STANLEY MEISLER is the author of United Nations: The First Fifty Years, the only authoritative history of the U.N. He has known Kofi Annan for many years, having covered him during much of Annan's career as a public figure. For twenty years, Meisler covered much of the world for the Los Angeles Times, heading bureaus in Nairobi, Mexico City, Madrid, Toronto, and Paris. He then returned to the United States for a decade to cover the U.N. in New York and the State Department in Washington. Meisler still contributes articles to the paper's Book Review, Sunday Opinion, and Art sections. He has also contributed to Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, the Atlantic, Reader's Digest, and numerous other periodicals.