FSU to Host Book Reading by Author Tim Wheeler

Mar 6, 2025 10:00 AM

Frostburg State University will host author Tim Wheeler on April 9 at 6 p.m. in the Lewis J. Ort Library on FSU’s main campus. Wheeler will read from his newly published biography No Power Greater: The Life and Times of George A. Meyers, which chronicles the accomplishments and tribulations of Lonaconing native and local labor leader George Meyers.

Worker exploitation is familiar to families in Allegany County, especially in the coal mines of the Georges Creek Valley. Meyers witnessed the terrible conditions faced by his father, who at the time worked the Big Vein of bituminous coal. Meyers encouraged his son to pursue an education to avoid working in the mines where more than 700 coal miners from Allegany County died from mining hazards.

Meyers gained employment at the Celanese Synthetic Fibers plant after high school where he worked with non-union pay and no benefits, and acetone fumes contributed to his brown lung, a condition he suffered from his entire life. Ultimately, Meyers organized nearly 12,000 Celanese workers into the Textile Workers Local 1874, winning them union recognition under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).

Wheeler’s book documents Meyers’ life as a leader in the labor movement, the fight for civil and human rights, his leadership in the Communist Party USA and his imprisonment for nearly two years on false Smith Act charges of “conspiracy to advocate to overthrow the government by force and violence.” The Supreme Court later ruled the law unconstitutional, and once freed, Meyers spent the remainder of his life rebuilding the labor movement.

Meyers’ papers are stored in the George A. Meyers Collection at FSU’s Lewis J. Ort Library, and Wheeler used these records when writing this book. A reporter and editor of the Worker, Daily World and the online Peoples World, Wheeler was a close friend of Meyers for 39 years.

Wheeler’s book reading is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be available, and copies of his book will be available for sale at the event. For more information, contact Liza Zakharova, Special Collections Librarian/Archivist, at ylzakharova@frostburg.edu.