Rick Beyer

author, producer, Plate of Peas Productions

Rick Beyer has been interested in history for as long as he can remember. After graduating from Dartmouth College in 1978, he worked in radio and television news, first in and around Chicago, then in Boston. In 1990 Beyer joined some old friends to form Smash, working on advertising and documentary production. After 15 years he left Smash to set up my own production company, Plate of Peas. December 1997 marked the beginning of one of the most rewarding projects he had have ever undertaken *Timelab 2000*, a series of more than 200 one-minute history segments hosted by Sam Waterston on The History Channel. The project was the inspiration for *The Greatest Stories Never Told*, and the follow-up book that has just come out,* The Greatest War Stories Never Told*. Beyer considers himself lucky to have been lucky enough to work on numerous other projects for The History Channel, including the recent documentaries *Secrets of Jamestown* and *The Wright Challenge*. In addition to his two books, a non-fiction story he wrote entitled "A Plate of Peas" appeared in *I Thought My Father Was God*, an anthology edited by Paul Auster, and published in 2000.