Cassidy, John 1963–

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CASSIDY, John 1963–

PERSONAL: Born January 31, 1963, in Leeds, England; immigrated to United States, 1984; son of John Bernard and Julie Theresa (Vaughan) Cassidy; married Patricia Mollach, August 12, 1989. Education: Oxford University, B.A., 1984; Columbia University, M.A., 1986; New York University, M.A., 1998.

ADDRESSES: Home—New York, NY Office—The New Yorker, 4 Times Sq., New York, NY 10036.

CAREER: Journalist and author. Sunday Times, London, England, financial correspondent, 1986–87, New York correspondent, 1987–88, Washington bureau chief, 1989–91, business editor, 1991–93; New York Post, New York, NY, business editor, 1993–94, deputy editor, 1994; New Yorker, staff writer, 1995–.

WRITINGS:

Dot.con: The Greatest Story Ever Sold (nonfiction), HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2002.

SIDELIGHTS: British journalist and writer John Cassidy has been covering economics and finance for more than fifteen years. He began his journalistic career at the London Sunday Times, working his way from financial correspondent to business editor over the course of five years. Cassidy then moved to the New York Post, where he held various editorships. In 1995, he took a writing position at the New Yorker. At that publication Cassidy was nominated as a 2004 National Magazine Award finalist for his December, 2003 article, "The David Kelly Affair."

In 2002 Cassidy published his first book, Dot.con: The Greatest Story Ever Sold. The book serves as an overview of the Internet boom, then bust, of the 1990s. Cassidy first chronicles the technological advances leading up to the stock craze and gives profiles of well-known dot.com companies such as Netscape, Yahoo!, AmericaOnline, and Amazon. He then names key players that he believes helped inflate the technology stock bubble, including Wall Street analysts, journalists, and Federal Reserve Board chairman Alan Greenspan.

Dot.con received a mix of favorable and lukewarm reviews from critics. Many reviewers criticized Cassidy for not conducting more new reporting for the book, instead relying on information gleaned from previously published articles on the subject. "Cassidy offers little fresh reporting … but his narrative is well written and entertaining," wrote Institutional Investor contributor Steven Brull. Others lauded the author for writing a comprehensive retrospective on this important era in financial history. "This absorbing tale of an ongoing chapter in the history of the stock market is highly recommended," commented Stacey Marien in a review for the Library Journal.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Prospect, March 11, 2002, Charles C. Mann, review of Dot.con: The Greatest Story Ever Sold, p. 38.

Boston Globe, February 26, 2002, Charles Stein, "The Maestro Reconsidered," p. 1.

Business Week, February 25, 2002, "How the Tech Boom Went Bust," p. 24; June 30, 2003, Hardy Green, review of Dot.con, p. 20.

Chicago Sun-Times, March 24, 2002, review of Dot.con, p. 14.

Daily Telegraph (London, England), February 2, 2002, John Lanchester, review of Dot.con.

Denver Post, April 7, 2002, Mark P. Couch, review of Dot.con, p. 1.

Economist, January 19, 2002, review of Dot.con, p. 85.

Guardian (Manchester, England), February 9, 2002, Robert Peston, review of Dot.con, p. 9; January 25, 2003, Steven Poole, review of Dot.con, p. 31.

Houston Chronicle, April 14, 2002, Barbara Liss, "Writer Indicts E-Business Entrepreneurs," p. 19.

Institutional Investor, March 2002, Steven Brull, "Only in America," p. 96.

Kiplinger's Personal Finance, March, 2002, Robert Frick, "Dot-con Dissection," p. 30.

Library Journal, March 15, 2002, Stacey Marien, review of Dot.con, p. 91.

Long Island Business News, March 1, 2002, review of Dot.con, p. 27.

Los Angeles Times, March 3, 2002, Alex Raksin, review of Dot.con, p. 9.

Newsweek, March 18, 2002, Adam Rogers, "Whose Bubble Is It?," p. 38.

New York Times Book Review, March 17, 2002, Hugo Lindgren, "One Is Born Every Minute," p. 14.

Publishers Weekly, January 21, 2002, review of Dot.con, p. 80.

San Francisco Chronicle, February 17, 2002, David Kipen, "New Yorker Writer Does an Autopsy of Dot.Commerce," p. 1.

Sunday Telegraph (London, England), February 3, 2002, Martin Vander Weyer, "Caught up in the Net," p. 14.

Times (London, England), February 1, 2001, Martin Waller, review of Dot.con, p. 27.