Bernard J. Geis (August 30, 1909–January 8, 2001) was an American editor and publisher who founded the now-defunct Bernard Geis Associates, which published and promoted several best-sellers in the 1960s and 70s, including Jacqueline Susann's Valley of the Dolls and Helen Gurley Brown's Sex and the Single Girl.
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Early life
Bernard Geis was born in Chicago on August 30, 1909. He was the youngest son of Harry Geis, a cigar manufacturer. Geis was an editor for Northwestern University's school newspaper in 1931. He graduated with a degree in English that same year.
Early Years in Publishing
Geis began his career in advertising but then became a magazine editor for Esquire and Coronet. He later moved into book publishing, working for Grosset & Dunlap and Prentice Hall. While at Grosset & Dunlap, Geis came up for the name of their paperback arm, Bantam Books. At Prentice Hall, Geis published Art Linkletter's Kids Say the Darndest Things. The book was based on Linkletter's interviews with children, which was a segment of his television show, House Party.
Career at Bernard Geis Associates
The success of Art Linkletter's book led to Geis starting his own publishing company, Bernard Geis Associates, in 1959. Backers included Linkletter, Groucho Marx, and television producers Mark Goodson and Bill Todman.
Geis focused heavily on promotion of books. Letty Cottin Pogrebin, his head of publicity from 1960 to 1970, told the New York Times, "[Geis] made authors into celebrities and celebrities into authors. Other publishers were very buttoned-down, and believed it was a gentleman's profession." Pogrebin also went on to say that Geis would give her about $100,000 to promote the books, and he pushed his authors to aggressively plug their books through interviews. Simon & Schuster's Michael Korda described Geis's use of Hollywood-style publicity tactics a "shameless blend of column plants, celebrity appearances, and Hollywood gossip that was new to publishing but was old hat for theater and movies."
Geis published Jacqueline Susann's Valley of the Dolls, which went on to spend 65 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list. He also published Helen Gurley Brown's Sex and the Single Girl. Geis also published books by celebrities, including President Harry S. Truman, Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, and Art Linkletter.
His partners withdrew from backing the company in 1967 after Geis began publishing novels featuring a lot of sex and people resembling real celebrities. Random House discontinued distribution over the book The King by Morton Cooper, whose main character was rumored to be based on Frank Sinatra, and a number of partners including Linkletter, Marx, Goodson and Todman backed out over The Exhibitionist by Henry Sutton (a pseudonym for novelist David R. Slavitt). Geis Associates filed for bankruptcy protection in 1971. The company's books were later published under the Geis imprint for other publishing houses up until 1995.
In his memoir, Writing Places, author William Zinsser described meeting with Geis in 1987. Zinger had been looking for an office to rent to do some writing and saw an ad saying "East 50s publisher seeks subtenant." Zinsser was surprised to find a fireman's pole installed in the office between the 5th and 4th floors. The office manager told him that Geis had had it installed and "he always [used] it when he [left]." Geis was then 78.
Marriage and children
Bernard Geis was married to author and editor Darlene Geis. Darlene Geis was the author of a number of popular books for young readers including The Little Train That Won a Medal, which sold more than 3 million copies. They had two sons; Peter and Stephen Geis.
Death
Bernard Geis died at New York Presbyterian Hospital on January 8, 2001.