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Eugene Meyer
“One day in 1933, Eugene L. Meyer, who was talking about retiring after making millions on Wall Street and serving 13 years as a super‐bureaucrat in Washington, walked down the front hall stairway of his home and spotted dust on the banister, ‘This house is not properly run,’ he snapped at his wife. ‘You’d better go buy The Washington Post,’ snapped back Agnes Meyer, a woman who knew her husband wasn’t the retiring type.
He did buy the newspaper within a year... A patriotic capitalist, he found happiness in his third career and something more than money to leave to his heirs. And we are all better for it... the fact is that the two best newspapers of the nation, The Post and The New York Times, are both tributes to the principles and dedication of great families — to be more precise, great Jewish families. Better the Meyers and Grahams in Washington and the Ochs and Sulzbergers in New York than the faceless managers and profitmakers of corporate America...
What would the managers, any managers, do if the Government of the United States explicitly threatened to destroy a newspaper’s financial structure? When Attorney General John Mitchell transmitted that threat to Eugene Meyer’s daughter, Katharine Graham, The Post kept digging into Watergate. The price of Post stock went down 50 per cent but she didn’t quit. And, judging from this book, neither would her old man...
Meyer was an extraordinary man, brilliant and shrewd, tough and apparently moral. But, between the lines, there are indications he was capable of displaying the personality and sensitivity of a hedgehog... The book... recounts in detail the boom days on Wall Street and the Depression and New Deal days in Washington. It is a valuable reference work and provides at least a surface view of a personal world peopled with names like Harriman, Steichen, Baruch, Rodin, Brandeis, Frankfurter and Morgenthau.” — The New York Times
“Seen in perspective, Eugene Meyer (1875-1959) was one of the remarkable group of American business figures who made fortunes in the early twentieth century, emerged as ‘industrial statesmen’ during World War I, and continued to shape public policy thereafter. Like Bernard Baruch or Herbert Hoover, Meyer was shaped not only by an older entrepreneurial ethic, but also by the currents of ‘scientific management,’ ‘social engineering,’ and ‘public service’ that were so prominent at the time. And having established himself as a shrewd and successful investment banker, he also became a pioneer in applying scientific research to investment decisions, a leading innovator in developing new forms of public and private credit, and a prominent advocate of national management through cooperative stabilization programs. Like others in the group, he seemed fascinated, moreover, by the power of the press and carefully articulated publicity. After leaving the government in 1933, he acquired the Washington Post and eventually built it into one of the nation’s leading newspapers... Drawing primarily upon oral histories, biographical materials in the Meyer papers, and his own experience as a Post editor, [Merlo Pusey] traces Meyer’s rise from his boyhood in California through the accumulation of his fortune to the events that made him head of the War Finance Corporation, the Farm Loan Board, and the Federal Reserve System... [and] his publishing career, family life, and brief stints of public service during and after World War II. Throughout, Pusey tells a good story, enlivened by anecdotes and human interest material.
He did buy the newspaper within a year... A patriotic capitalist, he found happiness in his third career and something more than money to leave to his heirs. And we are all better for it... the fact is that the two best newspapers of the nation, The Post and The New York Times, are both tributes to the principles and dedication of great families — to be more precise, great Jewish families. Better the Meyers and Grahams in Washington and the Ochs and Sulzbergers in New York than the faceless managers and profitmakers of corporate America...
What would the managers, any managers, do if the Government of the United States explicitly threatened to destroy a newspaper’s financial structure? When Attorney General John Mitchell transmitted that threat to Eugene Meyer’s daughter, Katharine Graham, The Post kept digging into Watergate. The price of Post stock went down 50 per cent but she didn’t quit. And, judging from this book, neither would her old man...
Meyer was an extraordinary man, brilliant and shrewd, tough and apparently moral. But, between the lines, there are indications he was capable of displaying the personality and sensitivity of a hedgehog... The book... recounts in detail the boom days on Wall Street and the Depression and New Deal days in Washington. It is a valuable reference work and provides at least a surface view of a personal world peopled with names like Harriman, Steichen, Baruch, Rodin, Brandeis, Frankfurter and Morgenthau.” — The New York Times
“Seen in perspective, Eugene Meyer (1875-1959) was one of the remarkable group of American business figures who made fortunes in the early twentieth century, emerged as ‘industrial statesmen’ during World War I, and continued to shape public policy thereafter. Like Bernard Baruch or Herbert Hoover, Meyer was shaped not only by an older entrepreneurial ethic, but also by the currents of ‘scientific management,’ ‘social engineering,’ and ‘public service’ that were so prominent at the time. And having established himself as a shrewd and successful investment banker, he also became a pioneer in applying scientific research to investment decisions, a leading innovator in developing new forms of public and private credit, and a prominent advocate of national management through cooperative stabilization programs. Like others in the group, he seemed fascinated, moreover, by the power of the press and carefully articulated publicity. After leaving the government in 1933, he acquired the Washington Post and eventually built it into one of the nation’s leading newspapers... Drawing primarily upon oral histories, biographical materials in the Meyer papers, and his own experience as a Post editor, [Merlo Pusey] traces Meyer’s rise from his boyhood in California through the accumulation of his fortune to the events that made him head of the War Finance Corporation, the Farm Loan Board, and the Federal Reserve System... [and] his publishing career, family life, and brief stints of public service during and after World War II. Throughout, Pusey tells a good story, enlivened by anecdotes and human interest material.
