Figure 1.-- |
|
Conde Montrose Nast was born in New York City during 1873. His father left the family for Europe when Conde was 3 year old. Conde did not see him again for 14 years. Without mens of her own, Conde's mother moved her four children back to St. Louis where her family lived. Nast grew up largely in the company of women. He was raised essentialy by his mother and his Aunt Fanny also played an important role. There were also two sisters. This is perhaps one reason that Nast did so well with magazines that appealed to largely women readers. Nast was a major force in American publishing. He was the first person to own a magazine chain. His short performance at Collier's Weekly was legendary. His purchase of Vogue made him a major force in high society fashion and in fashionable home seing patterns. His publictions had a major impact on magazine layout. He was the first with colored pages, the double-page spread, and the special number. major marketing inovation was to divide the United States into marketing areas. This proved advantageous because Nast realized that some products needed to be promoted on a regional basis. Nast's strategy was extremely inovative. Rather aiming at a vast national circultion, he sought to publish "class publications". Nast targeted specific groups offering exciting, timely information on arts, politics, and entertainment. Nast was the first major U.S. publisher to focus on common or special interest magazines. Today this is the major thrust of U.S. magazines. There are magazines on topics as diverse as wines, dance, soldiuers of fortune, fishing, skateboarding, and a long list of other interests.
Conde's father was William Frederick Nast. William had little money, but was an inventor with some interesting ideas. He played almost no role in his son's upbringing. Conde's mother was Esther Ariadne.
Conde Montrose Nast was born in New York City during 1873. His father left the family for Europe when Conde was 3 year old. Conde did not see him again for 14 years. Without mens of her own, Conde's mother moved her four children back to St. Louis where her family lived.
Nast grew up largely in the company of women. He was raised essentialy by his mother and his Aunt Fanny also played an important role. There were also two sisters. This is perhaps one reason that Nast did so well with magazines that appealed to largely women readers.
Conde had an older brother and two sisters.
Conde attended public schools in St. Louis. His mother saw to it that the children seriously persued teir studies. Special attention was given to foreign language instruction and musical tuition so they all learned to play a musical instrument. Conde had troublelearning French, but becme an excellent flute player.
Conde's mother did not have the money to send the children to college (meaning university). Her sister Fanny, however, had money and offered to pay for one of the two boys. (Educating girls was still not seen as a high priority in the 19th century.) The orginal plan was to send Conde's older brother. Their mother required each to keep a garden. One a visit, Aunty Fanny was so impressed with Cone's garden that she insisted that he be the one she would send to college.
Nast attended Georgetown University in Washington D.C. He was active in student government. One of his major efforts was to raise money and publicize the University's sports teams. One of his best friends was Robert Collier. Robert's father was a New York publisher and owned Collier's Weekly--an important national publication. The two went into publishing thmselves, becoming associate editors of the College Journal. Collier eventually became editor in chief. Both also had musicin common. Nast graduated in 1894 with a B.A. He earned a distinction in rational philosophy and mathematics. He continued his education to earn a M.A. in 1895. He returned to St. Louis to wok on a law degree from St. Louis Law School of Washington University. He
graduated with his law degree in 1898.
Nast decided against pusuing the law as a career. Rather he went to work in small printing business in which the family had invested, but was failing. Nast turned it around through inovative ideas, especially approaches to advertising.
Nast's friend Collier visited him in St Louis during 1900. He was impressed with Nast's success with the small publishing company. He offered Nast a job as advertising manager at Collier's Weekly. Nast also proved successful at Collier's. He increased advertising revenue from only a few thousand dollars to more than a million dollars annually in 1905. He was also promoted to business manager in 1905.
Nast despite his sccess at Collier's wanted his on business. He resigned in 1907 so he could devote his efforts on a new business that he became involved with while still at Collier's--the Home Pattern Company. They manufacturered and distributed of women's dress patterns under contract with the Ladies' Home Journal--the most respected women's service magazine in the country. Nast worked on convincing companies to pay for advertisements to be included with the dress patterns.
Nast entered big time when he purchased Vogue in 1909. The magazine had been founded in 1892, but had achieved relatively limited success. Nast thought that the wealthy investors behind Vogue was aajor assett. Vogue began publishung in April 1909 when Nast as the new president. He workd closely with editr Edna Woolman Chase to turn the magazine around. Nast with the assistance of World War I turned Vogue into one of the most important fashion magazines in the world. The magazine became the arbiter for the fashions of wealthy high society women in America. The devestating World War, fought mostly in urope, gave America the opportunity to expand its fashion business, including high socity fashions. Nast expanded Vogue to have British and French versions.
