Marylin Bender Altschul (April 25, 1925 – October 19, 2020) was an American journalist and author. Bender worked at the ''

New York Journal American :''Includes coverage of New York Journal-American and its predecessors New York Journal, The Journal, New York American and New York Evening Journal'' The ''New York Journal-American'' was a daily newspaper published in New York City from 1937 t ...

,'' ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', and ''

Business World ''BusinessWorld'' is a business newspaper in the Philippines with a nationwide circulation of more than 117,000 (as of March 2014). Founded in 1967 as ''Business Day'', it is Southeast Asia's first daily business newspaper. History ''Busin ...

''. She is known for being the first female business editor of The New York Times. She also authored several books.

Early life and education

Bender grew up in Prospect Park and her family moved to

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

when she was young. She graduated from

Smith College Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smith (Smith College ...

in 1944 and received a JD from

Columbia Law School Columbia Law School (Columbia Law or CLS) is the law school of Columbia University, a private Ivy League university in New York City. Columbia Law is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world and has always ranked i ...

in 1947.

Career

Bender started her journalism career after school working the dangerous crime beat for the ''

'' where she covered the Jesús Galíndez kidnapping and murder. She also worked for ''

Parade A parade is a procession of people, usually organized along a street, often in costume, and often accompanied by marching bands, float (parade), floats, or sometimes large balloons. Parades are held for a wide range of reasons, but are usually ce ...

''. In 1959, Bender joined ''

'', where she worked for twenty-five years reporting on style and business. Bender was known for reporting on the Jet Set of the day with a sense of detachment and critique. Her 1967 book ''The Beautiful People'' chronicled several well-known names of the era and critiqued modern celebrity culture. That same year, New York City

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic app ...

Bergdorf Goodman Bergdorf Goodman Inc. is a luxury department store based on Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York. The company was founded in 1899 by Herman Bergdorf and was later owned and managed by Edwin Goodman, and later his son, Andrew Goodman. To ...

used supersized images of the index pages from the book as a window display. From 1976 to 1977, Bender edited the ''New York Times'' Sunday business and finance section, becoming the section's first female editor. She pioneered reporting on women's issues with

Charlotte Curtis Charlotte Murray Curtis (December 19, 1928 – April 16, 1987) was an American journalist, columnist and editor at ''The New York Times''. Career Curtis worked as a reporter and society editor for the ''Columbus Citizen'' for 11 years, and a ...

and

Gloria Emerson Gloria Emerson (May 19, 1929 – August 3, 2004) was an American author, journalist and ''New York Times'' war correspondent. Emerson received the 1978 National Book Award in Contemporary Thought for ''Winners and Losers'', her book about the V ...

. From 1985 until 1991, Bender edited ''Business World'', a supplement to The New York Times Magazine. Bender and her husband, Selig Altschul, were the authors of ''The Chosen Instrument'', an acclaimed history of

Pan American Airways Pan American World Airways, originally founded as Pan American Airways and commonly known as Pan Am, was an American airline that was the principal and largest international air carrier and unofficial overseas flag carrier of the United States ...

and biography of its founder,

Juan Trippe Juan Terry Trippe (June 27, 1899 – April 3, 1981) was an American commercial aviation pioneer, entrepreneur and the founder of Pan American World Airways, one of the iconic airlines of the 20th century. He was involved in the introduction of t ...

Personal life

She married

Selig Altschul Selig may refer to: *Selig (name) *Selig (band), a Hamburg-based German grunge band *Selig, Ohio, a community in the United States *Selig Polyscope Company, an American motion picture company founded by William Selig See also *Zelig (disambiguati ...

, who was one of the leading financial advisors to the airline industry, in 1959 and had a son, James Sloan, in 1960.

Awards and honors

Bender was elected to the New York Women in Communication's Matrix Hall of Fame in 1972 and received the

Smith College Medal Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smith (Smith College ...

in 1978.

Publications

Articles

* *

Books

* * * *

References

External links

Marylin Bender papers
at the

Sophia Smith Collection The Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College is an internationally recognized repository of manuscripts, photographs, periodicals and other primary sources in women's history. General One of the largest recognized repositories of manuscripts, ar ...

, Smith College Special Collections {{DEFAULTSORT:Bender, Marilyn 1925 births 2020 deaths American women journalists American women novelists 20th-century American women writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers Smith College alumni Columbia Law School alumni 21st-century American women