''The Smart Set'' was an American
literary magazine
A literary magazine is a periodical devoted to literature in a broad sense. Literary magazines usually publish short stories, poetry, and essays, along with literary criticism, book reviews, biographical profiles of authors, interviews and letter ...
, founded by Colonel
William d'Alton Mann
William d'Alton Mann (September 27, 1839 – May 17, 1920) was an American Civil War soldier, businessman, and newspaper and magazine publisher.
Early life
He was born in Sandusky, Ohio on September 27, 1839.
Career
During the Civil War, M ...
and published from March 1900 to June 1930. Its headquarters was in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. During its
Jazz Age heyday under the editorship of
H. L. Mencken
Henry Louis Mencken (September 12, 1880 – January 29, 1956) was an American journalist, essayist, satirist, cultural critic, and scholar of American English. He commented widely on the social scene, literature, music, prominent politicians, ...
and
George Jean Nathan
George Jean Nathan (February 14, 1882 – April 8, 1958) was an American drama critic and magazine editor. He worked closely with H. L. Mencken, bringing the literary magazine ''The Smart Set'' to prominence as an editor, and co-founding and ...
, ''The Smart Set'' offered many up-and-coming authors their start and gave them access to a relatively large audience.
Following a dispute over an unprinted article by Mencken and Nathan mocking the national grief over President
Warren G. Harding
Warren Gamaliel Harding (November 2, 1865 – August 2, 1923) was the 29th president of the United States, serving from 1921 until his death in 1923. A member of the Republican Party, he was one of the most popular sitting U.S. presidents. A ...
's death, the two co-editors departed the publication to create ''
The American Mercury
''The American Mercury'' was an American magazine published from 1924Staff (Dec. 31, 1923)"Bichloride of Mercury."''Time''. to 1981. It was founded as the brainchild of H. L. Mencken and drama critic George Jean Nathan. The magazine featured wri ...
'' in 1924. Within a year of their departure, owner Eltinge Warner sold the publication to press mogul
William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst Sr. (; April 29, 1863 – August 14, 1951) was an American businessman, newspaper publisher, and politician known for developing the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications. His flamboya ...
. Although circulation increased under Hearst's ownership, the magazine's content declined in quality. Following the
Wall Street Crash of 1929
The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as the Great Crash, was a major American stock market crash that occurred in the autumn of 1929. It started in September and ended late in October, when share prices on the New York Stock Exchange colla ...
, the magazine was unable to survive the economic slump and ceased publication in June 1930.
Half a decade after its dissolution, critic
Louis Kronenberger
Louis Kronenberger (December 9, 1904April 30, 1980) was an American literary critic (longest with ''Time'', (1938-1961), novelist, and biographer who wrote extensively on drama and the 18th century.
Background
Kronenberger was born in Cincinnat ...
hailed ''The Smart Set'' in ''
The New York Times Book Review
''The New York Times Book Review'' (''NYTBR'') is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times'' in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely rea ...
'' as one of the greatest literary publications due to its influence over American culture during its brief existence. "You were very conscious that it was making literary history," Kronenberger wrote, "it was teaching a literary America that went about on all fours how to walk."
Early years
In 1900,
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
veteran and financier Colonel William d'Alton Mann sought to offer a cultural counterpart to his
gossip magazine
A gossip magazine, also referred to as a tabloid magazine, is a magazine that features scandalous stories about the personal lives of celebrities and other well-known individuals. In North America, this genre of magazine flourished in the 1950s an ...
''
Town Topics'', an infamous publication which he used for political and social gain among New York City's elite. Mann purportedly used his ''Town Topics'' investigators to gather embarrassing information about wealthy individuals in New York Society and would allow these individuals to suppress the articles in exchange for monetary remuneration. This questionable practice led many historians to suggest the latter magazine functioned more or less as a means for Mann to collect
blackmail
Blackmail is an act of coercion using the threat of revealing or publicizing either substantially true or false information about a person or people unless certain demands are met. It is often damaging information, and it may be revealed to fa ...
:
When conceiving his new publication entitled ''The Smart Set'', Mann wished to include works "by, for and about '
The Four Hundred'," referring to
Ward McAllister
Samuel Ward McAllister (December 28, 1827 – January 31, 1895) was a popular arbiter of social taste in the Gilded Age of late 19th-century America. He was widely accepted as the authority as to which families could be classified as the cream o ...
's claim that there were only 400 fashionable people in New York's upper society. As a so-called "
pasha
Pasha, Pacha or Paşa ( ota, پاشا; tr, paşa; sq, Pashë; ar, باشا), in older works sometimes anglicized as bashaw, was a higher rank in the Ottoman Empire, Ottoman political and military system, typically granted to governors, gener ...
of the
Gilded Age
In United States history, the Gilded Age was an era extending roughly from 1877 to 1900, which was sandwiched between the Reconstruction era and the Progressive Era. It was a time of rapid economic growth, especially in the Northern and Weste ...
," Mann sought to provide sophisticated content that would reinforce the social values of New York's social elite. As such, Mann initially sought out those writers who were supposedly "from the ranks of the best society of Europe and America." Mann gave his new publication the subtitle "The Magazine of Cleverness."
Mann published the first issue of ''The Smart Set'' on March 10, 1900, under the editorship of young poet Arthur Grissom, who had also worked on ''Town Topics''. As editor, Grissom created the formula of the magazine that would remain intact throughout the greater part of its existence: 160 pages containing a novelette, a short play, several poems, and witticisms to fill blank spaces. Its first cover, by Kay Womrath, "depicted a dancing couple in evening dress controlled by strings held by a grinning Pan; the slashing S's of the title were in vermilion. The price was twenty-five cents." Its earliest contributors included celebrated poets
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Ella Wheeler Wilcox (November 5, 1850October 30, 1919) was an American author and poet. Her works include the collection '' Poems of Passion'' and the poem "Solitude", which contains the lines "Laugh, and the world laughs with you; weep, and you ...
,
Bliss Carman
William Bliss Carman (April 15, 1861 – June 8, 1929) was a Canadian poet who lived most of his life in the United States, where he achieved international fame. He was acclaimed as Canada's poet laureate during his later years.
In Canada, Car ...
and
Clinton Scollard
Clinton Scollard (1860–1932) was an American poet and writer of fiction. He was a Professor of English at Hamilton College.
Professional career
Scollard was born at Clinton, Oneida County, New York on September 18, 1860, son of James Isaac ...
.
Grissom was the first editor to publish works by
O. Henry
William Sydney Porter (September 11, 1862 – June 5, 1910), better known by his pen name O. Henry, was an American writer known primarily for his short stories, though he also wrote poetry and non-fiction. His works include "The Gift of the M ...
in ''The Smart Set'', and O. Henry's short story, ''The Lotos and the Bottle'', was published by Grissom "at the bargain rate of fifty dollars" in cash. However, after a very brief tenure as editor, Grissom died of
typhoid fever
Typhoid fever, also known as typhoid, is a disease caused by '' Salmonella'' serotype Typhi bacteria. Symptoms vary from mild to severe, and usually begin six to 30 days after exposure. Often there is a gradual onset of a high fever over several ...
in December 1901, and novelist
Marvin Dana
Marvin Hill Dana (March 2, 1867 – April 3, 1926) was an American author and journalist.
Life
Dana was born in Cornwall, Vermont to Edward Summers Dana and Mary Howe Dana (née Squier). He was the younger brother of Charles S. Dana. After ...
took over as editor, in the first of a series of managerial turnovers that would define the evolution of magazine until its termination. Dana formed an editorial triumvirate consisting of himself and two associate editors, Charles Hanson Towne and newspaper correspondent Henry Collins Walsh.
Dana remained as editor until 1904, when he left ''The Smart Set'' to work in newspapers. Dana's chosen successor was Towne, previously an editor at ''
Cosmopolitan Magazine
''Cosmopolitan'' is an American monthly fashion and entertainment magazine for women, first published based in New York City in March 1886 as a family magazine; it was later transformed into a literary magazine and, since 1965, has become a List ...
''. Towne was the magazine's first editor to actively push to publish new literary talents such as
James Branch Cabell
James Branch Cabell (; April 14, 1879 – May 5, 1958) was an American author of fantasy fiction and ''belles-lettres''. Cabell was well-regarded by his contemporaries, including H. L. Mencken, Edmund Wilson, and Sinclair Lewis. His works ...
. He also oversaw a stable of famous contributors such as
Jack London
John Griffith Chaney (January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916), better known as Jack London, was an American novelist, journalist and activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors to ...
,
Ambrose Bierce
Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce (June 24, 1842 – ) was an American short story writer, journalist, poet, and American Civil War veteran. His book ''The Devil's Dictionary'' was named as one of "The 100 Greatest Masterpieces of American Literature" by t ...
and
Theodore Dreiser
Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser (; August 27, 1871 – December 28, 1945) was an American novelist and journalist of the naturalist school. His novels often featured main characters who succeeded at their objectives despite a lack of a firm mora ...
