MARTIN, Justin 1964-

PERSONAL: Born 1964.

ADDRESSES: Home—154 Burns St., Forest Hills Gardens, NY 11375. Office—c/o Fortune Magazine, 1271 Sixth Ave., New York, NY 10020. Agent—Lisa Swayne, The Swayne Agency Literary Management and Consulting, 56 West 45th St., Suite 1202, New York, NY 10036.

CAREER: Journalist and biographer. Fortune Small Business, New York, NY, contributing editor; Fortune, New York, NY, staff writer for six years.

WRITINGS:

The Fantastic Baseball Quiz Book, Andrews & McMeel (Kansas City, MO), 1996.

Greenspan: The Man behind Money, Perseus (Cambridge, MA), 2000.

Nader: Crusader, Spoiler, Icon, Perseus (Cambridge, MA), 2002.

Contributor to periodicals, including Newsweek, Worth, Travel & Leisure, and ESPN.

SIDELIGHTS: Justin Martin, a former staff writer at Fortune, is a financial journalist and contributing editor to Fortune Small Business, but he also considers himself a generalist who has written on a wide variety of subjects for both adults and, as a contributor to projects for children's publisher Scholastic, Inc. In Greenspan: The Man behind Money and Nader: Crusader, Spoiler, Icon Martin combines financial analysis and economic history with background material.

Greenspan recounts the story of Alan Greenspan, who was made chairman of the Federal Reserve Board shortly before the 1987 stock market crash and was credited with stabilizing the U.S. economy. Martin's biography, the first published on Greenspan, reveals the chairman's life prior to assuming the post. He discusses Greenspan's early involvement in music, including a brief stint as a student at New York's Juilliard School and a job playing clarinet and tenor saxophone with a swing band, and his participation in author Ayn Rand's philosophical group, the Objectivists. He then goes on to explain Washington economic and monetary policy, and to examine Greenspan's role in the system, from his job as Richard Nixon's campaign advisor to his eventual appointment to the Federal Reserve Board.

In the Economist, a reviewer observed that "Martin is shallow on the whole in his analysis of Mr. Greenspan at the Fed, though he is livelier … on the man behind the myth." Martin interviewed over a hundred people to obtain the information for his work, which New York Times Book Review contributor Robert Kuttner felt "helps the reader see the way Greenspan's earlier career made him such an effective Fed chairman." Dina S. Temple-Raston, in a review for International Economy, wrote that "the book is as striking for the luminaries included as sources as it is for the multitude of childhood friends Martin managed to unearth." She went on to criticize the coverage of Greenspan's more recent career, though, remarking that "once Greenspan arrives in Washington, Martin's narrative gets thin and predictable," but concluding that "it is the best and most thorough portrait of Greenspan to date."

In Nader Martin provides a similar chronicle of the life and accomplishments of the high-profile attorney and consumer advocate. The son of Lebanese immigrants, Nader grew up in Winsted, Connecticut, where his father ran a restaurant. Nader attended Princeton University, majoring in Far Eastern studies and economics, and went on to law school at Harvard University. Martin explores Nader's growing interest in responsibility in manufacturing, tracing his early involvement in automobile safety through his exposé Unsafe at Any Speed and his role as a congressional witness in the investigation that followed. Martin also takes an in-depth look at Nader's role as the third candidate on the ballot during the 2000 presidential election, and the resulting controversy following the close outcome in Florida, pointing out that Gore's shortage of votes could have easily been blamed on any one of the write-in options. Rich Barlow, in a review for the Boston Globe, observed that "Martin's judicious biography underscores the dopiness of partisans, left and right, who consider Nader a wrecking ball smashing American free enterprise. Nader's no socialist and no enemy of business…. He simply understands that a capitalist economy has two players, business and consumers." Atlanta Journal-Constitution contributor Steve Weinberg called the book "a factual, chronological account of a remarkable life," and a reviewer for the Economist concluded that while Martin's "this admiring portrait can occasionally slide into a flat recitation of Mr. Nader's accomplishments, … it vividly reveals the difference that one committed idealist can make."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

periodicals

Across the Board, January, 2001, Richard J. Whalen, review of Greenspan: The Man behind Money, p. 57.

American Prospect, January 29, 2001, James K. Galbraith, review of Greenspan, p. 36; November 4, 2002, Jonathan Chait, "The Man Who Gave Us Bush," p. 36.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution, October 25, 2002, Steve Weinberg, "No Surprises in Nader Bio," p. E6.

Barron's, December 4, 2000, p. 56.

Biography, spring, 2003, Stephen Romei, review of Nader: Crusader, Spoiler, Icon, p. 376.

Book, November, 2000, Glenn Speer, review of Greenspan, p. 74.

Booklist, September 15, 2000, David Rouse, review of Greenspan, p. 187; September 1, 2002, David Siegfried, review of Nader, p. 3.

Boston Globe, November 3, 2002, Rich Barlow, "Author Zeroes in on Nader's Motivation, Drive," p. E2.

Business Week, December 4, 2000, "Greenspan Revealed," p. 23.

Chief Executive, February, 2001, Charles W. Kadlec, "Cut down to Size," p. 76.

Christian Science Monitor, November 22, 2000, David R. Francis, "The First Biography of the Economic Miracle Worker," p. 21.

Commonweal, July 13, 2001, Carlos Lozada, "Oracle at the Fed," p. 25.

Denver Post, October 27, 2002, Steve Weinberg, "Nader Eschewed Big-Money Job in Law, Harvard Grad Fought Tirelessly to Better Society," p. EE3.

Economist, November 18, 2000, "No Recount at the Fed," pp. 1, 163; January 25, 2003, "Fighting for His Life: Nader."

Finance and Development, June, 2001, Prakash Loungani, review of Greenspan, p. 60.

Industry Standard, November 27, 2000, Daniel Akst, "Alan's World," p. 180.

Institutional Investor, November, 2000, Deepak Gopinath, "Watch That Paperboard," p. 184.

International Economy, May, 2001, Dina S. Temple-Raston, review of Greenspan, p. 54.

Kirkus Reviews, September 1, 2002, review of Nader, p. 1285.

Library Journal, November 1, 2000, Norm Hutcherson, review of Greenspan, p. 93; October 1, 2002, Robert F. Nardini, review of Nader, p. 108.

New Republic, February 5, 2001, Robert M. Solow, review of Greenspan, p. 28.

New York Times, November 12, 2000, p. BU9.

New York Times Book Review, December 17, 2000, Robert Kuttner, "Alan Greenspan and the Temple of Boom," p. 10.

Publishers Weekly, October 23, 2000, review of Greenspan, p. 68; August 26, 2002, review of Nader, p. 51.

Strategic Finance, December, 2000, Alan Levinsohn, "What Made Alan Greenspan?," p. 23.

Time, December 25, 2000, Daniel Kadlec, "Summing up Greenspan," p. 160.

Washington Monthly, November, 2000, Merrill Goozner, review of Greenspan, p. 58.

Washington Post Book World, November 26, 2000, Daniel Gross, "Controlling Interest," p. 6; January 5, 2003, Chris Lehmann, "The Third Man," p. 4.*