Geary's Guide to the World's Great Aphorists

"Both an expert and a collector, James Geary has devoted his life to aphorisms - and the last few years to organizing, indexing, and even translating them. At long last, he has assembled a compendium: Geary's Guide, Beginning in ancient Egypt and China, it spans the complete history of the aphorism to date, right up to contemporary writers and artists - such as Woody Allen, Barbara Kruger, and Leonard Cohen - currently engaged in a revival of the form. Some aphorists appear in this book in English for the first time." "But Geary's Guide is more than just a conventional anthology. It is also an encyclopedia, containing brief biographies of each author in addition to a selection of his or her aphorisms. And it's a field guide: Aphorists are organized into eight different "species," such as Comics, Critics, and Satirists; Icons and Iconoclasts; and Painters and Poets. "Parallel Lines" are scattered throughout the book, showing how various aphorisms have been consciously or unconsciously reinterpreted over the centuries. Two indexes, by author and by theme, make the book easy to navigate, while its inventive organizational structure and Geary's lively biographical entries make it unique among reference works."--BOOK JACKET.Geary, James is the author of 'Geary's Guide to the World's Great Aphorists ', published 2007 under ISBN 9781596912526 and ISBN 1596912529.