When the 1983 merger between the American Express Bank and Edmond Safra's Trade and Development Bank failed, Safra reestablished himself with an independent banking concern that would compete directly with American Express. Burrough, coauthor of Barbarians at the Gate ( LJ 1/90), tells of an ill-founded and vindictive attempt by individuals hired by American Express to discredit Safra in the media. Though the incident was mentioned in Jon Friedman's House of Cards (Putnam, 1992), Burrough's insight into the culture clash between the parties gives fascinating dimension to a story that spans almost a decade and involves unsavory players in the affairs of a multinational corporation. For both lay readers and specialists.-- Joseph Barth, U.S. Military Acad. Lib., West Point, N.Y. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Bryan Burrough was born in 1961 in Temple, Texas. Burrough is a New York Times best-selling author, special correspondent at Vanity Fair, and former Wall Street Journal reporter. Burrough graduated from the University of Missouri's School of Journalism in 1983. While in college, he was a reporter for the Columbia Missourian and interned at the Waco Tribune-Herald and the Wall Street Journal's Dallas Bureau.

Burrough's bestselling book, Public Enemies: America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the F.B.I., 1933-34, is scheduled to be released as a movie in 2009.

Burrough is a three-time winner of the prestigious Gerald Loeb Award for Excellence in Financial Journalism. He lives in Summit, New Jersey with his wife and their two sons. <30> Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.