- GenresBiography
632 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1974
37 people want to read
About the author
Merlo J. Pusey
13 books4 followersMerlo John Pusey was an American biographer and editorial writer. He won the 1952 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography and the 1952 Bancroft Prize for his 1951 biography of U.S. Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes.
Born and raised on a farm near Woodruff, Utah, Pusey was a Latter-day Saint. He attended the Latter-day Saints University and graduated as a member of Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Utah after working on the college newspaper. He later became a reporter and assistant city editor at The Deseret News in Salt Lake City.
Pusey worked for The Washington Post from 1928 to 1971, becoming associate editor in 1946, continuing to contribute occasional pieces until about two years before his death.
Born and raised on a farm near Woodruff, Utah, Pusey was a Latter-day Saint. He attended the Latter-day Saints University and graduated as a member of Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Utah after working on the college newspaper. He later became a reporter and assistant city editor at The Deseret News in Salt Lake City.
Pusey worked for The Washington Post from 1928 to 1971, becoming associate editor in 1946, continuing to contribute occasional pieces until about two years before his death.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 4, 2009
I may have to start a 'Kay Graham' or 'Washington Post' shelf now that I've read Personal History, A Good Life, All The President's Men, and Eugene Meyer. I also found a biography of Alice Roosevelt, so that'll be coming down the pike soon, too.
Meyer, father of Katharine Graham, was also the brother of Rosalie Meyer Stern, who married Sigmund Stern (nephew of the bachelor Levi Strauss). Rosalie was the mother of Elise Haas and grandmother of Rhoda Goldman. I'm fascinated by that whole family, so this book definitely fed that interest.
If even half of the influence allegedly exerted by Meyer in this book is true, he was a titan of public service to whom this country (and, arguably, the world) owes quite a debt. He was a financier who turned to public service and then bought a struggling newspaper and turned it into a powerhouse media corporation.
According to the book he was instrumental in the recovery after WWI, kept farm co-ops viable during the Depression, got the World Bank started, and virtually created the Ad Council. Given the extent to which this book is chock full of banking/regulatory terms, it's quite readable. It becomes somewhat dry in spots, but remains interesting throughout.
Meyer, father of Katharine Graham, was also the brother of Rosalie Meyer Stern, who married Sigmund Stern (nephew of the bachelor Levi Strauss). Rosalie was the mother of Elise Haas and grandmother of Rhoda Goldman. I'm fascinated by that whole family, so this book definitely fed that interest.
If even half of the influence allegedly exerted by Meyer in this book is true, he was a titan of public service to whom this country (and, arguably, the world) owes quite a debt. He was a financier who turned to public service and then bought a struggling newspaper and turned it into a powerhouse media corporation.
According to the book he was instrumental in the recovery after WWI, kept farm co-ops viable during the Depression, got the World Bank started, and virtually created the Ad Council. Given the extent to which this book is chock full of banking/regulatory terms, it's quite readable. It becomes somewhat dry in spots, but remains interesting throughout.
December 24, 2020
Pretty dry in most places. A tidy historical perspective of the 20th century.
Fascinating life full of many personal and business accomplishments.
Interesting family connections (Lazard? Levi) and many personal connections over his 83 years.
Odd / different and / or perhaps normal family interaction for the times. Distant wife, kids not much in his life.
Biggest learning - focus on the now. After 2 generations no one knows who this important guy was. His baby, the Washington post was to be a long term pillar of liberal views and never to be sold for commercial reasons. Enter Jeff Bezos in 2017 ish?
Fascinating life full of many personal and business accomplishments.
Interesting family connections (Lazard? Levi) and many personal connections over his 83 years.
Odd / different and / or perhaps normal family interaction for the times. Distant wife, kids not much in his life.
Biggest learning - focus on the now. After 2 generations no one knows who this important guy was. His baby, the Washington post was to be a long term pillar of liberal views and never to be sold for commercial reasons. Enter Jeff Bezos in 2017 ish?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews