Rosenblum, Mort 1943-

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Rosenblum, Mort 1943-

PERSONAL:

Born June 12, 1943, in Milwaukee, WI; son of Martin and Mary Rosenblum; married Randi Slaughter (a writer), October 16, 1971 (divorced). Education: University of Arizona, B.A., 1965; graduate study at Columbia University, 1976-77. Religion: Jewish.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Associated Press, 162 rue du Faubourg St. Honoré, 75008 Paris, France. Agent—Carol Mann Literary Agency, 55 Fifth Ave, New York, NY 10003.

CAREER:

Associated Press, New York, NY, correspondent in Kinshasa, Zaire, 1967-68, and Lagos, Nigeria, 1968-70, bureau chief in Singapore, 1970-73, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1973-76, and Paris, France, 1977-79; International Herald Tribune, Paris, editor-in-chief, 1979-81; Associated Press, New York, special correspondent in Paris, 1981—.

MEMBER:

Council on Foreign Relations, Overseas Press Club, Anglo-American Press Club.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Edward R. Murrow Fellow, 1976-77; University of Arizona Centennial Medal; James Beard Award, 1996, for Olives: The Life and Lore of a Noble Fruit.

WRITINGS:

Coups and Earthquakes: Reporting the World for America, Harper (New York, NY), 1978.

(Editor, with Star Black) Hans Hoefer, Singapore, Apa Productions (Singapore), 1978.

Mission to Civilize: The French Way, Harcourt (New York, NY), 1986.

(With Doug Williamson) Squandering Eden: Africa at the Edge, Harcourt (New York, NY), 1987.

Back Home: A Foreign Correspondent Rediscovers America, Morrow (New York, NY), 1989.

(Author of text) David C. Turnley and Peter Turnley, Moments of Revolution: Eastern Europe, Workman Publishing (New York, NY), 1990.

(With Étienne-Emile Baulieu) The "Abortion Pill": RU-486, a Woman's Choice, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1991.

To Report It, You Must Be There, University of Arizona (Tucson, AZ), 1991.

Who Stole the News? Why We Can't Keep up with What Happens in the World and What We Can Do about It, John Wiley (New York, NY), 1993.

The Secret Life of the Seine, Addison-Wesley (Reading, MA), 1994.

Olives: The Life and Lore of a Noble Fruit, North Point Press (New York, NY), 1996.

A Goose in Toulouse: And Other Culinary Adventures in France, Hyperion (New York, NY), 2000.

Chocolate: A Bittersweet Saga of Dark and Light, North Point Press (New York, NY), 2005.

Rebuild: Kosovo Six Years After, De.MO (Millbrook, NY), 2006.

Contributor to periodicals, including Foreign Affairs, New York Review of Books, and Nouvelles Litteraires.

SIDELIGHTS:

As a foreign correspondent and former bureau chief in Paris for the Associated Press, Mort Rosenblum has traveled extensively throughout Africa, Asia, and South America to report on wars, disasters, and foreign economics. It is estimated that Rosenblum has visited more than 145 different nations in a career that began in 1967; he has recorded his experiences in countless newspaper articles and also in books that reflect on the life of a journalist. Editor & Publisher contributor M.L. Stein commended Rosenblum for using "a probing, investigative style in writing international news stories." Stein further noted that Rosenblum "uses his extensive knowledge of languages, history and economics to dig into stories that readers can relate to," and added that Rosenblum "could be called the quintessential, globe-trotting foreign correspondent."

In his first book, Coups and Earthquakes: Reporting the World for America, Rosenblum warns against what he considers the philosophy that is held by many American newspaper editors: that the only foreign events which concern Americans are natural disasters and military coups. Instead, the author believes that the American people desire detailed foreign news coverage and that, as Caroline Seebohm noted in the New York Times Book Review, "failing to present the people with efficient first-hand reporting from abroad is both irresponsible and undemocratic." Stein claimed in Editor & Publisher that Coups and Earthquakes "is one of the best accounts ever written of a foreign correspondent's life and work."

