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 and Vogue.
Background
Conde Nast was born in New York City to a family of midwestern origin. His father William F. Nast, a Methodist, was an unsuccessful broker and inventor, who had also served as U.S. attaché in Berlin. His mother, the former Esther Benoist, Catholic, the daughter of a prominent St. Louis banker. His aunt financed his studies Georgetown University, where he graduated in 1894. He went on to receive a law degree from Washington University in St. Louis in 1897.
He was said to be an uncreative, but extremely methodical man.
Career
Nast did not take well to law, and upon graduation he got a job working for a former classmate as advertizing manager for Collier's Weekly (1898–1907). Over the course of a decade he increased the advertizing revenue 100-fold. He then left Colliers and 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. 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; Frank Crowninshield, who launched Vanity Fair for Nast; and Dorothy Parker and Robert Benchley as well as Diana Vreeland.
Nearly ruined in the Great Depression, Nast spent his last years struggling to regain his early prosperity.
Marriages
Nast was married twice. His wives were:
- Leslie Foster (later Lady Benson), 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, and secondly, Lord Bonham Carter).
Between 1932 and 1936, Nast's companion was the Vanity Fair writer Helen Brown Norden, author of The Hussy's Handbook (1942).
Death
Condé Nast died in 1942 and is interred at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne, New York. Specifically, his grave is located in Section 25 of the cemetery, near Babe Ruth and Billy Martin.
References
- ^ "Mrs. Conde Nast Sues for Divorce in Paris", New York Times, May 30, 1925, p. 9.
- "Husband and Wife Reunited: After a Separation of Thirteen Years They Come Together", The New York Times, 14 October 1890, p. 3
- "Condé Nast Dead; Publisher was 68", The New York Times, 20 September 1942, p. 39
- "Miss Nast Fiancée of Baron St. Just", The New York Times, 24 January 1949, p. 14
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