Deborah Hart Strober Biography

Deborah Hart Strober was born in Newark, New Jersey, due to what she calls an "accident" of birth in that she was supposed to come into this world at Beth Israel hospital in New York City. 

 

Her father, a well-known journalist, and his pregnant wife had been invited to attend the New Jersey premiere of Gone With the Wind. Just before the intermission, Deborah's mother went into labor. Rushed to Newark's Beth Israel hospital, she would give birth two hours later.

 

Ms. Hart Strober, known professionally as Deborah Hart, attended Barnard College and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, before embarking on her concert and musical theater career. 

 

In 1977, her recently retired father, after serving for forty years as the editorial director of the Newhouse media empire, would establish the New York and Washingon Jewish Week, hiring Deborah to write a column she called "Notes on Music" and to do general assignment reporting. She would meet her future husband Gerald Strober while attempting to interview him foran  article on national politics.

 

In 1989, the Strobers began a writing partnership resulting in oral histories, oral biographies and narrative non-fiction. Their books include oral histories of the Kennedy, Nixon and Reagan presidencies, as well as oral biographies of Queen Elizabeth II, Billy Graham, the Dalai Lama and Rudolph Giuliani. Tapes and transcripts from these books are housed in the Gerald and Deborah Strober Oral History Collection at the Library of Congress. 

 

Their book on Bernard L.Madoff, the first to be published on that major financial scandal, was designated by the Washington Post as its Business Book of the month for May 2009. Two years later, the Strobers ghosted the New York Times bestselling autobiography of presidential candidate, Herman Cain.

 

Deborah and Gerald reside in New York City. Their children and grandchildren live variously in Brooklyn, Los Angeles and Tel Aviv.