Rosenblum attempts to follow his own advice by providing accurate reporting in his next two books, Mission to Civilize: The French Way and Squandering Eden: Africa at the Edge, the latter cowritten with Doug Williamson. These volumes consider how the governments of Africa and throughout the Third World treat both their citizens and the environment. In Mission to Civilize, the author discusses the effects of French colonization around the world, focusing on France's diplomatic relations with its former colonies. New York Times Book Review contributor William R. Carlson wrote that in Mission to Civilize, Rosenblum "deftly weaves an impressive array of facts and observations, drawn from his many years as a journalist, around the idea that France, unlike the other great colonial powers, has managed to remain a global power, thanks to its own projection of itself as a civilizing force." African countries are the subject of focus in Squandering Eden. In this book, Rosenblum's knowledge of politics is combined with Williamson's concern for the environment to produce what Michael Parks called in the Los Angeles Times Book Review, "a profoundly disturbing book" about the plight of Africa's people and wildlife.

Although some reviewers, such as Business Week correspondent John Rossant, accused Rosenblum of sometimes being "a little too glib, as in his thumbnail romp through French history" in Mission to Civilize, Rosenblum's skill as a reporter has often been noted. James Brooke, for example, commented in the New York Times Book Review that, "unburdened with sentimentality, Squandering Eden puts in sharp focus the grim outlook for Africa." New York Times contributor John Gross likewise asserted that the author is "exceptionally fair-minded" in Mission to Civilize. Rosenblum, concluded Rossant, "has a keen reporter's eye and a humorous, sometimes devilish pen."

The author has taken advantage of his experience as a world traveler for some twenty years to offer a new perspective of his native country. Back Home: A Foreign Correspondent Rediscovers America, compares Rosenblum's memories of America with what he actually finds upon his return. Looking at his country as if it were another foreign land about which he is reporting, the author experiences a combination of affection and disappointed surprise, especially when it comes to the racism which still remains despite years of social change. The result of this revelation, as Publishers Weekly contributor Genevieve Stuttaford observed, is that "the underlying dark note in Rosenblum's narrative is prominent albeit illuminating."

Who Stole the News? Why We Can't Keep up with What Happens in the World and What We Can Do about It laments the current American penchant for domestic and local news at the expense of a well-rounded interest in global affairs. Rosenblum notes that the trial of actress Zsa Zsa Gabor, indicted for slapping a California policeman, consumed more print than the coverage of independence movements in forty African nations. He advocates a grass roots push by American readers to improve the quantity and quality of foreign reporting. Contemporary Review essayist Chris Arthur felt that Rosenblum "is well placed to comment on the realities of news gathering and the ways in which independent coverage of world affairs is now under threat from a variety of sources." Arthur added that the book "contains more than enough startling examples to wake up even the most uncritical newspaper reader (or television viewer) to some important facts about the way the world is pictured by the media."

In Editor & Publisher, Rosenblum commented on the importance of in-depth foreign reporting. "It's easy for TV to show you the main line with a sound bite from a source, but they pass over the important questions," he said. "Only a seasoned correspondent, who knows about people, history and economics, and has time to dig and the space to get it in the paper, can come up with the real story that readers can relate to."

Rosenblum has been based in France since the mid-1970s, and some of his books reflect his life there in more whimsical terms. Olives: The Life and Lore of a Noble Fruit, a culinary history, stemmed from his purchase of a French property that contained an old but still productive olive grove. The Secret Life of the Seine explores the lives of those who live on houseboats and barges on the Seine River in France, while A Goose in Toulouse: And Other Culinary Adventures in France is an extended meditation on the changes wrought in legendary French cuisine by industrialization and Americanization. A Time International correspondent wrote of A Goose in Toulouse: "Making the supreme sacrifice for his subject, Rosenblum reports from the front lines in France's gourmet restaurants, and he emerges from the trenches with exquisite descriptions of epic 10-course meals. The result is an entertaining, if occasionally meandering, look at France's culinary culture."