. Under Towne's editorship, the ''Smart Set'' honed its tone and content:
By 1905, the magazine reached its peak circulation of 165,000. However, as a result of allegations of blackmail associated with Mann's ''Town Topics'' in 1906, ''The Smart Sets popularity began to precipitously decline, and it immediately lost around 25,000 readers. Dissatisfied with the magazine's direction, Towne resigned his position as editor in 1908 to work with
Theodore Dreiser
Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser (; August 27, 1871 – December 28, 1945) was an American novelist and journalist of the naturalist school. His novels often featured main characters who succeeded at their objectives despite a lack of a firm mora ...
on ''
The Delineator
''The Delineator'' was an American women's magazine of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, founded by the Butterick Publishing Company in 1869 under the name ''The Metropolitan Monthly.'' Its name was changed in 1875. The magazine was publis ...
'', an American women's magazine.
After Towne's departure, Colonel Mann stepped up as editor alongside Fred Splint, and the two quickly set out to revitalize the magazine in order to rebuild its readership. As part of this revitalization, Mann started a monthly book review column and, in 1908, Splint hired the
Baltimore
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
newspaperman
Henry Louis Mencken
Henry Louis Mencken (September 12, 1880 – January 29, 1956) was an American journalist, essayist, satirist, cultural critic, and scholar of American English. He commented widely on the social scene, literature, music, prominent politicians, ...
to fill the book reviewer position at the suggestion of editorial assistant Norman Boyer. The twenty-eight-year-old Mencken quickly became quite popular with readers as his "oracular, pungent, and racy" book reviews garnered much attention. Using his position as book reviewer for ''The Smart Set'', Mencken would become "America's most important literary and social critic."
Soon after, in 1909,
George Jean Nathan
George Jean Nathan (February 14, 1882 – April 8, 1958) was an American drama critic and magazine editor. He worked closely with H. L. Mencken, bringing the literary magazine ''The Smart Set'' to prominence as an editor, and co-founding and ...
became the magazine's drama columnist. During his tenure as the ''Smart Sets resident theater critic, Jean "would become an extremely influential figure in the New York drama scene." Nathan "matched Mencken in his defiance of conventional mores, his saucy style,
ndhis magisterial attitude." Together, the combined criticisms of Mencken and Nathan elevated the substantive content of Mann's magazine to appeal to intellectuals and ensured the magazine's place in literary history.
Thayer years
With ''The Smart Set'' in perpetual decline, Mann sold the magazine in Spring 1911 to John Adams Thayer for $100,000. Thayer was a self-made millionaire who had "made a personal fortune as a successful advertising manager at the
Ladies' Home Journal
''Ladies' Home Journal'' was an American magazine last published by the Meredith Corporation. It was first published on February 16, 1883, and eventually became one of the leading women's magazines of the 20th century in the United States. In 18 ...
."
Thayer, who previously pulled the
muckraking
The muckrakers were reform-minded journalists, writers, and photographers in the Progressive Era in the United States (1890s–1920s) who claimed to expose corruption and wrongdoing in established institutions, often through sensationalist publ ...
''
Everybody's Magazine
''Everybody's Magazine'' was an American magazine published from 1899 to 1929. The magazine was headquartered in New York City.
History and profile
The magazine was founded by Philadelphia merchant John Wanamaker in 1899, though he had little role ...
'' out of a slump and earned himself a significant fortune from its sale, hoped ownership of ''The Smart Set'' would allow him entrance into the social ranks of New York's high society. However, the magazine's ruined reputation made this difficult and his purchase left him in charge of a sinking ship.
After Mencken and Nathan both declined the offer of editorship, Thayer assumed the position of editor-in-chief and appointed the magazine's associate editor, Norman Boyer, as managing editor. An expert in advertising, Thayer added a slogan to the magazine's subtitle, stating that "Its Prime Purpose is to Provide Lively Entertainment for Minds That Are Not Primitive." The new slogan was unsuccessful in restoring the magazine's reputation and popularity, but in 1912 a younger, more rebellious audience began reading ''The Smart Set'' for that very reason. To accommodate this new demographic, Thayer, at the recommendation of Mencken, handed over the editorship to
Willard Huntington Wright
S. S. Van Dine (also styled S.S. Van Dine) is the pseudonym used by American art critic Willard Huntington Wright (October 15, 1888 – April 11, 1939) when he wrote detective novels. Wright was active in avant-garde cultural circles in pre-Wor ...
in 1913. Wright was a Harvard graduate and had served as the literary editor of ''
The Los Angeles Times
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
''. Wright outlined the magazine's new editorial direction in the next month's issue:
Although only lasting a year, Wright's tenure marked a period of artistic prosperity for ''The Smart Set''. Thayer appointed Wright as editor with complete control of the magazine's content and direction. Wright, immediately taking advantage of this position, began collecting manuscripts from new artists and hired
Ezra Pound
Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an expatriate American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Fascism, fascist collaborator in Italy during World War II. His works ...
as an overseas talent scout. With an appreciation for new and unconventional literary styles, Wright steered the magazine into publishing more experimental and ''
avant-garde
The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...
