Eugene L. Meyer

Author & Journalist

About Gene Meyer

Eugene L. Meyer is an award-winning veteran journalist with eclectic interests but special passions for history, lifestyles, travel, real estate and the Chesapeake Bay. He has been widely published in magazines, authored three books and was for many years a reporter and editor at the Washington Post. Since leaving the Post in 2004, Meyer has garnered more than a dozen awards for his work, and has had some 60 bylines in The New York Times. His first journalism job was as Washington bureau librarian for the old New York Herald Tribune, where he got to tag along with a White House reporter and watch the 1964 Civil Rights Act being signed into law. LEARN MORE

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In the News

Meyer was humbled and proud to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award in May 2019 from the Washington Independent Review of Books for his many years of service to the organization and for his years of journalism. On June 29, he received yet another journalism award — his fourth in 2019 alone and his 15th since leaving the Washington Post in 2004. It was for an article in Bethesda Magazine full of insider details about Marriott’s decision to build its new corporate headquarters in Maryland and in Bethesda. The award was his fourth from the National Association of Real Estate Editors since 2013. In 2016, NAREE gave him awards for the Best Freelance Collection, and also for the best commercial real estate stories.

FIVE FOR FREEDOM: The African American Soldiers in John Brown’s Army won the 2019 award for Outstanding Biography/History from the American Society of Journalists and Authors. “Meyer’s impressive research turned up never-before-revealed stories about five African American men whom history has ignored — until now,” the judges said.

Meyer also won the award for the Outstanding Blog Post: “Pittsburgh: Never Again? Just Words,” which appeared on this website in November 2018. The judges said “Meyer thoughtfully compared past pogroms to the Tree of Life synagogue shooting…”

ICYMI, listen to @kojoshow as I talk about my book FIVE FOR FREEDOM: The African American Soldiers in John Brown’s Army. The program aired on WAMU-FM, DC’s NPR station. https://lnkd.in/d3-Qsmv 

In 2016, Meyer won the best profile award from the American Society of Journalists and Authors, and Best Collection of Work by an Individual—Commercial Real Estate, for New York Times articles, from the National Association of Real Estate Editors.

Next Project

I am resuming work on a memoir of my many decades as an eyewitness to years of protest, days of rage as a reporter dedicated to truth telling in turbulent times. It’s about much more than history. It’s also about the challenges of today, when dedicated reporters are under attack as never before and the importance of truth in a democracy is under challenge.

My most  recent book, “Five for Freedom: The African American Soldiers in John Brown’s Army,” continues to win praise. Since it’s publication In June 2018, I have appeared at 28 events, and also in several podcasts and radio interviews (including the Kojo Nnamdi show on public radio WAMU-FM). It is a story from the past that resonates in the present. It is an American story. It is our story. The publisher is Lawrence Hill Books http://bit.ly/2detlp8, an imprint of Chicago Review Press.