Elizabeth Gordon (August 8, 1906 – September 3, 2000) was editor of ''

House Beautiful ''House Beautiful'' is an interior decorating magazine that focuses on decorating and the domestic arts. First published in 1896, it is currently published by the Hearst Corporation, who began publishing it in 1934. It is the oldest still-publi ...

'' magazine from 1941 to 1964. She was remembered as "a missionary of taste to the American homemaker". In her well-known 1953 essay, "The Threat to the Next America", she criticized International Style modern architecture and associated it with totalitarianism and communism. For this she earned a personal letter of approval from

Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements o ...

, and the two became friends. In 1960, she introduced the Japanese aesthetic concept of

shibui ''Shibui'' (渋い) (adjective), ''shibumi'' (渋み) (noun), or ''shibusa'' (渋さ) (noun) are Japanese words that refer to a particular aesthetic of simple, subtle, and unobtrusive beauty. Like other Japanese aesthetics terms, such as '' iki'' ...

to an American audience. She spent five years researching the subject, including 16 months in Japan. The Shibui special issue (August 1960) "caused a sensation". She edited ''The House Beautiful/AIA Climate Control Project'', and wrote several articles on climate control for the magazine. She was married to Carl Norcross, "an authority on town planning." The couple's 1941 residence in

Dobbs Ferry, New York Dobbs Ferry is a village in Westchester County, New York, United States. The population was 10,875 according to the 2010 United States Census. In 2019, its population rose to an estimated 11,027. The village of Dobbs Ferry is located in, and is a p ...

, was designed by architect Julius Gregory.

References

Bibliography

External links

Elizabeth Gordon Papers 1958-1987
at

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gordon, Elizabeth 1906 births 2000 deaths American writers 20th-century American women writers American editors