- Condé Montrose Nast
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The grave of Condé Nast in Gate of Heaven Cemetery
Condé Montrose Nast (March 26, 1873 – September 19, 1942) was the founder of Condé Nast Publications, a leading American magazine publisher known for publications such as Vanity Fair, Vogue and The New Yorker.
Contents
Background
Named for his uncle Condé L. Benoist, Condé Montrose Nast was born in New York City to a family of Midwestern origin. His father, William F. Nast (son of the German-born Methodist leader William Nast) was an unsuccessful[citation needed] broker and inventor who had also served as U.S. attaché in Berlin. His mother, the former Esther A. Benoist, was a daughter of pioneering St. Louis banker Louis Auguste Benoist and a descendant of a prominent French family that emigrated to Canada and thence to Missouri.
He had three siblings: Louis, Ethel, and Estelle.
Nast's aunt financed his studies at Georgetown University, where he graduated in 1894. He went on to earn a law degree from Washington University in St. Louis in 1897.
Career
Nast did not take well to law, and upon graduation he got a job working for a former classmate as advertising manager for Collier's Weekly (1898–1907). Over the course of a decade he increased the advertising revenue 100-fold. He published books and Lippincott's Monthly Magazine with Robert M. McBride (McBride, Nast & Co.). After leaving Collier's Nast bought Vogue, then a small New York society magazine, transforming it into America's premier fashion magazine.
He then turned Vanity Fair into a sophisticated general interest publication, with the help of his friend Frank Crowninshield, who was editor and a major influence for more than 20 years. It published many new and high quality writers, as well as displaying reproductions of modern art.
Nast eventually owned a stable of magazines that included House & Garden, British, French, and Argentine editions of Vogue, Jardins des Modes, and Glamour (the last magazine added to the group while he was alive). While other publishers simply focused on increasing the number of magazines in circulation, Nast targeted groups of readers by income level or common interest. Among his staffers were Edna Woolman Chase, who served as the editor in chief of Vogue; and Dorothy Parker and Robert Benchley.
Nearly ruined in the Great Depression as many others were, Nast spent his last years struggling to regain his early prosperity.
Marriages
Clarisse CoudertNast was married twice. His wives were:
- (Jeanne) Clarisse Coudert, a Coudert Brothers law-firm heiress who became a set and costume designer. Married in 1902, separated in 1919, and divorced in 1925,[1] they had two children, Charles Coudert Nast and Natica Nast[2], an artist (who married Gerald F. Warburg, a banking heir and professional cellist and conductor).[3] After her divorce from Nast, Clarisse Coudert Nast married J. V. Onativia. (See photographs of Clarisse Nast on Wikimedia Commons.)
- Leslie Foster, whom he married in 1928; a granddaughter of Gov. George White Baxter of Tennessee, the bride was 20, the groom was 55. Divorced circa 1932, they had one child, a daughter, Leslie (who married firstly, Peter George Grenfell, 2nd Baron St. Just,[4][5] and secondly, Lord Bonham Carter): after their divorce, Leslie Foster Nast married Lt. Col. Sir Reginald Benson.
Between 1932 and 1936, Nast's companion was the Vanity Fair writer Helen Brown Norden Lawrenson, author of The Hussy's Handbook (1942), Latins are Still Lousy Lovers (1968), and Stranger at the Party (1975).[6][7]
Death
The footstone of Condé Nast in Gate of Heaven CemeteryCondé Nast died in 1942 and is interred at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne, New York. His grave is located in Section 25 of the cemetery, near Babe Ruth and Billy Martin.[8][9]
References
- ^ "Mrs. Condé Nast Sues for Divorce in Paris". New York Times: p. 9. May 30, 1925.
- ^ nytimes.com
- ^ Linda Saslow (June 12, 1988). "Out of the House: A Mother's Art". New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE0DA173AF931A25755C0A96E948260. Retrieved 19 October 2010.
- ^ "Miss Nast Fiancée of Baron St. Just". The New York Times: p. 14. January 24, 1949.
- ^ "Edward Charles Grenfell biography". Grenfell Family History Site. http://grenfell.history.users.btopenworld.com/Biographies/edward_charles_grenfell.htm. Retrieved 2009-06-09.
- ^ Patrick O'Higgins (June 30, 1975). "Helen Lawrenson's Two Lives: Beer and Champagne, Kiss and Tell". The People. p. Vol. 3 No. 25. http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20065392,00.html.
- ^ Laurie Johnston (April 8, 1982). "Helen Lawrenson, 74, wrote about notable affairs". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1982/04/08/obituaries/helen-lawrenson-74-wrote-about-notable-social-affairs.html.
- ^ "Husband and Wife Reunited: After a Separation of Thirteen Years, They Come Together", The New York Times, October 14, 1890, p. 3
- ^ Condé Nast Dead; Publisher was 68", The New York Times, September 20, 1942, p. 39
External links
Categories:- 1873 births
- 1942 deaths
- American magazine publishers (people)
- Burials at Gate of Heaven Cemetery
- Condé Nast Publications
- Georgetown University alumni
- Washington University in St. Louis alumni
- American people of German descent
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