'' literary works by authors such as
D.H. Lawrence
David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English writer, novelist, poet and essayist. His works reflect on modernity, industrialization, sexuality, emotional health, vitality, spontaneity and instinct. His best-k ...
,
Joseph Conrad
Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, ; 3 December 1857 – 3 August 1924) was a Poles in the United Kingdom#19th century, Polish-British novelist and short story writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest writers in t ...
,
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats (13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and became a pillar of the Irish liter ...
, and
Ford Madox Ford
Ford Madox Ford (né Joseph Leopold Ford Hermann Madox Hueffer ( ); 17 December 1873 – 26 June 1939) was an English novelist, poet, critic and editor whose journals ''The English Review'' and ''The Transatlantic Review'' were instrumental in ...
.
Predictably, Wright's editorial decision caused a drastic reduction in readership and angered the magazine's advertisers, who began withdrawing financial backing. Additionally, Wright was using ''The Smart Sets checkbook to overpay authors for their work and was attempting to secretly fund a prototype of a more radical publication with Mencken. As a result, Thayer fired Wright in 1914 and announced an end to the magazine's ''avant-garde'' content and a return to more traditional material. By the end of Wright's editorship, however, the magazine was in economic disrepair, and Thayer handed over ownership to Colonel
Eugene Crowe
Eugene Burgess Crowe (January 5, 1878 – May 12, 1970) was an American businessman and politician who served five terms as a U.S. Representative from Indiana from 1931 to 1941.
Biography
Born near Jeffersonville, Indiana, Crowe attended the ...
in return for forgiveness of debts.
Nevertheless, due to the fired Wright's editorial decisions, the magazine had acquired a new intellectual audience. Its readership included such notable writers as
Sinclair Lewis
Harry Sinclair Lewis (February 7, 1885 – January 10, 1951) was an American writer and playwright. In 1930, he became the first writer from the United States (and the first from the Americas) to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, which was ...
,
Theodore Dreiser
Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser (; August 27, 1871 – December 28, 1945) was an American novelist and journalist of the naturalist school. His novels often featured main characters who succeeded at their objectives despite a lack of a firm mora ...
,
Hugh Walpole
Sir Hugh Seymour Walpole, Commander of the Order of the British Empire, CBE (13 March 18841 June 1941) was an English novelist. He was the son of an Anglican clergyman, intended for a career in the church but drawn instead to writing. Among th ...
,
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940) was an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is best known for his novels depicting the flamboyance and excess of the Jazz Age—a term he popularize ...
, and
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century fic ...
, as well as college professors such as Stewart Sherman and Percy Boynton. The magazine also had garnered the attention of a number of critics and journalists, including
Burton Rascoe
Arthur Burton Rascoe (October 22, 1892 - March 19, 1957), was an American journalist, editor and literary critic of the '' New York Herald Tribune''.
He was born in Fulton, Kentucky to Matthew L. Rascoe and Elizabeth Burton Rascoe. His fathe ...
,
Edmund Wilson
Edmund Wilson Jr. (May 8, 1895 – June 12, 1972) was an American writer and literary critic who explored Freudian and Marxist themes. He influenced many American authors, including F. Scott Fitzgerald, whose unfinished work he edited for publi ...
,
Alfred Kazin
Alfred Kazin (June 5, 1915 – June 5, 1998) was an American writer and literary critic. He wrote often about the immigrant experience in early twentieth century America.
Early life
Like many other New York Intellectuals, Alfred Kazin was t ...
,
Franklin Pierce Adams
Franklin Pierce Adams (November 15, 1881 – March 23, 1960) was an American columnist known as Franklin P. Adams and by his initials F.P.A.. Famed for his wit, he is best known for his newspaper column, "The Conning Tower", and his appearances a ...
and
Harold Ross
Harold Wallace Ross (November 6, 1892 – December 6, 1951) was an American journalist who co-founded ''The New Yorker'' magazine in 1925 with his wife Jane Grant, and was its editor-in-chief until his death.
Early life
Born in a prospector's ...
, the co-founder of ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'' magazine who was inspired to create the latter publication upon the demise of ''The Smart Set''.