Rosenblum followed with Chocolate: A Bittersweet Saga of Dark and Light, in which the text is printed in dark brown ink. In conducting his research, he traveled to nearly a dozen countries, from Mexico to Africa. What he discovered is that chocolate candy is basically an industrial product that contains little cacao, with quality far removed from that created by chocolatiers who approach their craft with extreme care. He debunks common assumptions, such as the Aztecs discovering chocolate and the Swiss creating the world's best chocolate. In fact he found many of the finest examples to be in Paris, France, where, as in many other countries, small shops produce exquisite chocolate for the purist. The sole purpose of some shops, such as that of Jacques Genin, is to supply fine restaurants. Rosenblum provides a history of chocolate, including the origination of Mexican mole sauce, which is a combination of chocolate and many other ingredients, and Nutella, the spreadable chocolate product invented in Italy. He comments on growing practices in various parts of the world and the way to judge the quality of the bean. He notes that the beans have been used as currency. He also writes of the negative side of the industry, such as the extreme poverty of Ivory Coast cacao plantation workers who have never even tasted chocolate. Rosenblum looks at the workings of the big chocolate producers, such as Hershey, Mars, Nestle, and Godiva, and of rivalries, including the one between England's Cadbury and Fry.

Rosenblum considers the chocolate of Belgian producer Godiva to be inferior and comments that their success is due to marketing and packaging. In an interview for Travel & Leisure, he told Amy Farley that American chocolate is improving, with notable companies being "Recchiuti, Scharffen Berger, and Guittard. You don't have to be an expert, but exploring the high end of the range will help you discover what you like and why you like it. And if you end up liking Snickers bars, there's nothing wrong with that." Booklist reviewer Barbara Jacobs called Chocolate "a compelling and tasty read."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, April 1, 1994, Alice Joyce, review of The Secret Life of the Seine, p. 1420; November 15, 1996, Bill Ott, review of Olives: The Life and Lore of a Noble Fruit, p. 558; February 1, 2005, Barbara Jacobs, review of Chocolate: A Bittersweet Saga of Dark and Light, p. 927.

Business Week, December 22, 1986, John Rossant, review of Mission to Civilize: The French Way.

Contemporary Review, July, 1994, Chris Arthur, review of Who Stole the News? Why We Can't Keep up with What Happens in the World and What We Can Do about It, p. 54.

Editor & Publisher, January 8, 1994, Hiley Ward, review of Who Stole the News?, p. 33; January 14, 1995, M.L. Stein, "Covering the World for AP," p. 12.

January, February, 2005, Tony Buchsbaum, review of Chocolate.

Kirkus Reviews, November 15, 2004, review of Chocolate, p. 1084.

Library Journal, January 1, 2005, Courtney Greene, review of Chocolate, p. 142.

Los Angeles Times Book Review, November 1, 1987, Michael Parks, review of Squandering Eden: Africa at the Edge, p. 6.

New York Times, December 19, 1986, John Gross, review of Mission to Civilize, p. 27; November 28, 1996, Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, review of Olives, p. B2.

New York Times Book Review, October 21, 1979, Caroline Seebohm, review of Coups and Earthquakes: Reporting the World for America, p. 16; December 21, 1986, William R. Carlson, review of Mission to Civilize, p. 20; November 29, 1987, James Brooke, review of Squandering Eden, p. 7.

Publishers Weekly, June 9, 1989, Genevieve Stuttaford, review of Back Home: A Foreign Correspondent Rediscovers America; August 3, 1990, Penny Kaganoff, review of Moments of Revolution: Eastern Europe, p. 70; October 11, 1991, review of The "Abortion Pill": RU-486, a Woman's Choice, p. 53; October 7, 1996, review of Olives, p. 57; December 13, 2004, review of Chocolate, p. 57.

Time International, December 18, 2000, review of Goose in Toulouse: And Other Culinary Adventures in France, p. 68.

Town & Country, April, 2005, John Cantrell, review of Chocolate, p. 58.