Williams, Geoff 1970- (Geoffrey Williams)

PERSONAL:

Born 1970; married; children: two daughters. Education: Indiana University, graduated 1992.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Loveland, OH. E-mail—gwilliams1@cinci.rr.com.

CAREER:

Writer, journalist, editor, corporate writer, biographer, and copywriter. Worked as an associate editor for a ceramics magazine and assistant editor for a teen entertainment magazine.

WRITINGS:

Ingenuity in a Can: The Ralph Stolle Story, foreword by Rob Portman, Orange Frazer Press (Wilmington, OH), 2004.

C.C. Pyle's Amazing Foot Race: The True Story of the 1928 Coast-to-Coast Run across America, Rodale (Emmaus, PA), 2007.

Also author of Patients and Patience: A Celebration of Grandview Hospital. Contributor to magazines and periodicals, including Entrepreneur, Entertainment Weekly, LIFE, A&E Monthly Magazine, Archaeology Digest, National Geographic Kids, Biography, Weight Watchers Magazine, Disney Adventures, Ohio Magazine, Indianapolis Monthly, Kiwanis Magazine, Boys' Life, Historical Traveler, FamilyFun, Crafts Report, Discover Ohio, Miamian, Snow, and Parenting. BabyTalk, contributing editor and columnist.

SIDELIGHTS:

Author and biographer Geoff Williams is a magazine journalist, a former magazine editor, and a specialist in corporate communications and business writing. A 1992 graduate of Indiana University, Williams entered magazine journalism as an editor for a ceramics magazine. "I knew nothing about ceramics, but that was fine with the editor, who just wanted me to run the magazine while she looked for a buyer," Williams stated in an autobiography on his home page. After serving as assistant editor of a teen magazine, Williams turned to freelancing, and has since written more than 500 articles for dozens of national and regional magazines, he reported on his home page. He is a prolific contributor for Entrepreneur magazine and the company's associated publications, penning some 300 articles and series.

Williams's first book, Ingenuity in a Can: The Ralph Stolle Story, profiles a Lebanon, Ohio, businessman whose best-known invention forever changed the way that beverages were packaged and consumed. Stolle was a quiet and reserved man who avoided the limelight and seemed to work best in the background. Despite this conservatism, he was a powerful presence in American industry whose efforts resulted in significant improvements to household appliances such as washing machines, stoves, and refrigerators, and to automobiles. Stolle's invisible influence was felt, if not recognized, in practically every home in America. His most significant and ubiquitous achievement, however, came when his company created the method for manufacturing pull-tab and easy-open cans for soft drinks, beer, and other mass-consumed beverages. Though the pull-tab seems like a simple idea, and became a commonplace item, it involved considerable manufacturing expertise. Williams describes this aspect of Stolle's professional career, as well as his personal and home life, his calling as an entrepreneur, his visionary application of technology, his compassion and philanthropy, and his largely unrecognized place in American business and popular culture.

C.C. Pyle's Amazing Foot Race: The True Story of the 1928 Coast-to-Coast Run across America resurrects the largely forgotten story of a late-1920s footrace and feat of endurance that spanned the width of the United States, as well as the colorful hustler and dubious entrepreneur who arranged the event. The book is an "impeccably researched retelling of how a group of ordinary (some not necessarily athletic) men were duped into running across the United States by a huckster and con man (you guessed it), C.C. Pyle," reported reviewer Barry Wittenstein on the SNY.tv Web site. In the heady post-World War I, pre-Depression days of the 1920s, endurance marathons involving everything from dancing to kissing, bowling to pole- sitting were common. In this confident and competitive atmosphere came C.C. Pyle, a sports promoter and agent, who arranged a 3,500-mile, eighty-four-day run, from Los Angeles to New York. For their 125-dollar entry fee, runners competed for the chance to win a cash grand prize of some 25,000 dollars. Williams recounts many stories of Pyle and his shady business practices, describes the race and the physical hardships it entailed, and profiles several of the more-prominent and flamboyant runners. Among the participants were Brother John, a religious man and bearded mystic who ran dressed in sackcloth and whose reasons for participating—he was not an official entrant—were never clear. Ed Gardner was one of four African Americans who ran in the race, who endured racially motivated threats but persevered to finish eighth. Andy Payne, an Oklahoma native who was part Cherokee, ran to win money to pay off the family farm's mortgage and to win the attentions of the girl he loved. "Not surprisingly, as Williams colorfully profiles the many who ran, he has inadvertently found a unique prism for viewing a fascinating era in this country's history," observed Wittenstein.

Above it all, the physically imposing Payne remained the personality who linked it all together. "Pyle, now thanks to Williams, takes his rightly place among those who have come to symbolize the 1920s," remarked Wittenstein. "The book is like a time capsule—and an extremely entertaining one at that," commented Booklist reviewer David Pitt. A Publishers Weekly critic called the book a "breezy, entertaining read" that strikes a balance between the intentions and integrity of the runners with the "comedy of errors that was Pyle's grand experiment and his life."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, July 1, 2007, David Pitt, review of C.C. Pyle's Amazing Foot Race: The True Story of the 1928 Coast-to-Coast Run across America, p. 19.

Publishers Weekly, May 28, 2007, review of C.C. Pyle's Amazing Foot Race, p. 50.

ONLINE

Geoff Williams Home Page,http://www.geoffwilliamswriter.com (March 27, 2008).

SNY.tv,http://www.sny.tv/ (October 31, 2007), Barry Wittenstein, review of C.C. Pyle's Amazing Foot Race.