“Citizens of Rome might boast that the claim of 'Civus romanus sum' set them apart from barbarians and slaves, and it was true up to a point, but Roman citizens lived in a society that accepted pain, cruelty, and torture as the norm, and in which there was no suggestion of equality at birth or mercy in the afterlife.”

English-born writer and novelist

Michael Korda is an English-born writer and novelist who became editor-in-chief of Simon & Schuster in New York City. He worked in book publishing as well as in fiction, bringing together editorial experience and a literary career. He is known for his writing and for his leadership at one of the major American publishing houses. His public voice comes from both sides of that work, as an editor shaping books and as an author writing them.