By Christopher Byron, 416 pages, published March 2002 by Wiley, John and Sons
 
 
 

By Zoe Friloux Love her or hate her, Martha Stewart provokes emotions like few others before her. Christopher Byron’s Martha Inc., unlike a previous unauthorized biography about the lifestyle expert, attempts to provide an unbiased – if at times disturbing – look at private and public events in Stewart’s life. Although Byron’s work, too, was unauthorized, he does an excellent job of chronicling the good and the bad through numerous interviews and research. From Stewart’s early life – growing up as Martha Kostyra in a Polish immigrant family in New Jersey – to her creation of one of the most successful media companies in America, fans and foes alike will be enthralled by accounts of her modeling career, marriage and divorce, and business dealings. Martha Inc. provides a look at a grandiose life few people in the world can begin to imagine. But many will be able to relate to its documenting of shaky family relationships, breakdown of communication channels and quests for wealth and prestige. Mediawatchers will find special entertainment in the accounts of CBS’ work with Stewart – and the developments that kept her from being cast as Dan Rather’s co-anchor during the network’s coverage of Pope John Paul II’s visit to Cuba in 1998. Byron, who has worked as an editor at Time and Forbes and writes the "Back of the Envelope" column that appears in the New York Post, theorizes that many of Stewart’s obsessions and personal problems can be traced to her father, Eddie Kostyra, who is presented as a domineering alcoholic who resented his role as father to six children. The author’s well-developed use of this theme serves as an excuse of sorts for Stewart’s behavior, as in "It’s all her father’s fault." But despite some long-winded anecdotes and glossing over of moral weaknesses, this version of the story of the queen of entertaining’s rise to superstardom is at once entertaining and educational. Martha Stewart’s story as told in Martha Inc. ends in early 2002, before Securities and Exchange Commission and congressional investigators began probing her sale of ImClone stock. But readers do get a couple of brief looks at her relationship with Sam Waksal, the ImClone CEO whose actions tied to the scandal – and arrest in June 2002 – have made his name an oft-used one in news stories about corporate misbehavior.