Frederic Morton (1924-2015) was an American writer. Born into a Jewish family in Vienna, his family fled post-Anschluss Austria in 1939, settling in New York. In America, Morton studied English literature, and published his first novel in 1947; he gained fame with The Rothschilds, a history of the banking family, published in 1962. He became an important New York literary figure, and worked as a journalist and critic for a number of publications. In total Morton published a dozen books, both fiction and nonfiction, many dealing with his native Austria; he became a celebrated figure in his native country during the later stages of his life. He died during a return trip to Vienna in 2015.
