The recent spectacular collapse of John Meriwether's Long-Term Capital Management hedge fund seems like a story crying out to be told, and Random is betting that financial reporter Roger Lowenstein is the man to tell it. The house's trade publishing chief, Ann Godoff, has signed him, through agent Melanie Jackson, to do a book "as fast as he can"; she's hoping to have the book out as soon as next spring. Lowenstein, a former Wall Street Journal reporter and columnist, and currently a columnist for Smart Money, is also the author of 1995's Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist, and has, Godoff said, excellent sources on the Street. Lowenstein took a few minutes from his work against the clock on the book to tell PW that he wants not only to tell the story of Meriwether and his high-flying fund, but also "to evoke the Wall Street climate and culture that made his rise and fall possible." No title has been decided upon for the book.