Every thinking man fancies himself a Hamlet.
Larry L. Meyer has divided his professional life between being a journalist and an educator, but his preferred life is that of a writer. Rancho Los Alamitos: Ever Changing, Always the Same (2012) is his eighth and latest book His prior books include No Paltry Thing: Memoirs of a Geezer Dad (2004), and Shadow of a Continent (1975, nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award), California Quake (1978), Long Beach: Fortune’s Harbor (1983), The Complete Works of Marcus Uteris, a novel, (1987), and My Summer with Molly: The Journal of a Second Generation Father, (1989), winner of the 1990 Benjamin Franklin award for Autobiography/Biography,
A longstanding member of PEN, Meyer has also written more than 200 magazine and newspaper articles (for American Heritage, Saturday Evening Post, American West, Arizona Highways, Los Angeles).
Meyer is professor emeritus in journalism from California State University Long Beach, where he headed its Magazine Journalism Option for 15 years and was a three-time winner of the Meritorious Performance Award. Prior to that, he taught writing and editing at UCLA and CSUN part time.
Long active in magazine journalism, Meyer was on the staff of Westways magazine for 12 years, the last 5 as its Editor-in-Chief. Subsequently, he held Editorial Director positions at Colorado Magazine and with Rand McNally’s World Traveler’s Almanac. He was also guest editor of the California Historical Society special edition in 1981 saluting Los Angeles on its Bicentennial.
Meyer has a B.A. degree in English from UCLA in 1959, cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, and a M.A. degree in journalism from UCLA in 1960, winner of the Wall Street Journal Student Achievement Award and president of his graduate class.
Twice-married, Meyer is a devoted family man and father of six children: Eric, Kurt, Karl, Molly, Madeleine and Franz. He lives in Huntington Beach, California, with his wife, Timarie.