Rick Beyer

Rick Beyer is a best-selling author, award-winning documentary filmmaker, and a long-time history enthusiast. He is the co-author (with Liz Sayles) of the New York Times bestseller The Ghost Army of World War II: How One Top-Secret Unit Deceived the Enemy with Inflatable Tanks, Sound Effects, and Other Audacious Fakery. The book originally came out in 2013, and a new updated edition comes out October 10, 2023 The book details the story of a top-secret group of World War II GIs who staged a traveling roadshow of deception on the battlefields of Europe. Beyer also made an award-winning documentary film about the unit, The Ghost Army, which premiered on PBS in 2013. The San Francisco Chronicle called the film “mesmerizing,” while TV Guide called it “entrancing.” He has also produced documentary films for The History Channel, A&E, National Geographic, the Smithsonian and others. He is the author of the popular Greatest Stories Never Told series of history books published by Harper Collins, and described by the Chicago Tribune as “an old-fashioned sweetshop full of tasty morsels.” His most recent book, RIVALS UNTO DEATH, traces the thirty-year rivalry between Hamilton and Burr that ended with their duel in Weehawken NJ. He has also worked as a radio reporter, a TV news producer, an ad agency creative director, and a janitor (not in that order). A graduate of Dartmouth College, Beyer lives in Chicago, with his wife, Marilyn Rea Beyer. "I am a lifelong student of history, I have been interested in it as long as I can remember--probably thanks to my dad, who is also a long time history enthusiast. When I was a boy my parents bought me a set of those Time-Lie history books loaded with heroic color illustrations. They captured my imagination and never let go."