What is Michael Lewis's Net Worth?
Michael Lewis is an American author who has a net worth of $20 million. Michael Lewis is best known for writing such best-selling non-fiction books as "Moneyball," "The Blind Side," and "The Big Short," all of which were adapted into major motion pictures. He also serves as a contributing editor to Vanity Fair, a position he began in 2009. Lewis's writing mostly focuses on the areas of finance, economics, and business. In December 2022 it was revealed that Michael had spent much of the previous six months embedded with Sam Bankman-Fried to produce a book about the one-time crypto kingpin. Lewis was apparently with SBF during the insane weeks that his entire FTX empire collapsed. That resulting book "Going Infinite" was widely panned for being too flattering of Bankman-Fried. Before the book was released, Apple acquired the television rights for $5 million.
Early Life and Education
Michael Lewis was born on October 15, 1960 in New Orleans, Louisiana to community activist Diana and corporate attorney J. Thomas. He attended the K-12 nondenominational Isidore Newman School in New Orleans. One of his classmates was Sean Tuohy, who would later be the subject of Lewis' book "The Blind Side" along with future wife Leigh Anne Tuohy. Sean's father was the school's basketball coach and today the gymnasium is called the Tuohy Gymnasium.
After high schol Lewis attended Princeton University, from which he graduated cum laude with a degree in art history in 1982. Realizing that he would have trouble finding lucrative work as an art historian, Lewis decided to change tracks and enrolled at the London School of Economics as a graduate student. He graduated from the school in 1985 with his master's degree.
Salomon Brothers
After graduating from the London School of Economics, Lewis was hired by the New York-based investment bank Salomon Brothers. His starting salary of $48,000 was equal to roughly $90,000 in today's money. He later returned to London to work at the company's office there, where he served as a bond salesman for a few years.
Books
From his experience at Salomon Brothers, Lewis was inspired to pen his first book, "Liar's Poker." Published in 1989, it both recounts his time at Salomon and explores the evolution of the mortgage-backed bond. Lewis next wrote "Pacific Rift," which came out in 1991. That title was followed by "The Money Culture" and "Trail Fever." Lewis closed out the 90s with "The New New Thing," about entrepreneur James H. Clark and the booming Silicon Valley culture he helped foster. Kicking off the new millennium, Lewis published "Next: The Future Just Happened," which considers the potential groundbreaking social effects of emergent technologies. L
Lewis followed that with one of his most acclaimed books, "Moneyball." Centered on the Oakland Athletics baseball team and its general manager Billy Beane, the book explores the team's sabermetric approach to putting together its player roster. "Moneyball" was adapted into an Oscar-nominated film in 2011 written by Aaron Sorkin and Steven Zaillian, directed by Bennett Miller, and starring Brad Pitt as Beane.
Lewis continued writing about sports. In 2006, he released "The Blind Side," which told the story of his childhood friend Sean Tuohy's adoption of Michael Oher, who would grow up to be an NFL star. It became his second title to be adapted into a film, this one by writer-director John Lee Hancock. The 2009 film adaptation starred Sandra Bullock in an Oscar-winning performance.
Lewis released two books in 2009: "Home Game: An Accidental Guide to Fatherhood" and "Panic: The Story of Modern Financial Insanity." The following year, he published "The Big Short," which chronicles the build-up to the financial crisis of the late 00s and the players who ended up profiting from it. The book was his third to be adapted into a film, with Adam McKay directing, McKay and Charles Randolph writing the script, and Christian Bale, Brad Pitt, Ryan Gosling, and Steve Carell starring. Lewis's other major books have included "Flash Boys," about the financial phenomenon of high-frequency trading; "The Undoing Project," about the close academic partnership between Israeli psychologists Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman; "The Fifth Risk," which explores the unpreparedness of the Trump administration in assuming governmental roles; and "The Premonition," focused on the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Other Writing
Beyond his books, Lewis has written for numerous publications, including the Spectator, the New York Times Magazine, the New Republic, Bloomberg, and Slate. In 2009, he became a contributing editor to Vanity Fair, where he has penned an array of buzzy pieces over the years. Lewis also wrote and narrated a short non-fiction story called "The Coming Storm" for Amazon's Audible series of audiobooks.
Podcasting
In the spring of 2019, Lewis launched his own podcast, "Against the Rules." Produced by Pushkin Industries, the podcast addresses different aspects of society in regard to questions of fairness, looking at everything from consumer finance to art authentication.
Personal Life
Michael Lewis married his first wife, Diane de Cordova, in 1985. His second wife was investment banker and journalist Kate Bohner, whom he wed in 1994. After their divorce, Lewis married photographer and former news reporter Tabitha Soren in 1997. The couple had three children together, and lives in Berkeley, California. In May of 2021, their daughter Dixie was killed in a car crash.
