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In an interview at the 2010 National Book Awards, well-known journalist and novelist [[Tom Wolfe]] called Lewis one of two "writers to watch" (the other was [[Mark Bowden]]).<ref>[http://www.booktv.org/Watch/12107/2010+National+Book+Awards+Interview+with+Tom+Wolfe.aspx C-SPAN Book TV interview with Tom Wolfe, November 17, 2010]. Retrieved January 9, 2011.</ref>
In an interview at the 2010 National Book Awards, well-known journalist and novelist [[Tom Wolfe]] called Lewis one of two "writers to watch" (the other was [[Mark Bowden]]).<ref>[http://www.booktv.org/Watch/12107/2010+National+Book+Awards+Interview+with+Tom+Wolfe.aspx C-SPAN Book TV interview with Tom Wolfe, November 17, 2010]. Retrieved January 9, 2011.</ref>

In the March 2011 Vanity Fair Lewis wrote a piece on the collapse of the Irish economy. http://www.vanityfair.com/business/features/2011/03/michael-lewis-ireland-201103. Lewis made numerous factual errors within the story, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEWLpD1H0vQ, further cementing his reputation as a sensationalist and as a writer not to be trusted in chronicling serious events. See http://www.huffingtonpost.com/janet-tavakoli/michael-lewis-junior-sale_b_498781.html.; see also http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/28/michael-lewis-sued-for-de_n_829215.html; see also http://www.huffingtonpost.com/yves-smith/debunking-michael-lewis-t_b_512542.html. However, of far more concern is Lewis' veiled bigotry towards the Irish, which is revealed by a close reading of the piece. In penning the scattershot essay, Lewis not only attacks the composite character of the citizens of Ireland - not limiting his attacks to those who had a role in the crisis - but each and every human of Irish descent. See http://www.vanityfair.com/business/features/2011/03/michael-lewis-ireland-201103?currentPage=1 generally. The clearest evidence that Lewis' ethnic character assassination was both calculated and meant to impugn all those bearing Irish blood lies in that portion of the article that claims - falsely - that "everything" in the Irish Parliament is said in both English and Gaelic. Compare http://www.vanityfair.com/business/features/2011/03/michael-lewis-ireland-201103 with http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEWLpD1H0vQ. Lewis uses this blatantly false claim as a basis for asserting that the Irish “insist[ence] on their Irishness” and consider themselves more loyal to their home/country of origin/country of ancestry than other peoples of the world. See http://www.vanityfair.com/business/features/2011/03/michael-lewis-ireland-201103. He then states that the Irish are full of “conceit” in this respect, see http://www.vanityfair.com/business/features/2011/03/michael-lewis-ireland-201103, and makes the indefensible argument that the proof of such “conceit” lies in the fact of past emigration from the country (see http://www.vanityfair.com/business/features/2011/03/michael-lewis-ireland-201103) – past emigration that was of course at its height during a great famine and otherwise driven by persecution and poverty over the past 300-plus years. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_diaspora. (Lewis’ dual focus on this present-day “conceit” and past emigration unequivocally indicating a charge against all Irish-blooded peoples presently living) see http://www.vanityfair.com/business/features/2011/03/michael-lewis-ireland-201103. This outrageous and insulting claim is founded upon falsehoods that Lewis knew were false when written – he acknowledges having personally seen the Irish Parliament at work (see http://www.vanityfair.com/business/features/2011/03/michael-lewis-ireland-201103 – and could only have been composed based upon gross negligence or a bigoted desire to defame the Irish worldwide. The combination of this legitimate conclusion as to the portion of the article referenced above with Lewis’ relentless attacks on the Irish character (including subtle, clever attempts to undermine any perception of the Irish possessing certain positive attributes they have long been presumed to have held) and the lack of a connection made between these attacks and the central theme of the article (see http://www.vanityfair.com/business/features/2011/03/michael-lewis-ireland-201103 generally)-the economic crisis - has led many to conclude that the composition of the article was largely motivated by the latter.





Revision as of 15:48, 8 August 2011

For other people named Michael Lewis (disambiguation), see Michael Lewis (disambiguation) (disambiguation).
Michael Lewis
Born1960 (age 63–64)
New Orleans, Louisiana
OccupationAuthor
SpouseTabitha Soren

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

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 and was a member of the Ivy Club.

After graduating from Princeton, he went on to work with New York art dealer Daniel Wildenstein. Despite his degree in art history, he nonetheless wanted to break into Wall Street to make money. After leaving Princeton, he tried to find a finance job, only to be roundly rejected by every firm to which he applied. He then enrolled in the London School of Economics to pursue a Master's degree in economics.

While in England after graduating from the LSE, Lewis was invited to a banquet hosted by the Queen Mother at St. James's Palace, where he was purposely seated by his cousin, Baroness Linda Monroe von Stauffenberg, one of the organizers of the banquet, next to the wife of the London Managing Partner of Salomon Brothers, in the hope that his intelligence might impress her enough for her to suggest to her husband that Lewis be given a job with Salomon Bros., which had previously turned him down, and as it turned out, this strategy worked, for Lewis was granted an interview and did land the job.

He received his Masters degree in Economics from the LSE in 1985.[1][2] After graduation as a result of the interview, Lewis moved to New York City for Salomon's training program. There, he was appalled at the sheer bravado of most of his fellow trainees and indoctrinated into the money culture of Salomon and Wall Street in general.

After New York, Lewis was shipped to the London office of Salomon Brothers as a bond salesman. Despite his lack of knowledge, he was soon handling millions of dollars in investment accounts. In 1987, he witnessed a near-hostile takeover of Salomon Brothers but survived with his job. However, growing disillusioned with his work, he eventually quit to write Liar's Poker and become a financial journalist.

Writing

After working for a while at Salomon, Lewis described his experiences there 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 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 minor league 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, a frequent contributor to The New Republic, 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 2009 he left Portfolio to join Vanity Fair, where he became a contributing editor.[4][5]

In an interview at the 2010 National Book Awards, well-known journalist and novelist Tom Wolfe called Lewis one of two "writers to watch" (the other was Mark Bowden).[6]


Personal life

Lewis married Diane de Cordova Lewis, his girlfriend prior to his Salomon days. After several years, he was briefly married to former CNBC correspondent Kate Bohner, 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.

Writings by Lewis

Books

  • Michael Lewis. (2011). Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. ISBN 0-393-08181-7. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: checksum (help)
  • Michael Lewis. (2010). The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. ISBN 0-393-07223-1.
  • 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. {{cite book}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  • 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.

Articles

References

  1. ^ Michael Lewis: Greater Talent Network Speakers Bureau
  2. ^ Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 2008. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2008.
  3. ^ Lewis, Michael (2007-08-26). "In Nature's Casino". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-05-12.
  4. ^ John Koblin (October 7, 2008). "Graydon's Big Get: Raids Portfolio for Michael Lewis".
  5. ^ "Michael Lewis". Vanity Fair. Retrieved July 20, 2009. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |work= (help)
  6. ^ C-SPAN Book TV interview with Tom Wolfe, November 17, 2010. Retrieved January 9, 2011.

External links

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