Michael Korda
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Michael Korda (b. 1933 in London, England, United Kingdom) is a novelist who was Editor-in-Chief of Simon & Schuster in New York City.
He 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. Michael 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 then studied at Oxford University. He served in the Royal Air Force.
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 went on to become 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 novels that in the 1960s were considered as very daring. His authors such as Jacqueline Susann and Harold Robbins produced blockbuster sales with novels that were highly profitable for the company.
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.
Korda's two best-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.
Michael Korda is the father of Chris Korda, the leader of the controversial Church of Euthanasia.
[edit] Bibliography
- Male Chauvinism and how it works at home and in the office, Hodder and Stoughton , 1972 ISBN 0-340-19936-9