Mencken and Nathan years
![Mencken-Nathan-1928](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/38/Mencken-Nathan-1928.jpg)
Having little interest in running a magazine, Crowe gave control of ''The Smart Set'' to Eltinge Warner, who then appointed Mencken and Nathan as co-editors with total artistic control. Warner remained in control of the magazine's accounts—circulation, advertising, and bookkeeping—while Mencken and Nathan focused on literary content.
In a series of measures to economize, Mencken and Nathan relocated the magazine's office to a smaller location and reduced the staff, retaining only themselves and a secretary, Sara Golde. Additionally, Warner reprinted previous issues of ''The Smart Set'' under the title ''Clever Stories''. In their most successful effort to boost revenue, Mencken and Nathan began the pulp magazine ''The Parisienne'' in 1915 as a place to publish a surplus of manuscripts they deemed inferior for ''The Smart Set''. ''The Parisienne'' "capitalized on the then current war interest in France" generated significant profits, which they used to offset the production costs of ''The Smart Set''. The co-editors sold ''The Parisienne'' to Warner and Crowe in 1916 and repeated the process with ''Saucy Stories'' and, in 1920, ''
Black Mask''.
Mencken and Nathan's co-editorship helped to bring about a golden era for new literature and ''The Smart Set''. Together, they "created a uniquely liberated mass-market venue for American fiction; this fact alone suggests the importance of this magazine in relation to American literary developments in the teens and early twenties." Circulation during their co-editorship was between 40,000 and 50,000, making it one of the most widely read literary publications.
During this time the magazine featured works by
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Edna St. Vincent Millay (February 22, 1892 – October 19, 1950) was an American lyrical poet and playwright. Millay was a renowned social figure and noted feminist in New York City during the Roaring Twenties and beyond. She wrote much of he ...
,
Theodore Dreiser
Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser (; August 27, 1871 – December 28, 1945) was an American novelist and journalist of the naturalist school. His novels often featured main characters who succeeded at their objectives despite a lack of a firm mora ...
,
Aldous Huxley
Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. He wrote nearly 50 books, both novels and non-fiction works, as well as wide-ranging essays, narratives, and poems.
Born into the prominent Huxley ...
,
Sinclair Lewis
Harry Sinclair Lewis (February 7, 1885 – January 10, 1951) was an American writer and playwright. In 1930, he became the first writer from the United States (and the first from the Americas) to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, which was ...
,
Benjamin De Casseres
Benjamin De Casseres (April 3, 1873 – December 7, 1945) (often DeCasseres) was an American journalist, critic, essayist and poet. He was born in Philadelphia and began working at the Philadelphia Press at an early age, but spent most of his p ...
,
Eugene O'Neill
Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama techniques of realism, earlier ...
and
Dashiell Hammett
Samuel Dashiell Hammett (; May 27, 1894 – January 10, 1961) was an American writer of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories. He was also a screenwriter and political activist. Among the enduring characters he created are Sam Spade ('' ...
, among others. Millay's short story "Barbara on the Beach" appeared in November 1914.
In May 1915 ''The Smart Set'' published two stories from
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of ...
's ''
Dubliners
''Dubliners'' is a collection of fifteen short stories by James Joyce, first published in 1914. It presents a naturalistic depiction of Irish middle class life in and around Dublin in the early years of the 20th century.
The stories were writt ...
'', the first time Joyce's work appeared in an American publication. The magazine introduced
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940) was an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is best known for his novels depicting the flamboyance and excess of the Jazz Age—a term he popularize ...
in September 1919, when it published his short story ''Babes in the Woods''. In addition to introducing new literary talent, the two editors were renowned social critics, who lampooned virtually every facet of American culture. Although they were known for their satire, their increasingly controversial material became the reason for their departure from ''The Smart Set'' and would set in motion the end of the magazine itself.
Mencken and Nathan specifically cultivated a youthful readership who had grown increasingly restive and disillusioned with America in the aftermath of
The Great War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. During these years, "Mencken constantly exhorted his fellow critics and literary historians to provide realistic appraisals and re-evaluations of our
merican
''Merican'' is an EP by the American punk rock band the Descendents, released February 10, 2004. It was the band's first release for Fat Wreck Chords and served as a pre-release to their sixth studio album ''Cool to Be You'', released the follow ...
cultural past, which would then, he felt, influence the present."
Mencken and Nathan's editorship at ''The Smart Set'' came to an end after they planned to run a satirical piece on President
Warren G. Harding
Warren Gamaliel Harding (November 2, 1865 – August 2, 1923) was the 29th president of the United States, serving from 1921 until his death in 1923. A member of the Republican Party, he was one of the most popular sitting U.S. presidents. A ...
following his death. Harding died in August 1923. His funeral procession involved transporting the body across the country from
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
to Ohio. The mainstream media began to sentimentalize the procession, to the dismay of Mencken and Nathan, who noticed a hypocritical change in the press's attitude. They planned to run a satirical piece on the president's funeral, treating the president in death as they did in life.
