Justin Martin

Background

Justin Martin was born on November 12, 1964, in Lafayette, Indiana, United States.

Education

Justin Martin graduated from Rice University in Houston, Texas in 1987.

Career

Justin Martin has been a staff writer for Fortune for six years, as well as a financial journalist and contributing editor for Fortune Small Business. He has written on a wide variety of subjects for both adults and, and was also a contributor to projects for children's publisher Scholastic, Inc.

Martin’s specialty is American history, meticulously researched, but delivered in a narrative style that’s akin to fiction. He wrote The Fantastic Baseball Quiz Book in 1996, Greenspan: The Man Behind Money in 2000 and Nader: Crusader, Spoiler, Icon in 2002.

Justin Martin’s Genius of Place: The Life of Frederick Law Olmsted was published in 2011. Genius tells the story of one of the most important figures in the history of America. Olmsted was a fervent abolitionist, noted journalist, Civil War hero, early environmentalist, and the landscape architect behind New York’s Central Park, Boston’s Emerald Necklace, Stanford University, the Biltmore Estate and dozens of other green spaces around the U.S.

Justin's previous book Rebel Souls: Walt Whitman and America’s First Bohemians that came out in 2014, is the first book ever written about a decadent and incredibly influential artists’ circle that hung out at Pfaff’s saloon in NYC during the 1850s.

Justin Martin’s latest book A Fierce Glory: Antietam -The Desperate Battle That Saved Lincoln and Doomed Slavery was published in 2018. Presently, Martin lives and works in Forest Hills Gardens, New York, a landmark neighborhood designed by Frederick Law Olmsted Jr.

Achievements

• All of Martin’s books have been reviewed widely and well, drawing raves in publications including the Washington Post, Miami Herald, San Francisco Chronicle, Christian Science Monitor, and Vanity Fair.
  
  Martin’s bestselling Greenspan bio was chosen as a notable book by the New York Times Book Review. Rebel Souls was selected as the outstanding biography of 2014 by the Victoria Society, New York, and was a finalist for the Marfield Prize, and was picked as one of the best books of 2014 by both the Kansas City Star and Choice magazine.
  
  Martin is frequently called upon to give speeches, especially about Olmsted, a vitally important American historical figure whose influence is still felt across the nation.
  
  Justin's articles have appeared in various magazines such as Newsweek, Money, and Conde Nast Traveler, as well as in newspapers across the country: The New York Times, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, and Lawrence (KS) Journal-World.
  
  To discuss his various books and articles, Martin has made numerous television appearances on CNN, CBS Sunday Morning, CNBC Power Lunch, and is also a radio regular.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Rebel Souls: Walt Whitman and America’s First Bohemians

    (Rebel Souls is the first book ever written about the colo...)

    2014
  • Genius of Place: The Life of Frederick Law Olmsted

    (Frederick Law Olmsted is arguably the most important hist...)

    2011
  • A Fierce Glory: Antietam -The Desperate Battle That Saved Lincoln and Doomed Slavery

    (The epic battle, fought near Sharpsburg, Maryland, was a ...)

    2018
  • Greenspan: The Man Behind Money

    (Greenspan: The Man Behind Money presents the famous Fed C...)

    2000
  • Nader: Crusader, Spoiler, Icon

    (Few figures in our history have had the wide-ranging infl...)

    2002
  • The Fantastic Baseball Quiz Book 1996

Interests

• Gardening, run marathons

Connections

Justin Martin is married and has twin sons.