-week post-graduate that is the nation’s oldest books-only publishing course.
Between 1976 and 2008, when she retired, Geiser guided more than to publishing careers. Prior to the first day of each course, she made and memorized cards noting the names and interests of the course’s 90 students. Upon being introduced to Geiser, students were stunned when she recognized their names and asked after a particular avocation.
, who was in the institute’s first graduating class, described the course as “the grounding for the rest of my career,” and still remembers being star-struck by the storied editors, authors and publishers who presented workshops at the Institute.
“The workshops were always taught by someone tops in the field,” said Crowley, who worked with Geiser at Research, the reference publishing company.
“I remember the marketing workshop like it was yesterday. We were given a manuscript that I loved. I walked into the classroom on the last day of the workshop and realized the author was sitting in the room. It was , and was I still have the bound copy of the manuscript.”
Another manuscript that made the Institute rounds was Judith Guest’s ” the brittle family drama that inspired the that won . Later, Institute students were among the first to read the manuscript that became Mitch Albom’s runaway bestseller.
“She did have tremendous pull in publishing,” said , co-author with Geiser of and former senior vice president of .
“With I don’t know if the publisher knew what they had at that point — that it would become such a huge best-seller. But every year, she’d get top executives from New York and other parts of the country. Seldom would anyone say no to her. The busiest executives would fly in, give a lecture, and fly back that night.”
Among those was , president of The Overlook Press and former chief operating officer of Penguin Books. During his tenure at Penguin, Mayer flew several times from to Denver to lecture at the Publishing Institute.
“Nobody else would have gotten me to fly 6,000 miles in a few days,” he said.
Part of that magic can be traced to Geiser’s custom of hand-written thank-you notes, which unfailingly arrived in the mail of anyone who lectured at the institute or offered help of any kind.
, who as the institute’s director, once gently chided her, saying, “We’re close friends! You don’t have to write a thank-you note every time you come to dinner!”
“She was unflagging in her efforts to promote education and publishing, and to work with students in assisting them to be the ,” said.
“She was a great listener. She was totally engaged. She was a woman of extraordinary action who was there to help, always. Always, always, always.”
Claire Martin: 303-954-1477, cmartin@denverpost.com or twitter.com/byclairemartin
