Michael Lewis (born October 15, 1960) is an American contemporary non-fiction author and financial journalist. His bestselling books include Liar's Poker, The New New Thing, Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game, and Home Game: An Accidental Guide to Fatherhood. He is currently a contributing editor to Vanity Fair.

[edit] Early life

Lewis was born in New Orleans to corporate lawyer J. Thomas Lewis and community activist Diana Monroe Lewis. He attended the private, nondenominational, co-educational college preparatory Isidore Newman School in New Orleans. Later, he attended Princeton University where he received a BA in art history in 1982. He also received a masters degree in economics from the London School of Economics in 1985.^[1][2]

[edit] Writing

Lewis went on to work with New York art dealer Wildenstein, and then became a bond salesman at Salomon Brothers in London, an experience he described in his first book, Liar's Poker (1989). While at Salomon Brothers, he continued to work nights and weekends as a journalist, an effort he continues to this day with pieces for periodicals like The New York Times Magazine.

In the The New New Thing (1999) he investigated the then-booming Silicon Valley technological scene, and discussed obsession with innovation. He considered this phenomenon both from the perspective of the computer engineers actually making the new products, and the entrepreneurs who invested in them.

Four years later, Lewis again entered the cultural mainstream with Moneyball, in which he investigated the dramatic success of Billy Beane and the Oakland A's, a baseball team which won consistently despite not being particularly well-funded by Major League Baseball standards. He noted the influence of baseball thinkers such as Bill James on the Oakland front office, which used their arguments to find underrated baseball players. In contrast to other teams which still considered potential players almost entirely on their physical abilities, such as speed and strength, Beane considered prior performance at the college and high school level. This allowed him to find players whose physical skills might have been ordinary, but were still able to play extraordinarily well on the field. James also argued that certain skills, such as the ability to get on base, were equally valuable as the ability to hit, though most baseball decision makers considered the latter to be of more importance. Beane was thus able to find players who were able to provide high value for bargain prices. Lewis determined that these strategies, among others, allowed the relatively cash-poor A's to often outperform much wealthier teams.

In August 2007 he wrote an article about catastrophe bonds that appeared in The New York Times Magazine, entitled "In Nature's Casino."^[3]

Lewis has worked for the New York Times Magazine, as a columnist for Bloomberg, and a visiting fellow at the University of California, Berkeley. He wrote the Dad Again column for Slate. Lewis was one of the high-profile hires to Conde Nast Portfolio but in February of 2009 he left Portfolio to join Vanity Fair, where he became a contributing editor.^[4][5]

[edit] Personal life

Lewis married Diane de Cordova Lewis, his girlfriend prior to his Salomon days.^[6][7] After several years, he was briefly married to former CNBC correspondent Kate Bohner,^[8] before marrying the former MTV reporter Tabitha Soren on October 4, 1997. Lewis lives with Tabitha, two daughters, and one son (Quinn, Dixie, and Walker) in Berkeley, California.

[edit] Writings by Lewis

[edit] Books

• Michael Lewis. (2010). The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine. New York: W.W. Norton & Co.. ISBN 0-393-0723-1. 
• Michael Lewis. (2009). Home Game: An Accidental Guide to Fatherhood. New York: W.W. Norton & Co.. ISBN 0-393-06901-X. 
• Michael Lewis. (2008). Panic: The Story of Modern Financial Insanity. New York: W.W. Norton & Co.. ISBN 0-393-06514-6. 
• Michael Lewis (ed.) (2008). The Real Price of Everything: Rediscovering the Six Classics of Economics. New York: Sterling. ISBN 1-402-74790-X. 
• Michael Lewis. (2006). The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game. New York: W.W. Norton. ISBN 0-393-06123-X. 
• Michael Lewis. (2005). Coach: Lessons on the Game of Life. New York: W.W. Norton. ISBN 0-393-06091-8. 
• Michael Lewis. (2003). Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game. New York: W.W. Norton. ISBN 0-393-05765-8. 
• Michael Lewis. (2001). Next: The Future Just Happened. New York: W.W. Norton. ISBN 0-393-02037-1. 
• Michael Lewis. (2000). The New New Thing: A Silicon Valley story. New York: W.W. Norton. ISBN 0-393-04813-6. 
• Michael Lewis. (1997). Trail Fever. New York: A.A. Knopf. ISBN 0-679-44660-5. 
• Michael Lewis. (1991). The Money Culture. New York: W.W. Norton. ISBN 0-393-03037-7. 
• Michael Lewis. (1991). Pacific Rift. Knoxville, Tenn.: Whittle Direct Books. ISBN 0-962-47456-8. 
• Michael Lewis. (1989). Liar's Poker: Rising through the Wreckage on Wall Street. New York: W.W. Norton. ISBN 0-393-02750-3. 

[edit] Articles

• "The Man Who Crashed the World ", Vanity Fair, 2009-08-01 
• "The family guy", BookPage, 2009-06-01 .
• "Wall Street on the Tundra", Vanity Fair, 2009-04-01 
• "The No-Stats All-Star", The New York Times Magazine, 2009-02-13 
• "Man Up! Hedge-Fund Man’s Advice for Wall Street", Bloomberg, 2009-02-13 
• "The End", Condé Nast Portfolio, 2008-11-11 
• "Commie Ball: A Journey to the End of a Revolution", Vanity Fair, 2008-07 .
• "In Nature's Casino", The New York Times Magazine, 2007-08-26 .
• "Coach Leach Goes Deep, Very Deep", The New York Times Magazine, 2005-12-04 .
• "Jonathan Lebed: Stock Manipulator, S.E.C. Nemesis -- and 15", The New York Times Magazine, 2001-02-15 .

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• The Family Guy—BookPage interview
• The Future Just Happened
• List of books and articles
• Birnbaum v. Michael Lewis, an interview at The Morning News
• Michael Lewis of Bloomberg vs. SuperFrenchie
• Recent articles for Vanity Fair
• Unofficial archive of Michael Lewis