Arthur Frommer

Arthur Bernard Frommer (July 17, 1929 – November 18, 2024) was an American travel writer known for founding the Frommer's brand of travel guides.

Early life Arthur Bernard Frommer was born on July 17, 1929, in Lynchburg, Virginia, the son of Pauline (Abrams) and Nathan Frommer. His parents were Jewish immigrants, his father from Austria and his mother from Poland. He spent his earliest years in Jefferson City, Missouri, before he and his family moved to New York City when he was 14.

Career Frommer was drafted into the United States Army during the Korean War. Rather than being sent to Korea, he was sent to Europe because of his linguistic abilities. His Goldwater From A to Z (1964) was an argument against the Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater in the 1964 United States presidential election.

In the 1980s, he published Frommer's New World of Travel, which advocated alternative vacation styles, and founded Budget Travel magazine, which he sold to Newsweek. He briefly ventured into general bargain shopping in 2005–2006 with the quarterly magazine Arthur Frommer's Smart Shopping.

In 1997, Arthur Frommer was brought on by publisher IDG (later known as Hungry Minds) to create Frommers.com. It became one of the first travel sites on the web and it remains one of the top sources for unbiased, journalistically created travel information on the internet, receiving millions of page views per month.

Over the decades, over 75 million Frommer's guidebooks have been sold.

Personal life and death After Frommer's marriage to Hope Arthur ended in divorce, he married Roberta Brodfield in 1994. He had one daughter and two stepdaughters. He died of complications from pneumonia at his home on Manhattan's Upper West Side on November 18, 2024, at the age of 95.