Frederic Morton (born October 5, 1924) is an Austrian-born Jewish-American writer who emigrated to the United States in 1940. Born Fritz Mandelbaum in Vienna, Morton was the son of a blacksmith who specialized in forging imperial medals. In the wake of the Anschluss of 1938, his father was arrested, but later released. In 1939 the family fled to Britain, and the following year they migrated to New York. The senior Morton changed the family name to Morton in 1940 to be able to join the then anti-Semitic labor union.
Frederic Morton worked as a baker, but began studying literature in 1949. He returned to Austria in 1962 to marry his fiancée, Marcia, whom he had met at college.
From 1959, Morton worked as a columnist for several American periodicals, including The New York Times, Esquire, and Playboy.
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