''Mademoiselle'' was a women's
magazine first published in 1935 by
Street and Smith
Street & Smith or Street & Smith Publications, Inc. was a New York City publisher specializing in inexpensive paperbacks and magazines referred to as dime novels and pulp fiction. They also published comic books and sporting yearbooks. Among th ...
and later acquired by
Condé Nast Publications.
''Mademoiselle'', primarily a fashion magazine, was also known for publishing
short stories by noted authors including
Truman Capote,
Joyce Carol Oates,
William Faulkner,
Tennessee Williams,
James Baldwin,
Flannery O'Connor,
Sylvia Plath,
Paul Bowles
Paul Frederic Bowles (; December 30, 1910November 18, 1999) was an American expatriate composer, author, and translator. He became associated with the Moroccan city of Tangier, where he settled in 1947 and lived for 52 years to the end of his ...
,
Jane Bowles,
Jane Smiley
Jane Smiley (born September 26, 1949) is an American novelist. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1992 for her novel ''A Thousand Acres'' (1991).
Biography
Born in Los Angeles, California, Smiley grew up in Webster Groves, Missouri, a su ...
,
Mary Gordon,
Paul Theroux,
Sue Miller
Sue Miller (born November 29, 1943) is an American novelist and short story writer who has written a number of best-selling novels.
Biography
Born in Chicago, Miller was preoccupied with her duties as a single mother, leaving little time to writ ...
,
Barbara Kingsolver,
Perri Klass
Perri Klass (born 1958) is an American pediatrician and writer who has published extensively about her medical training and pediatric practice. Among her subjects have been the issues of women in medicine, relationships between doctors and patient ...
,
Mona Simpson,
Alice Munro,
Harold Brodkey
Harold Brodkey (October 25, 1930 – January 26, 1996), born Aaron Roy Weintraub, was an American short-story writer and novelist.
Life
Brodkey was the second child born in Staunton, Illinois, to Max Weintraub and Celia Glazer Weintraub (1899 ...
, Pam Houston,
Jean Stafford
Jean Stafford (July 1, 1915 – March 26, 1979) was an American short story writer and novelist. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for '' The Collected Stories of Jean Stafford'' in 1970.
Biography
She was born in Covina, California, to M ...
, and
Susan Minot
Susan Minot (born December 7, 1956) is an American novelist, short story writer, poet, playwright, screenwriter and painter.
Early life
Minot was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and grew up in Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts. Her father, ...
.
Julia Cameron
Julia B. Cameron (born March 4, 1948Floor Sample, by Julia Cameron, (Tarcher, 2006; ), a memoir) is an American teacher, author, artist, poet, playwright, novelist, filmmaker, pigeon fancier, composer, and journalist. She is best known for her ...
was a frequent columnist. The art director was
Barbara Kruger.
In 1952,
Sylvia Plath's short story "Sunday at the Mintons" won first prize and $500, as well as publication in the magazine. Her experiences during the summer of 1953 as a guest editor at ''Mademoiselle'' provided the basis for her novel, ''
The Bell Jar
''The Bell Jar'' is the only novel written by the American writer and poet Sylvia Plath. Originally published under the pseudonym "Victoria Lucas" in 1963, the novel is semi-autobiographical with the names of places and people changed. The boo ...
''.
The August 1961 "college issue" of ''Mademoiselle'' included a photo of
UCLA senior class president Willette Murphy, who did not realize she was making history as the first African-American model to appear in a mainstream fashion magazine.
During an interview with ''Fashion Week Online'',
Fern Mallis mentioned that she was one of 20 winners of the guest editing competition that she entered while attending college. She stated that she "was the only one of the 20 asked to come back and get a full-time job with the magazine." Mallis attributed that her publishing career began at ''Mademoiselle''. The
New York Social Diary stated that she “worked at the magazine for six years.”
In the sixties, ''Mademoiselle'' was geared toward "the smart young woman". It categorically stated in its editorials that despite the young, maidenly name, it was not geared toward young teenagers. The majority of readers may have been in college or in a job, and some may have been married. ''Mademoiselle'' was interested in reaching mature college freshmen and up who were being exposed to the greatest literature and facing the greatest moral problems coping with all the complexities of the atomic age.
''Mademoiselle'' continued throughout the eighties and nineties featuring the top models on its covers and in the pages of the editorial sections.
In 1993,
Elizabeth Crow
Elizabeth Crow (born Elizabeth Venture Smith; July 29, 1946 – April 4, 2005) was an American editor, journalist, and businesswoman.
Born in Manhattan, Crow was the oldest child in a family of six children. Her father, Harrison Venture Smith, ...
was appointed editor-in-chief. The November 2001 magazine was the final issue. Some of the 93 employees and features moved over to ''
Glamour'', also published by Condé Nast. The magazine's demise was due to multiple factors, including an editorial inability to update the magazine to appeal to a sufficient audience and an overall decline in advertising revenues across the magazine industry.
''Goodbye to Mademoiselle: Condé Nast Closes Magazine'' – ''The New York Times'', October 2, 2001
/ref>
Editors
*Desmond Hall and F. Orlin Tremaine
Frederick Orlin Tremaine (January 7, 1899 – October 22, 1956) was an American science fiction magazine editor, most notably of the influential ''Astounding Stories''. He edited a number of other magazines, headed several publishing companies ...
(1935)
*F. Orlin Tremaine (1935–1937)
* Betsy Blackwell (1937–1971)
*Edie Locke
Edie Locke (3 August 1921 - 23 August 2020) was an Austrian-American magazine editor and television producer and presenter. She was editor-in-chief of '' Mademoiselle'' from 1971 through 1979.
Early life
Edith Rosenberg Laub was born in Vienna o ...
(1971–1980)
*Amy Levin Cooper (1981–1992)
*Gabe Doppelt (1992)
*Elizabeth Crow (1993–2000)
*Mandi Norwood (2000–2001)
Notable people
*Svetlana Lloyd
Svetlana E. Lloyd (née Kassessinova/Kassessinoff) was a house model, or "mannequin", for the Dior fashion house in Paris for four years in the 1950s, under designers Christian Dior and Yves Saint Laurent. She became known as the "''Trapèze'' L ...
, assistant editor for 50 years.
References
External links
Mademoiselle Covers
Cyrilly Abels papers
at the University of Maryland libraries. Abels was a managing editor of the magazine from 1950 to the early 1960s.
{{Advance Publications
Defunct Condé Nast magazines
Defunct women's magazines published in the United States
Magazines established in 1935
Magazines disestablished in 2001
1935 establishments in New York City
2001 disestablishments in New York (state)
Street & Smith
Women's fashion magazines
Magazines published in New York City