Lloyd Allen - Being Martha

Being Martha — read online for free the complete book (whole text) full work

Below is the text of the book, divided by pages. System saving the place of the last page read, allows you to conveniently read the book "Being Martha" online for free, without having to search again every time where you left off. Put a bookmark, and you can go to the page where you finished reading at any time.

Light

Font size:

↓

↑

Georgia Tahoma Arial Verdana

Reset

Interval:

↓

↑

Bookmark:

Make

1234567...40

Table of Contents

For Sam and Phoebe

Acknowledgments

I am a friend and fan of Martha Stewarts who wanted to tell what I know of her. I could not have done this without the help and support of many people.

I have to thank Martha for trusting me and allowing me unfettered entre to people in her life who know the truth about this complex womans personality and who would not have come forward without her approval and cooperation.

I owe Marthas daughter, Alexis, untold gratitude for her insight and her saintly patience over the past two years. Her guidance and approving glances lightened my burden, but most of all it was her smile and sense of humor that made it all worth it.

Sitting and talking with Marthas motherwhat can I say? Shes seen it all. I enjoyed her stories, and she was just a lot of fun to be with (despite the occasional fracas coming from the songbirds). Without George and Lauras memories the book would not be half of what it is, for they are the two siblings closest to Martha who worked beside their sister to help her realize the giant dream.

And to everyone else who allowed me into their memories of Marthayou know I cant thank you enough. In no particular order, I have to thank Audrey Doneger, Beverly Feldman, Brooke Dojny, Charles Case, Corey Tippin, Eva Scrivo, John Hanson Jr., Judy Morris, Lisa Wagner, Louise Felix, Necy Fernandez, Omar Honeyman, Sarah Gross, and Victoria Sloat. If I thought I knew who Martha was, each and every one of you showed me that she was so much more than I could have ever believed.

There were those who said no one wanted to hear the other side of the Martha storythat the public doesnt buy anything unless it involves gossip and tawdry tales. So thanks to Gerry Gross, who thought differently and introduced me to my agent, Jill Kneerim, who delivered me to Tom Miller at Wiley, who is a fan of Marthas and not only believed in the idea for the book but is one hell of a good editor. Many thanks to his assistant, Juliet Grames, for helping input Toms edits and also for the reference to Shakespeare by virtue of her lovely name.

I love words, I enjoy challenges, and I have dreamed of writing a book, but I am not a journalist. As a first-time author, I could not have done this book without the help of Natasha Stoynoff, who literally played the Sundance Kid to my Butch Cassidy. My hat is off to my writing mentor, who taught me untold tricks; shes a true gunslinger who showed me where to place the dynamite and how to pull the trigger on the run.

To my wife, Leslie, who introduced me to the genius of Martha Stewart nearly thirty years agothank you for all your patience and understanding over the past two years and for always believing in me.

Introduction

Of all the stories Ive heard about Martha Stewart, my favorite is a seemingly ordinary little moment. Years ago, Martha was visiting her friend Beverly Bronfeld, who owned a tiny antiques shop a few blocks from Marthas home in Westport, Connecticut. The shop was filled with the magic and musty aroma of an old attic. Martha adored it. She would pop in at least once a week and marvel at Beverlys treasures, especially her extensive Fire King Jade-ite collection and porcelain salt and pepper shakers.

I wonder whose table these came from, Martha mused one day, picking up a pair and admiring their delicate silhouettes. Id love to have seen this persons kitchen!

As Martha browsed with her daughter, Alexis, or Lexi as she is called, she noticed the pungent scent of onions and garlic. She scanned the room and didnt see any food anywhere, but she did see a side door open a few inchesit led to another room attached to the shop. As Martha followed her nose closer to the door, the scent grew stronger. Without hesitating, she pushed open the door, and there in a small kitchen stood a short man who looked to be in his eighties, stirring a simmering pot of something that smelled intoxicating.

Oh, thats Mr. Borchetta, my landlord, Beverly rushed over and explained. Martha, with Lexi trailing behind her, had already charged into the mans apartment to where he stood, startled, wooden spoon in hand.

