Martha, Inc.

This New York Times bestselling book chronicles the dramatic rise of Martha Stewart from Connecticut caterer to founder and CEO of a vast media empire.Stewart’s story is part Horatio Alger success story and part Citizen Kane drama, reaching from the modest homes of Nutley, New Jersey, to the palatial estates of Long Island, from the suburban kitchens of Connecticut to the boardrooms of Wall Street. At each step of the way, Byron gets inside Martha’s world, from her troubled working class upbringing to her years of peddling speculative stocks on Wall Street in the go-go sixties. Thereafter, Byron follows Martha through the ordeal of her failing marriage to the launch of her magazine. Finally, we accompany Martha in her triumphant and climactic return to Wall Street at century’s end to sell stock in her company in an IPO that would make her a billionaire.Byron attends, through fly-on-the-wall sources, executive meetings with some of the most powerful individuals in American business to watch as they try to deal with a woman who emerged from nowhere to overpower them all. He eavesdrops as they bad-mouth her as she leaves the room, often with a fabulous deal in her hand. He watches as they discover, only too late, this former housewife outsmarts them at their own game.