Meier is a nonfiction author and journalist who writes on political and foreign affairs. At present, he is a contributor to The New York Times Magazine. BLACK EARTH: A Journey Through Russia After the Fall (W.W. Norton, 2003) was widely hailed as one of the best books on Russia to appear since the end of the USSR. THE LOST SPY: An American in Stalin’s Secret Service (W.W. Norton, 2008) is an award-winning biography of the first-known American to spy for the Soviets, Isaiah “Cy” Oggins. Both books were named to a number of “Book of the Year” lists. Meier is currently at work on a biography of the Morgenthau family—four generations spanning the presidencies of Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy—to be published by Random House.