Mr. Borchetta, who was born in Italy, owned the building that housed Beverlys shop, which used to be a grocery store until Beverly started renting it. He still lived in the semiattached apartment next door and loved to cook. He was always emerging from the connecting door with a wooden spoon in hand, asking Beverly to sample his sauce of the day and give her opinion.

What is that? Martha asked, pointing to his pot. It smells delicious.

He told her it was pasta e fagiole soup. Martha reached over and plucked the wooden spoon out of Mr. Borchettas hand, dipped it into the simmering pot, and tasted.

Mmmm. Whats giving it that zest? Is that a ham bone I see? Did you soak the beans overnight first? She dipped the spoon in again. Lexi, Lexicome here. You have to try this.

Mr. Borchetta had never met Martha Stewart before and had no idea who this stranger eating his soup was. But one passionate cook always recognizes another, and their kinship was immediate.

The two of them stood in the tiny kitchen for what seemed like an hour as Martha interrogated Mr. Borchetta about his family recipes. What did he make for Easter? For Christmas? For Thanksgiving? They ran through the list of all the holidays and seasons, with the old man explaining how he basted and sifted and whisked.

When Martha and Lexi finally left, Martha was armed with dozens of new recipes scrawled on the backs of old envelopes.

To me, this simple scene sums up my friend Martha Stewart.

First, shes someone who gets all charged up when she discovers something unique and wonderful, especially when she finds it in the most unlikely of places. One of her special abilities is to spot and appreciate talent and beauty and zest in everyday people and things. This is a woman who will travel to the ends of the earth just to get the best hot dog or egg and bacon sandwich shes ever tasted.

Second, when Martha makes a great find, she wants to share it with the world. You can bet that pasta e fagiole recipeprobably one Mr. Borchettas grandmother used to makefound its way into one of Marthas cookbooks. She wanted any homemaker in North America to be able to have some of Mr. Borchettas home cooking bubbling over on her stove, too.

The Martha Stewart I know is not the one pundits ranted about on television as I watched one sweltering June day in 2003 in my sisters living room in Texas. Thanks to her digital satellite dish, I was able to hear the indictment in the case of The United States of America versus Martha Stewart on five hundred channels. Ive known Martha and her family for nearly three decades. At that moment in 2003, not only was I shocked and dumbfounded, I was fed up.

I was exasperated at the stories I had been reading about Martha in the months and years leading up to this moment. The headlines had screamed about how she yelled at her underlings or how she wanted everything done her way. They claimed she had mood swings, she never slept, she made her family work for her, she was mean to her husband and drove him away, she is an impatient perfectionist who talks down to her audience, she screams at her maids and gardeners and neighbors and waiters and the town authorities and even some little kids along the way.

Next page

1234567...40

Light

Font size:

↓

↑

Georgia Tahoma Arial Verdana

Reset

Interval:

↓

↑

Bookmark:

Make

Similar books «Being Martha»

Look at similar books to Being Martha. We have selected literature similar in name and meaning in the hope of providing readers with more options to find new, interesting, not yet read works.

Peter Lloyd

Inside Story: From ABC foreign correspondent to Singapore prisoner #12988

Martha Holstein

Women in Late Life: Critical Perspectives on Gender and Age

Lloyd Geering

Wrestling with God: The Story of My Life

Robert Slater

Martha: On Trial, in Jail, and on a Comeback

Blakeley White-McGuire

The Martha Graham Dance Company: House of the Pelvic Truth

Robert Lloyd George

David & Winston: How the Friendship Between Lloyd George and Churchill Changed the Course of History

Ian Lloyd

The Duke: 100 Chapters in the Life of Prince Philip

Andrew Lloyd Webber

Andrew Lloyd Webber Unmasked

Churchill Winston

Lloyd George & Churchill: rivals for greatness

Cailyn Lloyd [Lloyd

Shepherd’s Warning

Gellhorn Martha

Gellhorn : a twentieth-century life

Lloyd

Never Give Up: How To Overcome Anything

Discussion, reviews of the book Being Martha and just readers' own opinions. Leave your comments, write what you think about the work, its meaning or the main characters. Specify what exactly you liked and what you didn't like, and why you think so.