Biography of Richard Cohen

Richard Cohen has a gift for writing in ways that touch people on issues great and small. In his twice-weekly column in The Washington Post he tackles both complex issues and seemingly simple ones, helping people to understand what is happening around them. From Ground Zero on that horrible September day to wherever his travels take him, his highly personal and graceful writing moves and informs his readers.

"I see myself as the reader's proxy, lucky enough by virtue of occupation to go where they cannot go," he says. "I can visit places they're not likely to go and under conditions they would probably avoid (the Middle East almost a dozen times, Africa, Central America, Asia and Europe over and over again) and, sometimes most perilously, the halls of Congress or the salons of Georgetown. I've covered every presidential campaign since 1968 and still can't understand why the primary season doesn't start in Florida or Arizona and wind up in Iowa and New Hampshire." "Most days I cannot wait to get to work," he adds. "I love what I do--the reporting, the writing, the thinking, the constant exploration. Sometimes I think I have the best job in the world. Some days I think Tiger Woods does. But at least I work in air conditioning."

Cohen's columns have appeared on the op-ed page of The Washington Post since 1984. He joined the Post in 1968 after attending the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, and after doing, as he puts it, "some post-graduate work" at Fort Dix, N.J., and Fort Leonard Wood, Mo. At the Post he covered all sorts of stories--night police, city hall, education, state government and national politics. As he paper's chief Maryland correspondent, he was one of two reporters who broke the story of the investigation of former Vice President Agnew.

In 1976, he began writing a column that ran on the front of the Metro section. Its popularity, and the notice of newspaper editors around the country, led to national syndication by The Washington Post Writers Group in 1981.

Cohen was born in New York City, and graduated from New York University and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Before coming to Washington, he worked as a copy aide at The New York Herald Tribune and as a reporter for United Press International in New York.

Cohen has received the Sigma Delta Chi and Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild Awards for his investigative reporting. In 1974, he and Jules Witcover wrote A Heartbeat Away: The Investigation and Resignation of Spiro T. Agnew.