Bio

A.J. Baime is an executive editor at Playboy magazine, where he oversees the automotive and various feature sections. Born and raised in New Jersey, he attended the University of New Hampshire and later received a Masters degree in literature from New York University, where he studied in the Biography Seminar under Pulitzer Prize winning author Kenneth Silverman.

In 1998, he lied his way into a writing gig at a fledgling magazine few had heard of at the time called Maxim. In the pages of Maxim over the next five years, he profiled Mike Tyson and Lennox Lewis, wrote about biker gang wars and Hitler's secret plot to blow up New York. He also wrote articles for The New York Times Magazine, Popular Science, and the Village Voice. His book on the history of liquor, Big Shots: The Men Behind the Booze (New American Library), was published in 2003. After a stop at Boston magazine, where he served as executive editor on a team that won a silver medal for general excellence at the 2003 City and Regional Magazine Awards, Baime started at Playboy, where he finally got to focus on one of his lifelong passions: cars.

In his spare time, Baime likes to drive really expensive, beautifully engineered automobiles at breakneck speeds on racetracks. He also shakes a fine martini, though not when he's driving. He adores his wife Michelle and two little kids, Clayton and Audrey, more than life itself. His next book--a secret project that takes place in Hollywood in the 1960s--is already under way.