However, the magazine's printers noticed the piece and reported its contents to owner Eltinge Warner. Considering the piece to be a form of
treason
Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...
, Warner demanded that the editors remove it. "I don't give a damn what you thought of him," Warner stormed at Mencken and Nathan, "Harding was our President, after all." In a rage, Warner announced that he would sell the magazine within a year. Warner's removal of the satirical piece marked the end of the editors' ''carte blanche'' over the magazine's content, and they sought the freedom and control of their own publication. Upon leaving, Mencken and Nathan began a collaboration with the publishing magnate
Alfred A. Knopf
Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. () is an American publishing house that was founded by Alfred A. Knopf Sr. and Blanche Knopf in 1915. Blanche and Alfred traveled abroad regularly and were known for publishing European, Asian, and Latin American writers in ...
and started ''
The American Mercury
''The American Mercury'' was an American magazine published from 1924Staff (Dec. 31, 1923)"Bichloride of Mercury."''Time''. to 1981. It was founded as the brainchild of H. L. Mencken and drama critic George Jean Nathan. The magazine featured wri ...
''.
Decline and demise
Before leaving ''The Smart Set'', Mencken and Nathan recommended Morris Gilbert to replace them as editor. Reportedly, Gilbert had no idea that Warner was planning to sell the magazine upon accepting his position as editor. Under the editorship of Gilbert, the magazine's attitude and content reverted to the days before Mencken and Nathan's—or even Wright's—time as editors. However, Gilbert's position as editor was short-lived. In 1924, Warner sold the magazine to the publishing tycoon
William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst Sr. (; April 29, 1863 – August 14, 1951) was an American businessman, newspaper publisher, and politician known for developing the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications. His flamboya ...
, who immediately gave editorial control to George D'Utassey. Unable to cope with the new management, Gilbert resigned soon after.
Hearst's ownership of the magazine brought about an editorial focus on commercialism and superficial moral themes. As the magazine's new editor, D'Utassey reversed the artistic headway that Mencken and Nathan had established for the magazine and changed the subtitle to "True Stories from Real Life." Under D'Utassey the magazine veered away from unconventional literature and satire. Although the content changed, Hearst's promotion of the magazine in other publications caused circulation to increase to 250,000 in 1925.
In 1929 the magazine merged with Hearst's newly acquired ''
McClure's
''McClure's'' or ''McClure's Magazine'' (1893–1929) was an American illustrated monthly periodical popular at the turn of the 20th century. The magazine is credited with having started the tradition of muckraking journalism (investigative journ ...
'' to form ''The New Smart Set'', under the editorship of Margaret Sangster. Under Sangster, the magazine became a publication targeted towards young women and was given a new subtitle, "The Young Woman's Magazine." However, following the
Wall Street Crash of 1929
The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as the Great Crash, was a major American stock market crash that occurred in the autumn of 1929. It started in September and ended late in October, when share prices on the New York Stock Exchange colla ...
, the magazine was unable to survive the economic slump. It ceased publication in June 1930.
Legacy
In 1934, nearly half a decade after the publication's dissolution, some of the best pieces from the magazine's heyday were collected in ''
The Smart Set Anthology
''The Smart Set Anthology'' is an anthology of selections from ''The Smart Set'' literary magazine, edited by Burton Rascoe and Groff Conklin. It was first published in hardcover by Reynal & Hitchcock in 1934, and reprinted as ''The Smart Set Antho ...
'', published by
Reynal & Hitchcock
Reynal and Hitchcock was a publishing company in New York City. Founded in 1933 by Eugene Reynal and Curtice Hitchcock, in 1948 it was absorbed by Harcourt, Brace.'' American Authors and Books: 1640 to Present Day'' Third Revised Edition, Crown ...
. That same year, critic
Louis Kronenberger
Louis Kronenberger (December 9, 1904April 30, 1980) was an American literary critic (longest with ''Time'', (1938-1961), novelist, and biographer who wrote extensively on drama and the 18th century.
Background
Kronenberger was born in Cincinnat ...
hailed the magazine in ''
The New York Times Book Review
''The New York Times Book Review'' (''NYTBR'') is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times'' in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely rea ...
