Karen Blumenthal

Blumenthal was born in Texas and attended Hillcrest High School before enrolling in Duke University. She got an MBA from Southern Methodist University.[1]

Blumenthal was a financial journalist for the Wall Street Journal for 25 years. She previously worked as a bureau chief for the newspaper in Dallas,[2] and as a reporter for the Dallas morning News.[3]

Blumenthal wrote Hillary Rodham Clinton: A Woman Living History, a biography of Hillary Rodham Clinton, and followed Clinton through her 2016 presidential campaign; Blumenthal had to hastily rewrite the ending of the book when it became clear that Clinton had not won the election.[4]

She taught journalism with her husband at Duke University[5] and Texas Christian University.

She began writing young-adult novels in 2016.

Blumenthal’s work has been awarded:[6]

• Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal
• Jane Addams Children’s Book Award
• Kentucky Bluegrass Award
• YALSA’s Award for Nonfiction (three time finalist)

Her article: Grande Expectations: A Year in the Life of Starbucks’ Stock, was named by Kiplinger’s magazine as one of the five best investing reads of 2007.[7] In 2003, her Six Days in October: The Stock Market Crash of 1929, won the Sibert Honor Book.[8] In 2008, she received the Futrell Award for Outstanding Achievement in Communications and Journalism.[9]

Blumenthal was married to Scott McCartney, a fellow journalist at The Wall Street Journal.[10] The couple has two children.

She was an activist for Dallas public libraries.[11] Blumenthal’s hobbies included needlepoint, for which she won medals at the Texas State Fair, and baking.[4]

Blumenthal died from a heart attack in May 2020, at the age of 61.[12]