Murphy, Cait 1961-

PERSONAL:

Born 1961. Education: Amherst College, B.A.

ADDRESSES:

Home—New York, NY. E-mail—cait@caitnmurphy.com.

CAREER:

Journalist and writer. Wall Street Journal, Hong Kong, China, deputy editorial page editor, 1989-93, editorial page editor, 1993-94; Economist, London, England, social policy correspondent, 1994-97, environment and energy correspondent, 1997-98; Fortune, New York, NY, assistant managing editor, 1998—.

MEMBER:

Overseas Press Club (board member and cochair of OPC Awards process).

WRITINGS:

Crazy '08: How a Cast of Cranks, Rogues, Boneheads, and Magnates Created the Greatest Year in Baseball History, Smithsonian/Collins (New York, NY), 2007.

Contributor to periodicals, including the Atlantic, New England Monthly, Connoisseur, and the Washington Post.

SIDELIGHTS:

Cait Murphy is a journalist with a decade of international experience with major periodicals. Murphy first moved abroad in 1989 to work as the deputy editorial page editor for the Wall Street Journal in Hong Kong. Shortly after being promoted to editorial page editor, she accepted a position in London with the Economist, first as the social policy correspondent, then as the environment and energy correspondent. In 1998 she moved back to New York and began work with Fortune magazine. As assistant managing director, she has been responsible for compiling the list of Fortune 500 companies.

In a Hardball Times interview, Murphy stated: "I have been a baseball fan longer than I have been a business writer. I inherited a love of the game from my father, who grew up a couple of long fly balls from Wrigley Field." With this interest, Murphy published Crazy '08: How a Cast of Cranks, Rogues, Boneheads, and Magnates Created the Greatest Year in Baseball History in 2007. Murphy covers the championship game between the Chicago Cubs and the New York Giants in 1908, along with all the unsavory aspects of professional baseball in that period. Bill Littlefield, writing in Only a Game, observed that "Murphy writes as if she's having a good time telling the stories." A contributor to Publishers Weekly commented that "Murphy's wisecracking yarn digs right into the era's brawling, vivid ugliness." New York Times Book Review contributor George F. Will concluded: "This rollicking tour of that season will entertain readers interested in social history, will fascinate students of baseball and will cause today's Cub fans to experience an unaccustomed feeling—pride—as their team enters the 2007 season, the 99th season of its rebuilding effort."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Hardball Times, April 5, 2007, Dave Studeman, author interview.

Library Journal, February 1, 2007, review of Crazy '08: How a Cast of Cranks, Rogues, Boneheads, and Magnates Created the Greatest Year in Baseball History.

New York Times Book Review, April 1, 2007, George F. Will, review of Crazy '08, p. 14.

Publishers Weekly, February 5, 2007, review of Crazy '08, p. 53.

Smithsonian, April, 2007, author interview.

Sports Illustrated, March 19, 2007, Albert Chen and Bill Syken, review of Crazy '08, p. 2.

ONLINE

Baseball Library,http://www.baseballlibrary.com/ (August 23, 2007), Gene Carney, review of Crazy '08.

Bleed Cubbie Blue,http://www.bleedcubbieblue.com/ (May 14, 2007), review of Crazy '08.

Cait Murphy Home Page,http://www.crazy08.com (August 23, 2007), author biography.

Only a Game,http://www.onlyagame.org/ (March 15, 2007), Bill Littlefield, review of Crazy '08.

Overseas Press Club Web site,http://www.opcofamerica.org/ (August 23, 2007), author profile.

Time Online,http://www.timeinc.net/ (August 23, 2007), author profile.

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, School of Journalism and Mass Communication Web site,http://weblogs.jomc.unc.edu/ (August 23, 2007), author profile and audio interview.