SPICER, Chrystopher J. 1953-

PERSONAL: Born June 13, 1953, in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia; married; wife's name Marcy. Education: Avondale College, B.A., 1982; Pacific Union College, B.Ed., 1982; Andrews University, M.A. (American literature and creative writing), 1984.

ADDRESSES: Home—Victoria, Australia. Offıce—Victoria University, Box 14428, Melbourne MC 8001, Victoria, Australia. E-mail—chrys.spicer@vu.edu.au.

CAREER: Victoria University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, lecturer in communication and professional writing, 1990—. National Trust of Victoria, member of buildings classification committee; consultant historian.

WRITINGS:

Cemeteries: Our Heritage, National Trust (Victoria, Australia), 1993.

Duchess: The Story of the Windsor Hotel, Loch Haven (Main Ridge, Victoria, Australia), 1994.

Clark Gable: Biography, Filmography, Bibliography, McFarland & Co. (Jefferson, NC), 2002.

SIDELIGHTS: Chrystopher J. Spicer told CA: "There is so much about people's lives that is easily lost, yet lives are the weave of history's tapestry. Our present is poorer for the loss of our past, so I am motivated to explore people's lives and by doing so to inspire the lives of others.

"One of the great observers of life around him, even though he cast much of it in fictional form, was the American writer John O'Hara, whose work I never tire of reading. I've been influenced by the English diarist Samuel Pepys, by the natural-world observations of Annie Dillard, by the life of Jack London, and by the travels of William Least-Heat Moon.

"My writing always begins with thinking until I begin to see a way ahead into my research, upon which my writing is firmly based. Once my research is there in front of me, I look for a shape within it. Everyone's life is shaped differently, and I look for a shape that will fit best the telling of the life.

"Our lives are revealed in many places, in different ways. They are revealed in our homes, our friends, our families, our work, our interests, travel, cities and towns, and finally by where we come to rest. All these add up to become the sum of us, to become who we are."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

periodicals

Library Journal, March 15, 2002, Rosalind Dayen, review of Clark Gable: Biography, Filmography, Bibliography, p. 83.