Fierce Ambition

Fierce Ambition is a biography of Marguerite "Maggie" Higgins, a twentieth-century war correspondent who fought her way to the top of a profession dominated by men. She became famous for her dramatic account of the liberation of Dachau at the end of World War II. Told that a combat zone was no place for a woman, she pushed her way to the front anyway.

Higgins was brash, beautiful, ruthlessly competitive and sexually adventurous. Her headline-making exploits earned her a reputation for bravery that verged on recklessness, along with accusations that she "advanced on her back" by trading sexual favors for scoops. Her notoriety grew during the Cold War, and her daring dispatches from Korea won her a Pulitzer Prize. As a star reporter she grew close to the Kennedy brothers, but she also provoked bitter rivalries with male correspondents who vilified her until her untimely death.

Journalist and historian Jennet Conant explores Higgins's turbulent life and her legacy: a trailblazing career, unwavering courage, and a refusal to give up success in order to fit expectations of gender.