Michael Korda

Michael Korda (born 8 October 1933) is a writer and novelist who was editor-in-Chief of Simon & Schuster in New York City.

Early Years

Born in London, England, United Kingdom, Michael Korda is the son of English actress Gertrude Musgrove and artist and film production designer Vincent Korda and the nephew of Hungarian-born film magnate Sir Alexander Korda and brother Zoltan. Korda grew up in England but received part of his education in France where his father had worked with film director Marcel Pagnol. He was schooled at the private Institut Le Rosey in Switzerland and read History at Magdalen College, Oxford. He served in the Royal Air Force.

Career

While in his early twenties, he moved to New York City where he was employed by playwright Sidney Kingsley as a research assistant. In 1958 he joined the book publishing firm, Simon & Schuster, starting as an assistant editor, which included the task of reading "slush pile" manuscripts. He became Editor-in-Chief of the company and was a major figure in the book industry, publishing numerous works by high-profile writers and personalities such as William L. Shirer, Will and Ariel Durant, Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. However, from a commercial point of view, Korda is best noted for pioneering best-selling novels by authors such as Jacqueline Susann and Harold Robbins that in the 1960s were considered very daring.

Michael Korda was a major part of Simon & Schuster for more than forty years and one of the most influential people in the business of book publishing. In the autumn of 1994, he was diagnosed as having prostate cancer. In 1997 he wrote Man to Man, which recounted his medical experience. In 2000, he published Another Life: A Memoir of Other People, about the world of publishing.

Among Korda's better-known books are Charmed Lives, which was a memoir about his life with his father and uncle, and the novel Queenie, which is a roman a clef about his aunt Merle Oberon. The latter was adapted into a TV miniseries.

Private Life

Michael Korda married first wife Carolyn Keese in 1958 and had one son, Chris Korda, the leader of the controversial Church of Euthanasia. Michael is married to Margaret Korda (nee Mogford), a former fashion model.

Bibliography

• Male Chauvinism and How It Works at Home and in the Office, Hodder and Stoughton, 1972 ISBN 0-340-19936-9

• Power! How to Get It, How to Use It, Random House: New York, 1975, ISBN 0-394-49314-1

• Ulysses S. Grant: The Unlikely Hero, New York: HarperCollins, 2004, ISBN 978-0060590154

• Journey to a Revolution: A Personal Memoir and History of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, Harper Perrenial, 2006, ISBN 978-0-06-077262-8

• Hero: The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia, Harper, 2010, ISBN 978-00617-12616

References

External links

• NNDB
• Booknotes interview with Korda on Another Life: A Memoir of Other People, July 11, 1999.