Martha Helen Stewart (née Kostyra) (born August 3, 1941) is a popular Polish-American television and magazine personality known for her cooking, gardening, etiquette, and arts and crafts projects, and as a general lifestyle guide and homemaker. She is also a sucessful businesswoman and an American icon.
Starting in 2002 her career was rocked by a scandal involving her sale of shares in a drug company just days before its application for a new drug was denied. She was eventually convicted of lying to investigators and sentenced to prison in 2004. She was released on March 4, 2005.
Founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia
Martha Stewart has always drawn inspiration from her surroundings. Raised in Nutley, New Jersey, in a family with six children, she developed a passion for cooking, gardening, and homekeeping in her childhood home on Elm Place. Her mother, a schoolteacher and homemaker, taught her the basics of cooking, baking, canning, and sewing; her father, a pharmaceutical salesman and avid gardener, introduced her to gardening in the family's small but orderly backyard garden when she was 3.
While earning a bachelor's degree in history and architectural history at Barnard College, Martha worked as a model to pay tuition. She married in her sophomore year, and upon graduating, she became a stockbroker on Wall Street, where she gained business training. After moving to Westport, Connecticut, in 1972 with her husband and daughter, Alexis, she developed a catering business that was unlike any other. The business's unique visual presentation of food and the elegant recipes created for various catered events were the basis for her first book, "Entertaining," published in 1982.
Martha's creative vision is the blueprint for Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia and the expansive multimedia portfolio that includes award-winning magazines such as Martha Stewart Living and Martha Stewart Weddings; the nationally syndicated, Emmy Award-winning television series "The Martha Stewart Show;" Martha Stewart Living Radio on Sirius Satellite Radio; the best-selling book "The Martha Stewart Homekeeping Handbook;" Martha Stewart Everyday mass-market merchandise, sold at Kmart; Martha Stewart Furniture with Bernhardt; Martha Stewart-designed homes and communities with KB Home; Martha Stewart cards; Martha Stewart Rugs with Safavieh; and the Martha Stewart Collection of products for the home at Macy's.
Source: Updated 08/08/2008 http://www.marthastewart.com/
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"Best-Sellers" by Martha Stewart
Martha Stewart
Martha is an American business magnate, author, editor and homemaking advocate. She is also a former stockbroker and fashion model. Over the last two decades Stewart has held a prominent position in the American publishing industry; as the author of several books, hundreds of articles on the domestic arts, editor of a national homekeeping magazine, host for two popular daytime television programs, and commercial spokeswoman for K-Mart. In 2001 she was named the third most powerful woman in America by Ladies Home Journal. Her website: www.marthastewart.com/
