Martha Stewart Martha Stewart (born Martha Helen Kostyra; August 3, 1941) is an American business magnate, television host, author, and magazine publisher. As founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, she has gained success through a variety of business ventures, encompassing publishing, broadcasting, and merchandising. Stewart’s syndicated talk show, Martha, is broadcast throughout the world by NBC Universal Domestic Television Distribution. A successful author, Stewart has written numerous bestselling books and is the publisher of, among others, Martha Stewart Living magazine.

In 2001, Stewart was named the third most powerful woman in America by Ladies Home Journal. In 2004, she was convicted of lying to investigators about a stock sale and served five months in prison. After her release from prison, Stewart made a highly publicized and highly successful comeback. Martha Stewart was born in Nutley, New Jersey to middle-class Polish-American parents Edward “Eddie” Kostyra (c. 1912 – 1979) and Martha Ruszkowski Kostyra (b. Buffalo, New York, September 16, 1914 – d. Norwalk, Connecticut, November 16, 2007). Stewart, along with her five siblings, was raised in Nutley, New Jersey. Stewart graduated from Nutley High School in her hometown.

At this time, Stewart began to hone and develop her business skills. In 1967, she became a stockbroker. She was very successful until she left the profession in 1973, in order to focus more time on her daughter, and to restore her new home in Connecticut. It has been suggested that a scandal involving Levitz Furniture may have contributed to her decision to leave the firm of Monness, Horstman, Williams, and Sidel. Several Principals at the firm allegedly received kick-backs from Levitz for selling stock in the financially-troubled company. Stewart and her husband decided to move to Westport, Connecticut. They purchased and undertook a massive restoration of the 1805 farmhouse on Turkey Hill Road that would later become the model for the set of the Martha Stewart Living television program. Stewart and her husband undertook the entire venture by themselves. During the project, Stewart’s panache for restoring and decorating became apparent.

In 1976 Stewart started a catering business in her basement with a friend from her modeling days, Norma Collier. The venture quickly became successful, but soured when Collier alleged that Stewart was difficult to work with, and was also taking catering jobs on the side. Stewart soon bought her portion of the business. Stewart was also hired as the manager of a gourmet food store, The Market Basket at the Common Market which she transformed into a booming success.

Meanwhile, Stewart’s husband had become the president of prominent New York City publisher Harry N. Abrams, Inc. In 1977, Andy Stewart was responsible for releasing the English-language edition of The Secret Book of Gnomes series, by Dutch authors Wil Huygen and Rien Poortvliet which quickly became a blockbuster success and New York Times Best Seller. Andy Stewart contracted Stewart’s company to cater the book release party, where she was introduced to Alan Mirken, the head of Crown Publishing Group. Mirken was impressed by Stewart’s talent and later contacted her to develop a cookbook featuring recipes and photos from the parties that Stewart hosted. The result was Entertaining (book), ghostwritten by long-time fashion maven Elizabeth Hawes.

From there, word of her skills and business grew rapidly. Entertaining became a New York Times Best Seller, and the best selling cookbook since Julia Child and Simone Beck’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking, released two decades earlier.