Kati Marton

Last updated
Kati Marton
Born (1949-04-03) April 3, 1949 (age 75) [1]
Education Wells College, 1965–67
Sorbonne and Institut d'Études Politiques, Paris, 1967–68
George Washington University, B.A., 1969, M.A., 1971
Occupation(s)Journalist, human rights activist
Agent(s)Amanda Urban, International Creative Management
Notable credit ABC News
Spouse
  • Carroll Wetzel (div.)
    (m. 1979;div. 1993)
    (m. 1995;died 2010)
Children2

Kati Marton (born April 3, 1949) is a Hungarian-American author and journalist. Her career has included reporting for ABC News as a foreign correspondent and National Public Radio, where she started as a production assistant in 1971, as well as print journalism and writing a number of books.

Contents

She is a former chairwoman of the International Women's Health Coalition, and a director (former chairwoman) of the Committee to Protect Journalists and other bodies including the International Rescue Committee, Human Rights Watch, and the New America Foundation.

Biography

Early life

Marton was born in Budapest, Hungary, [2] [3] [4] the daughter of UPI reporter Ilona Marton and award-winning Associated Press reporter Endre Marton. Her parents survived the Holocaust of World War II but never spoke about it. They served nearly two years in prison on false charges of espionage for the U.S., and Kati and her older sister were placed in the care of strangers. Raised a Roman Catholic, she learned much later, and by accident, that her grandparents were Jews, who were murdered at the Auschwitz concentration camp. [5] Among the many honors her parents received for their reporting on the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was the George Polk Award. The family fled Hungary following the revolution and settled in Chevy Chase, Maryland, where Marton attended Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School. [6]

Education

Marton studied at Wells College, Aurora, New York, the Sorbonne and the Institut d'Études Politiques in Paris. Growing up in Hungary, she had a French nanny, so she was raised speaking both Hungarian and French, learning American English when her family moved to the U.S. She has a master's degree in International Relations from George Washington University.

Personal life

Marton has been married three times. She was first married to Carroll Wetzel, a retired international investment banker from Philadelphia, in the early 1970s. Her second husband was ABC News anchor Peter Jennings; Jennings and Marton had two children together, Elizabeth and Christopher, before divorcing in 1993.

Her third husband was diplomat Richard Holbrooke, from 1995 until his death in December 2010. Marton frequently traveled with Holbrooke during his diplomatic missions in the former Yugoslavia, and in the Middle East. [7] [8] She wrote about their love, and recovering from his death in her 2012 memoir Paris: A Love Story. [9]

Awards

Marton has received several honors for her reporting, including the 2001 Rebekah Kohut Humanitarian Award by the National Council of Jewish Women, the 2002 Matrix Award for Women Who Change the World, the George Foster Peabody Award (presented to WCAU-TV, Philadelphia, in 1973), and the Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary—the country's highest civilian honor. She is also a recipient of The International Center in New York's Award of Excellence. Her book, Enemies of the People: My Family's Journey to America, was an autobiography finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in 2009. [10]

Selected writing

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Beard</span> American chef (1903–1985)

James Andrews Beard was an American chef, cookbook author, teacher and television personality. He pioneered television cooking shows, taught at The James Beard Cooking School in New York City and Seaside, Oregon, and lectured widely. He emphasized American cooking, prepared with fresh, wholesome, American ingredients, to a country just becoming aware of its own culinary heritage. Beard taught and mentored generations of professional chefs and food enthusiasts. He published more than twenty books, and his memory is honored by his foundation's annual James Beard Awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jolie Gabor</span> Hungarian American jeweler and socialite (1896–1997)

Jolie Gabor, Countess de Szigethy was a Hungarian-born American jeweler and socialite, known as the mother of actresses and fellow socialites Magda, Zsa Zsa and Eva Gabor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Capa</span> Hungarian-American photographer

Robert Capa was a Hungarian–American war photographer and photojournalist. He is considered by some to be the greatest combat and adventure photographer in history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Holbrooke</span> American diplomat and author (1941–2010)

Richard Charles Albert Holbrooke was an American diplomat and author. He was the only person to have held the position of Assistant Secretary of State for two different regions of the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Leckie (author)</span> United States Marine and writer

Robert Hugh Leckie was a United States Marine and an author of books about the military history of the United States, Catholic history and culture, sports books, fiction books, autobiographies, and children's books. As a young man, he served with the 1st Marine Division during World War II; his service as a machine gunner and a scout during the war greatly influenced his work.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mariel Hemingway</span> American actress (born 1961)

Mariel Hemingway is an American actress. She began acting at age 14 with a Golden Globe-nominated breakout role in Lipstick (1976), and she received Academy and BAFTA Award nominations for her performance in Woody Allen's Manhattan (1979).

