Henry Geiger

{{Short description|American editor and author (1908–1989)}}

File:Henry Geiger.jpg

Henry Geiger (August 10, 1908 – 15 February 1989) was the editor, publisher, and chief writer of MANAS Journal which was published from 1948–1988.

He “had been variously a chorus boy on Broadway, a journalist, a conscientious objector in World War II, a commercial printer, and a lecturer at The United Lodge of Theosophists in Los Angeles.”{{cite journal|last=Grossman|first=Richard|title=A Man and His 'Paper,'|journal=Utne Reader|date=May 1989}} Geiger began work as an actor when he was sixteen and spent three years working with the Theater Guild before becoming a journalist.{{Cite journal |last=Geiger |first=Henry |date=December 1943 |title=Test of Democracy |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_motive_1943-12_4/page/16/mode/2up? |journal=Motive |volume=4 |pages=16}} While working as an actor, he had a small role in the original production of The Garrick Gaieties in 1925.{{Cite book |last=Rodgers |first=Richard |title=Fact Book with Supplement |publisher=The Lynn Farnol Group |year=1968 |location=New York |pages=23}} During World War II, Geiger was a conscientious objector and was a member of the Civilian Public Service program. He worked at the CO Camp 76 at Glendora, where he helped found the pacifist newspaper Pacifica Views.{{Cite book |last=Doyle |first=Michael |title=Radical Chapters: Pacifist Bookseller Roy Kepler and the Paperback Revolution |publisher=Syracuse University Press |year=2012 |isbn=9780815650836 |pages=117}} The four-page weekly provided pacifists with "a forum for discussing pacifist ideas and methods of applying non-violent action to social reform".{{Cite book |last=Bennett |first=Scott H. |title=Radical Pacifism: The War Resisters League and Gandhian Nonviolence in America, 1915-1963 |publisher=Syracuse University Press |year=2003 |isbn=9780815630036 |pages=77}}

Geiger published the first issue of his journal Manas in January 1948, while he living in Los Angeles.{{Cite book |last=Land |first=Jeff |title=Active Radio: Pacifica's Brash Experiment |publisher=University of Minnesota Press |year=1999 |isbn=9780816631575 |pages=54}} Abraham Maslow called him “the only small ‘p’ philosopher America has produced in this century.” Geiger was also an advocate of Edward Bellamy's type of

socialism.{{cite book | last=Lasar | first=Matthew | title=Pacifica Radio 2E | publisher=Temple University Press | date=April 14, 2000 | isbn=1-56639-777-4|pages=30–31}} Some of Geiger's associates, such as Lewis Hill, would

later be involved in the creation of Pacifica Radio.