MARTHA STEWART

Date of Birth: August 3, c. 1942
Birthplace: Jersey City, NJ
Current Residence: Westport, CT
Education: B.A., Barnard College, 1963.
Profession: Worked as a model in the late 1950s-early 60s; Stockbroker, 1965-73; Started catering business in 1976; Former food and entertainment editor/columnist for House Beautiful; Worked during the early 1980s as a freelance food stylist for photo shoots; National spokesperson and lifestyle consultant, K-Mart, 1987-present; Contributing editor, Family Circle; Editor-in-chief, Martha Stewart Living,  1990-present; Star of television programs and specials.
Influences, Interests and Interesting Tidbits: "Kafka's Metamorphosis  traces changes in a life. I have always considered change good, metamorphosis enlightening, eclecticism enchanting. I cannot live without change, and I have succeeded so well because I lack a fear of it."
-Martha Stewart

I don't know when it was exactly that I became not only Martha Stewart the person but also Martha Stewart the brand—a brand equated with the pursuit of a better lifestyle. Nor do I know when exactly I realized that I was living a life that would be critiqued, maligned, and even despised. Yet when I read an article belittling my work or hear a television correspondent joke about how I shovel snow, it becomes clear to me that homemakers' work still does not get the kind of respect it deserves. I realize I still have much persuading to do, and I must do it with earnestness, by which I mean complete honesty.
-Martha Stewart, "The Importance of Being Myself," Cosmopolitan magazine

My father took me under his wing, and I learned everything. He taught me how to garden, how to use all his tools. He helped me with public speaking. Mother may be the better teacher, because he taught by "I'll beat it into you," and my mother did it in the more normal fashion. But I was receptive to that kind of teaching. I didn't mind at all.
-Martha Stewart, New York magazine

To its two million readers, most of them managers and professionals, her magazine presents the prospect of coming home to something more pleasant than ambient mess and frozen fish sticks. It offers opportunities to do something right for a change—whether it's building a window box or baking a loaf of eight-grain bread—without compromises, memos and budget constraints.
-Patricia McLaughlin, New York Times Magazine