'' as one of the greatest literary publications due to its influence over American culture during its brief existence:
In 2007,
Drexel University
Drexel University is a private research university with its main campus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Drexel's undergraduate school was founded in 1891 by Anthony J. Drexel, a financier and philanthropist. Founded as Drexel Institute of Art, S ...
launched an online cultural journal titled ''The Smart Set''. Drexel's journal shares some ideals with the original ''Smart Set'' and lists
Owen Hatteras Major Owen Hatteras (1912–1923) is a composite personage and pseudonym created and employed by H. L. Mencken and George Jean Nathan for ''The Smart Set'' literary magazine and adapted by Willard Huntington Wright during his short tenure as edi ...
, a
pen name
A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name.
A pen na ...
used by
H. L. Mencken
Henry Louis Mencken (September 12, 1880 – January 29, 1956) was an American journalist, essayist, satirist, cultural critic, and scholar of American English. He commented widely on the social scene, literature, music, prominent politicians, ...
and George Jean Nathan of the original journal, on its masthead, but its connection to Mencken and Nathan's magazine is unofficial.
Editorial tenures
List of contributing authors
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Maxwell Anderson
James Maxwell Anderson (December 15, 1888 – February 28, 1959) was an American playwright, author, poet, journalist, and lyricist.
Background
Anderson was born on December 15, 1888, in Atlantic, Pennsylvania, the second of eight children to ...
*
Sherwood Anderson
Sherwood Anderson (September 13, 1876 – March 8, 1941) was an American novelist and short story writer, known for subjective and self-revealing works. Self-educated, he rose to become a successful copywriter and business owner in Cleveland and ...
*
Djuna Barnes
Djuna Barnes (, June 12, 1892 – June 18, 1982) was an American artist, illustrator, journalist, and writer who is perhaps best known for her novel ''Nightwood'' (1936), a cult classic of lesbian fiction and an important work of modernist litera ...
*
Ambrose Bierce
Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce (June 24, 1842 – ) was an American short story writer, journalist, poet, and American Civil War veteran. His book ''The Devil's Dictionary'' was named as one of "The 100 Greatest Masterpieces of American Literature" by t ...
*
Bliss Carman
William Bliss Carman (April 15, 1861 – June 8, 1929) was a Canadian poet who lived most of his life in the United States, where he achieved international fame. He was acclaimed as Canada's poet laureate during his later years.
In Canada, Car ...
*
Willa Cather
Willa Sibert Cather (; born Wilella Sibert Cather; December 7, 1873 – April 24, 1947) was an American writer known for her novels of life on the Great Plains, including ''O Pioneers!'', '' The Song of the Lark'', and ''My Ántonia''. In 1923, ...
*
Theodore Dreiser
Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser (; August 27, 1871 – December 28, 1945) was an American novelist and journalist of the naturalist school. His novels often featured main characters who succeeded at their objectives despite a lack of a firm mora ...
*
Lord Dunsany
Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany (; 24 July 1878 – 25 October 1957, usually Lord Dunsany) was an Anglo-Irish writer and dramatist. Over 90 volumes of fiction, essays, poems and plays appeared in his lifetime.Lanham, M ...
*
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940) was an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is best known for his novels depicting the flamboyance and excess of the Jazz Age—a term he popularize ...
*
Ford Maddox Ford
Ford Madox Ford (né Joseph Leopold Ford Hermann Madox Hueffer ( ); 17 December 1873 – 26 June 1939) was an English novelist, poet, critic and editor whose journals ''The English Review'' and ''The Transatlantic Review'' were instrumental in ...
*
Zona Gale
Zona Gale, also known by her married name, Zona Gale Breese (August 26, 1874 – December 27, 1938), was an American novelist, short story writer, and playwright. She became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1921. The close r ...
*
Richard Le Gallienne
Richard Le Gallienne (20 January 1866 – 15 September 1947) was an English author and poet. The British-American actress Eva Le Gallienne (1899–1991) was his daughter by his second marriage to Danish journalist Julie Nørregaard (1863–1942) ...
*
Dashiell Hammett
Samuel Dashiell Hammett (; May 27, 1894 – January 10, 1961) was an American writer of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories. He was also a screenwriter and political activist. Among the enduring characters he created are Sam Spade ('' ...
*
Ben Hecht
Ben Hecht (; February 28, 1894 – April 18, 1964) was an American screenwriter, director, producer, playwright, journalist, and novelist. A successful journalist in his youth, he went on to write 35 books and some of the most enjoyed screenplay ...
*
O. Henry
William Sydney Porter (September 11, 1862 – June 5, 1910), better known by his pen name O. Henry, was an American writer known primarily for his short stories, though he also wrote poetry and non-fiction. His works include "The Gift of the M ...
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Aldous Huxley
Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. He wrote nearly 50 books, both novels and non-fiction works, as well as wide-ranging essays, narratives, and poems.
Born into the prominent Huxley ...
