Fierce Ambition: The Life and Legend of War Correspondent Maggie Higgins

Marguerite Higgins was both the scourge and envy of the journalistic world. A longtime reporter for the New York Herald Tribune, she first catapulted to fame with her dramatic account of the liberation of Dachau at the end of World War II. Brash, beautiful, ruthlessly competitive, and sexually adventurous, she forced her way to the front despite being told the combat zone was no place for a woman. Her headline-making exploits earned her a reputation for bravery bordering on recklessness and accusations of advancing on her back, trading sexual favors for scoops.

While the Herald Tribune exploited her feminine appealregularly featuring the photogenic girl reporter on its front pagesit was Maggies dogged determination, talent for breaking news, and unwavering ambition that brought her success from one war zone to another. Her notoriety soared during the Cold War, and her daring dispatches from Korea garnered a Pulitzer Prize for foreign correspondencethe first granted to a woman for frontline reportingwith the citation noting the unusual dangers and difficulties she faced because of her sex. A star reporter, she became part of the Kennedy brothers Washington circle, though her personal alliances and politics provoked bitter feuds with male rivals, who vilified her until her untimely death.

Drawing on new and extensive research, including never-before-published correspondence and interviews with Maggies colleagues, lovers, and soldiers and generals who knew her in the field, journalist and historian Jennet Conant restores Maggies rightful place in history as a woman who paved the way for the next generation of journalists, and one of the greatest war correspondents of her time.