Rick Beyer
Rick Beyer is a successful author, an award winning documentary producer, and a lifelong history enthusiast.
His newest book is The Greatest Science Stories Never Told: 100 tales of invention and discovery to astonish, bewilder and stupefy. It is the fourth volume of his popular Greatest Stories history series. Previous titles include The Greatest Stories Never Told, The Greatest War Stories Never Told, and The Greatest Presidential Stories Never Told. All are published by Harper Collins. The Chicago Tribune described the first book as "an old fashioned sweetshop full of tasty morsels," and the Army Times said of the second book: "Just when you thought you knew everything about everything, along comes Rick Beyer to prove you wrong." Rick is also the author of the autobiographical non-fiction story "A Plate of Peas" which has been published in I Thought My Father Was God and several other short story collections.
He has produced films for The History Channel, National Geographic, the Smithsonian Institution, Historic Mount Vernon and others. His documentary credits include The Wright Challenge, Secrets of Jamestown, The Patent Files and Timelab 2000, an acclaimed collection of 200 history minutes hosted by Sam Waterston. He is currently working on an independent film entitled The Ghost Army, a World War II story of deception, art, and showmanship.
Rick is an occasional contributor to The Arena at Politico.com. He has also worked as a radio reporter, a TV news producer, an ad agency creative director, and a janitor (not in that order). And here's a few other things he's done.
•Camp for ten days in the mosquito-infested Siberian Wildnerness
•Flee New Orleans the day before Katrina
•Interview Jimmy Carter in the White House
•Climb Mt. Washington 5 times
•Get called stupid by David Brinkley
•Be consoled by Mary Tyler Moore
•Marry a beautiful woman during a lightning storm
A 1978 graduate of Dartmouth College, Rick currently lives in Lexington, Massachusetts with his wife (see above) and two children. He can occasionally be found in colonial attire giving tours of historic Buckman Tavern on Lexington Green.
