''Vanity Fair'' was an American society magazine published from 1913 to 1936. It was highly successful until the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

led to its becoming unprofitable, and it was merged into '' Vogue'' in 1936. In the 1980s,

the title The Title are a British four-piece indie band based in Stoke-on-Trent Stoke-on-Trent (often abbreviated to Stoke) is a city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Staffordshire, England. It has an estimated populati ...

was revived.

History

Condé Nast Condé Nast () is a global mass media company founded in 1909 by Condé Nast (businessman), Condé Montrose Nast (1873–1942) and owned by Advance Publications. Its headquarters are located at One World Trade Center in the FiDi, Financial Dis ...

began his empire by purchasing the men's fashion magazine ''Dress'' in 1913. He renamed the magazine ''Dress and Vanity Fair'' and published four issues in 1913. Nast paid $3,000 for the right to use the title "Vanity Fair" in the United States, granted by the magazine ''The Standard and Vanity Fair'', "the only periodical printed for the playgoer and player", published weekly by the "Standard and Vanity Fair Company, Inc", whose president was Harry Mountford, also General Director of the White Rats theatrical union. The magazine achieved great popularity under editor

Frank Crowninshield Francis Welch Crowninshield (June 24, 1872 – December 28, 1947) was an American journalist and art and theater critic best known for developing and editing the magazine ''Vanity Fair (American magazine 1913-1936), Vanity Fair'' for 21 years, m ...

. In 1919

Robert Benchley Robert Charles Benchley (September 15, 1889 – November 21, 1945) was an American humorist, newspaper columnist and actor. From his beginnings at ''The Harvard Lampoon'' while attending Harvard University, through his many years writing essays ...

was tapped to become managing editor. He joined

Dorothy Parker Dorothy Parker (née Rothschild; August 22, 1893 – June 7, 1967) was an American poet and writer of fiction, plays and screenplays based in New York; she was known for her caustic wisecracks, and eye for 20th-century urban foibles. Parker ros ...

, who had come to the magazine from '' Vogue'', and was the staff drama critic. Benchley hired future playwright Robert E. Sherwood, who had recently returned from

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. The trio were among the original members of the

Algonquin Round Table The Algonquin Round Table was a group of New York City writers, critics, actors, and wits. Gathering initially as part of a practical joke, members of "The Vicious Circle", as they dubbed themselves, met for lunch each day at the Algonquin Hotel ...

, which met at the Algonquin Hotel, on the same West 44th Street block as Condé Nast's offices. Crowninshield attracted some of the best writers of the era.

Aldous Huxley Aldous Leonard Huxley ( ; 26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. His bibliography spans nearly 50 books, including non-fiction novel, non-fiction works, as well as essays, narratives, and poems. Born into the ...

, T. S. Eliot, Ferenc Molnár, Gertrude Stein, 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 lite ...

all appeared in a single issue, July 1923. In 1915, it published more pages of advertisements than any other U.S. magazine. It continued to thrive into the 1920s. Starting in 1925, ''Vanity Fair'' competed with ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

'' as the American establishment's top culture chronicle. It contained writing by

Thomas Wolfe Thomas Clayton Wolfe (October 3, 1900 – September 15, 1938) was an American novelist and short story writer. He is known largely for his first novel, '' Look Homeward, Angel'' (1929), and for the short fiction that appeared during the last ye ...

, T. S. Eliot and

P. G. Wodehouse Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse ( ; 15 October 1881 – 14 February 1975) was an English writer and one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century. His creations include the feather-brained Bertie Wooster and his sagacious valet, Je ...

, theatre criticisms by Dorothy Parker, and photographs by

Edward Steichen Edward Jean Steichen (; March 27, 1879 – March 25, 1973) was a Luxembourgish American photographer, painter and curator and a pioneer of fashion photography. His gown images for the magazine ''Art et Décoration'' in 1911 were the first modern ...

; Clare Boothe Luce was its editor for some time. However, it became a casualty of the

and declining advertising revenues, although its circulation, at 90,000 copies, was at its peak. Condé Nast announced in December 1935 that ''Vanity Fair'' would be merged with ''Vogue'' (circulation 156,000) as of the March 1936 issue.
.

1983 revival

In 1983 ''Vanity Fair'' was revived by

Condé Nast Publications Condé is a French place name and personal name. It is ultimately derived from a Celtic word, "Condate", meaning "confluence" (of two rivers) - from which was derived the Romanised form "Condatum", in use during the Roman period, and thence to ...

as a magazine of pop culture, fashion and politics.

Notes and references

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Vanity Fair (American magazine 1913-1936) Defunct magazines published in the United States Magazines established in 1913 Magazines disestablished in 1936 Vanity Fair (magazine) 1913 establishments in the United States Defunct Condé Nast magazines Algonquin Round Table