*
Robinson Jeffers
John Robinson Jeffers (January 10, 1887 – January 20, 1962) was an American poet, known for his work about the central California coast. Much of Jeffers's poetry was written in narrative and epic form. However, he is also known for his short ...
*
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of ...
*
Harry Kemp
Harry Hibbard Kemp (December 15, 1883 – August 5, 1960) was an American poet and prose writer of the twentieth century. He was known as (and promoted himself as) the "Vagabond Poet", the " Villon of America", the "Hobo Poet", or the "Tramp P ...
*
D.H. Lawrence
David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English writer, novelist, poet and essayist. His works reflect on modernity, industrialization, sexuality, emotional health, vitality, spontaneity and instinct. His best-k ...
*
Sinclair Lewis
Harry Sinclair Lewis (February 7, 1885 – January 10, 1951) was an American writer and playwright. In 1930, he became the first writer from the United States (and the first from the Americas) to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, which was ...
*
Anita Loos
Corinne Anita Loos (April 26, 1888 – August 18, 1981) was an American actress, novelist, playwright and screenwriter. In 1912, she became the first female staff screenwriter in Hollywood, when D. W. Griffith put her on the payroll at Triang ...
*
Jack London
John Griffith Chaney (January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916), better known as Jack London, was an American novelist, journalist and activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors to ...
*
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Edna St. Vincent Millay (February 22, 1892 – October 19, 1950) was an American lyrical poet and playwright. Millay was a renowned social figure and noted feminist in New York City during the Roaring Twenties and beyond. She wrote much of he ...
*
Eugene O'Neill
Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama techniques of realism, earlier ...
*
Dorothy Parker
Dorothy Parker (née Rothschild; August 22, 1893 – June 7, 1967) was an American poet, writer, critic, and satirist based in New York; she was known for her wit, wisecracks, and eye for 20th-century urban foibles.
From a conflicted and unhap ...
*
Ezra Pound
Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an expatriate American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Fascism, fascist collaborator in Italy during World War II. His works ...
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John Reed
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Clinton Scollard
Clinton Scollard (1860–1932) was an American poet and writer of fiction. He was a Professor of English at Hamilton College.
Professional career
Scollard was born at Clinton, Oneida County, New York on September 18, 1860, son of James Isaac ...
*
Carl Van Vechten
*
S.S. Van Dine
S. S. Van Dine (also styled S.S. Van Dine) is the pseudonym used by American art critic Willard Huntington Wright (October 15, 1888 – April 11, 1939) when he wrote detective novels. Wright was active in avant-garde cultural circles in pre-Worl ...
*
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Ella Wheeler Wilcox (November 5, 1850October 30, 1919) was an American author and poet. Her works include the collection '' Poems of Passion'' and the poem "Solitude", which contains the lines "Laugh, and the world laughs with you; weep, and you ...
Cover gallery
File:The Smart Set January 1920.jpg, Cover of the January 1920 issue by Archie Gunn
File:Smart-Set-April-1921-FC.jpg, Cover of the April 1921 issue by Archie Gunn
File:The Smart Set July 1921.jpg, Cover of the July 1921 issue by Eliot Keen
File:The Smart Set March 1922.jpg, Cover of the March 1922 issue by Albert Barbelle
Albert Wilfred Barbelle (1887–1957) was an American artist known well for his work in advertising, particularly cover art for sheet music of Tin Pan Alley. He also illustrated the first Mickey Mouse book.
Early life
Albert Wilfred Barbelle wa ...
File:The Smart Set June 1922.jpg, Cover of the June 1922 issue by A.G.L.
File:The Smart Set October 1922.jpg, Cover of the October 1922 issue
References
Citations
Bibliography
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Further reading
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External links
''The Smart Set''at The
Modernist Journals Project The Modernist Journals Project (MJP) was created in 1995 at Brown University in order to create a database of digitized periodicals connected with the period loosely associated with modernism. The University of Tulsa joined in 2003. The MJP's websit ...
: a cover-to-cover, searchable digital edition of 120 issues across ten years—from January 1913 (issue 38.4) through December 1922 (issue 69.4). PDFs of these issues may be downloaded for free from the MJP website.
''The Smart Set''at
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...
, various volumes (scanned books original editions color illustrated)
Louise Brooks Studies: ''Smart Set Magazine''Drexel University's new ''Smart Set''''The Smart Set'' essays from ''Old Magazine Articles''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smart Set
Defunct literary magazines published in the United States
Magazines established in 1900
Magazines disestablished in 1930
Magazines published in New York City
Progressive Era in the United States
1900 establishments in New York City
1930 disestablishments in New York (state)