People I Like: Garrett Graff

This is one in an occasional series of, well, people I like! My goal with these pieces is to shine a light on someone who is doing good work or otherwise making a real contribution to the world. Some of these people are friends. Some acquaintances. Some I have never met. I’ve previously written about Mark Leibovich and Dominic Sandbrook and Tom Holland.

Earlier this year, my family and I went to the Greenbrier Hotel in West Virginia. And took the amazing tour of the secret bunker that the U.S. government maintained for more than three decades that was designed go serve as Congress’ home in the event of a nuclear attack on Washington.

I wrote about it here. And afterwards, a whole lot of people emailed me and told me I HAD to check out a book called “Raven Rock: The Story of the U.S. Government's Secret Plan to Save Itself -- While the Rest of Us Die.”

I looked the book up. And as stunned to learn it was written by Garrett Graff — someone I had known for years and years!

I first became aware of Garrett in the mid-2000s when he served as the founding editor of FishbowlDC, a media-focused blog that was essential reading for the Washington chattering class.

Garrett then went to Washingtonian magazine where he served as editor-in-chief. Then he went to run Politico’s magazine offering.

All of which were interesting! But it was when Garrett moved back to his native Vermont — his dad, Chris, had been the longtime Vermont bureau chief for the Associated Press — in the mid 2010s that things got really, well, cool.

Garrett actually contemplated a run for Vermont lieutenant governor in 2015 before deciding against a bid.

And that’s when his career took a decided turn (at least to me!) that has been incredibly successful: He became one of the nation’s most prominent chroniclers of our modern era.

His first step down that road was the publication of “Raven Rock” — the definitive account of the bunker built underneath a luxury hotel in West Virginia. That one came out in 2017.

(Sidebar: He told me when we recently had coffee that “Raven Rock” isn’t his best-selling book but it is the one with the most rabid following. Like, if you are fascinated by the bunker, you need to read this book.)

Garrett’s massive breakthrough came two years later when he published “The Only Plane in the Sky” — an oral history of September 11, 2001.

That book was a MEGA hit — a #1 New York Times bestseller.

Since then, Garrett has ranged widely. He’s written about UFOs, Watergate, the flight that carried an assassinated JFK back to Washington and most recently D-Day.

Garrett told me, amazingly, that he writes roughly a book a year — making him the nonfiction version of Stephen King. Which is good company to be in!

In addition to all that writing, Garrett also writes some more — he’s taken on the task of covering leadership, from a variety of angles, for the Washington Post.

And, most importantly (at least to me), he is married to a Hoya — Katherine Birrow.

Do yourself a favor. Buy one of Garrett’s books. (I just bought “Raven Rock” and am going to start it today.) You are not only getting smarter but also supporting one of the great young historians at work in the country.