Martha Stewart Biography

American businesswoman and television personality Martha Stewart was born in 1941 in Jersey City, New Jersey. Stewart’s foray into entertainment actually began very young; she started modeling as a teenager and appeared in a number of commercials for some very high-profile labels such as Chanel. But at the same time, she was learning how to cook and sew through her mother, and her father was teacher her the art of gardening, along with canning and preserving. This combination of influences undoubtedly had a strong impact on Martha’s eventual career path.

Martha Stewart actually began her career as a stockbroker, but while working to restore the 19^th century home she and her husband had purchased in Connecticut, she found she had a real knack for decorating and restoring. She began a catering business after work on the house was complete, but it was a short-lived endeavor. Meanwhile, Stewart’s husband, who owned several publishing companies, encouraged her to consider writing a cookbook, largely inspired by her catering experiences. The result was the 1982 book Entertaining, which became an immediate success.

Entertaining led to nearly a dozen other books over the next decade, including: Martha Stewart’s Quick Cook (1983), Martha Stewart’s Hors D’oeuvres (1984), Martha Stewart’s Pies & Tarts (1985), Weddings (1987), The Wedding Planner (1988), and Martha Stewart’s Christmas (1989.) Throughout much of the 1980’s, Stewart also wrote for dozens of magazines and columns, and appeared on nearly every talk show, including The Oprah Winfrey Show.

Today, Martha Stewart is one of the era’s most successful businesswomen and entrepreneurs, publishing the highly successful Martha Stewart Living magazine and having hosted her own television shows in the 90’s and new millennium: Martha Stewart Living and then Martha, the latter of which ran until 2012. Since 2012, she has been the host of the PBS series Martha Stewart’s Cooking School, which each week hosts a 30 minute segment covering basic cooking techniques.