Eugene Meyer

by Merlo J. Pusey

Even before Eugene Meyer bought a fading newspaper called the Washington Post ( in 1933) and built it into the institution it is today he had carved out enough nationally influential careers for several lifetimes. In this major life of a protean figure, the Pulitzer Prizewinning biographer Merlo Pusey tells Meyer's story, from the hectic Wall street days before World War I when he won and lost- and won fortunes in the development of the copper industry, through his term as a wartime policymaker in Washington, working closely with Bernard Baruch, to the postwar period when he organized the giant Allied Chemical Company and became (for a while simultaneously) governor of the Federal Reserve Board and chairman of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation during the presidency of Herbert HOover, through his emergence as a great newspaper publisher

Genres: Biography

397 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1974

About the author

Merlo 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.

Reviews

[Margie · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Jim Peplinski · Rating 3 out of 5]

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?