Noel Haviland Field was an American diplomat who was accused of being a spy for the NKVD. His name was used as a prosecuting rationale during the 1949 Rajk show trial in Hungary, as well as the 1952 Slánský show trial in Czechoslovakia. Much controversy surrounds the Field story. In 2015, the historian David Talbot reignited claims that Field was set up by Allen Dulles in order to create paranoia designed to undermine the Soviet Union.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Luttif Afif</span> Palestinian terrorist (died 1972)

Luttif Afif was a Palestinian terrorist. He commanded the eight-member attack team that carried out the Munich massacre, an invasion of the Munich Olympic Village on 5 September 1972. During the incident, nine members of Israel's Olympic team were taken hostage after two others, who had offered resistance, were shot dead. Afif was the chief negotiator on behalf of the Palestinians, who were members of the Black September offshoot of Yassir Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization. Afif and four of his compatriots were later killed by German snipers at Fürstenfeldbruck air base outside Munich.

Jonathan Fenby CBE is a British writer, analyst, historian and journalist who edited major newspapers in Britain and Asia.

Henry Kamm was a German-born American correspondent for The New York Times. He reported for the Times from Southeast Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

Will Friedwald is an American author and music critic. He has written for newspapers that include the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Village Voice, Newsday, New York Observer, and New York Sun  – and for magazines that include Entertainment Weekly, Oxford American, New York, Mojo, BBC Music Magazine, Stereo Review, Fi, and American Heritage.

Jessie Prichard Hunter is an American novelist. She is the author of three psychological thrillers, Blood Music, One Two Buckle My Shoe., and The Green Muse: An Edouard Mas Novel.

John Batki is an American short story writer, poet, and translator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kati Agócs</span> Canadian-American composer (born 1975)

Kati Ilona Agócs is a Canadian-American composer and a member of the composition faculty at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts.

András Kun, O.F.M. was a Roman Catholic priest of the Franciscan Order. During the Holocaust in Hungary, Kun was also the commander of an Anti-Semitic death squad for the Arrow Cross Party. After the Second World War, Kun was prosecuted for war crimes by a Hungarian People's Tribunal after Hungary's occupation by Soviet armies. He was convicted and hanged.

Hungarian pop is the pop music scene of Hungary. It is often associated with Rezső Seress's song "Gloomy Sunday" which was covered by numerous artists. The most notable artists include Zsuzsa Cserháti, Kati Kovács, Zsuzsa Koncz, Judith Szűcs, Péter Máté, Locomotiv GT, Omega, Neoton Família, Karthago, Jimmy Zámbó. Among the new talents are András Kállay-Saunders and Linda Király.

Edit Balázsovits is a Jászai Mari-Award winning Hungarian actress and singer. She starred in numerous plays, TV dramas and films, as well as many major international productions. In 2008, she was presented the Kornay Mariann-Award.

<i>Whitney, My Love</i>

Whitney, My Love is the first book published by author Judith McNaught. While written first, it is the second novel in the Westmoreland Dynasty Saga, preceded by A Kingdom of Dreams (1989) and followed by Until You (1994) and "Miracles" (1995/7).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Péter Medgyes</span>

Péter Medgyes is a professor emeritus at the School of English and American Studies of the Faculty of Humanities of Eötvös Loránd University.

References

  1. "Kati Marton" (fee, via Fairfax County Public Library). Contemporary Authors Online . Detroit: Gale. 2011. Retrieved 2011-09-30. Gale Biography In Context.
  2. Marton, Kati (October 23, 2006). "The Shadow of a Smile". The New York Times . Retrieved December 14, 2010.
  3. Bumiller, Elisabeth (July 23, 1998). "PUBLIC LIVES; Mr. Secretary, Perhaps, and Ms. Ambassador". The New York Times . Retrieved December 14, 2010.
  4. Furst, Alan (October 30, 2009). "The Dossier". The New York Times . Retrieved December 14, 2010.
  5. The Daily Beast: "In Syria, Europe & Boston, the Past Is Never Finished" by Kati Marton May 11, 2013 |Raised Catholic by my mother and father, I didn’t learn until adulthood that my maternal grandparents were in one of Adolf Eichmann’s early transports from the Hungarian countryside to Auschwitz. My parents, converted Jews, tried to shield me from the murderous hate they had experienced in Budapest; they had told me my grandparents had perished under the Allies’ bombs
  6. Mansfield, Stephanie (April 28, 1987). "Kati Marton's Hungarian Odyssey". The Washington Post. p. D1.
  7. McFadden, Robert D. (December 13, 2010). "RICHARD C. HOLBROOKE, 1941-2010 : Strong American Voice in Diplomacy and Crisis". New York Times. Retrieved 2012-08-28.
  8. "Richard C. Holbrooke". NNDB. Retrieved 2009-01-22.
  9. "Kati Marton, Recalling 'Paris' With Love And Longing". NPR Weekend Edition Saturday. August 18, 2012. Retrieved 2012-08-18.
  10. "National Book Critics Circle Announces Finalists". NBCC Board of Directors. January 23, 2010. Archived from the original on January 25, 2010. Retrieved 2011-01-17.