His father, William Trueheart, was a Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. State Department, and he grew up overseas, in Paris, Ankara, London, and Saigon.
From 1981 to 1983 he was the West Coast correspondent for Publishers Weekly magazine, and from 1982 to 1986 he was a columnist for the newspaper USA Today.
From 1983 to 1986, Trueheart served as associate director of the Harvard Institute of Politics, where he directed the Public Affairs Forum at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, and oversaw the training programs for newly elected American mayors and members of the US Congress.
In 1986 Trueheart returned to journalism, joining the staff of The Washington Post, covering books, authors, the publishing industry, and literary and intellectual issues.
Trueheart is married to Anne Swardson, a retired Washington Post correspondent[10] and ex-editor at Bloomberg News.