Nast decided to expand his business in 1913. He purchased two new magazines, Dress and Vanity Fair. He decided that there was no need for two separate publications and merged the two. He hired hired Frank Crowninshield to be the editor and shortened the nme to Vanity Fair. Nast focused the magazine on art, entertainment, literature, and some high society gossip stories. The magazine also introduced its readers to progressive movements in art and literature which were previously unknown to most readers. Vanity Fair did not prove to be the financial succes that Nast had hoped.
Nast given his experience with the Home Pattern Company decided to use the the increasingly respected Vogue name to enter the pattern business. He started the Vogue Pattern Company in 1914. While not as large as competitors like Butternick, Vogue Pattern soon dominated the high society fashion sector.
Nast continued his acuisition program in 1915, buying Home and Garden. He hired Richardson Wright to edit the magazine. The association was another great success. Within 10 years Home and Garden doubled its readership.
Nast built a printing plant during 1921 in Greenwich, Connecticut, and named it Conde Nast Press. Nast in 1922 organized his different companies into Conde Nast Publications, Inc.
Nast had invested heavily in his publications and other companies on the stock market. The sock market crsh in 1929 was devestating. Nast lost a great deal of money in the market and t the same time, sharply lover advetising revenue and magazine sales affected the financial peformance of his magazines. Revenue at Conde Nast declined from $10 million to only about $5 million between 1930 and 1933. Due to
this the profits suffered significant losses. The value of the company shares plummeted. Nast received financial support from a British publisher, but his operations never fully recovered. He decided to close Vanity Fair
Nast in 1939 came up with an idea for a new magazine--Glamour of Hollywood. The title waslater shortened to just Glamour. All of Nast's other publications were existing magazines that he purchased. Glamour he created himself. It's target audience was young working women and was from the beginning a great success.
Nast married twice. Both failed. There were two children with his first wife, Jeanne Clarisse Coudert, and one daughter with his second wife, Leslie Foster.
Nast loved to entertain and be in the social swirl. He had a 30 room Park Avenue penthouse. He was known to have three parties going at the same time. He would invite the social elite, but after the stock market crash found it increasinky difficult to finance his life style. His health also began to deteriorate, in part because of his heavy work load.
Nast suffered a heart attack while visiting his 12-year old daughter at a camp in Vermont. He died 2-weeks later at his New York penthouse.
Nast was a major force in American publishing. He was the first person to own a magazine chain. His short performance at Collier's Weekly was legendary. His publictions had a major impact on magazine layout. He was the first with colored pages, the double-page spread, and the special number. The special number was an idea that Nast developed at Collier's Weekly. he centered it around one of the most important American commercial illustrator at the time--Charles Dana Gibson, creator of the Gibson Girl. major marketing inovation was to divide the United States into marketing areas. This proved advantageous because Nast realized that some products needed to be promoted on a regional basis. Nast's strategy was extremely inovative. Rather aiming at a vast national circultion, he sought to publish "class publications". Nast targeted specific groups offering exciting, timely information on arts, politics, and entertainment. Nast was the first major U.S. publisher to focus on common or special interest magazines. Today this is the major thrust of U.S. magazines. There are magazines on topics as diverse as wines, dance, soldiers of fortune, fishing, skateboarding, and a long list of other interests.
Kelly, Alan. "Nast, Conde". American National Biography Online. (Feb 2000). Accessed on 12 Feb, 2002. http://www.anb.org/articles/16/16-02513.html
Seebohm, Caroline. The Man Who Was Vogue: The Life and Times of Conde Nast (New York: The Viking Press, 1982).
"Conde Nast Was Born". America's Story from America's Library: Jump Back in Time. Accessed on 11 Feb, 2002. http://www.americaslibrary.gov/pages/jb_0326_nast_1.html
"Nast, Conde (Montrose)". Biography.com. (2001). Accessed on 11 Feb, 2002.
http://search.biography.com/print_record.pl?id=17949
Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Biography pages:
[Return to Main biography page]
[Return to Main Vogue page]
[Biographies A-F]
[Biographies G-L]
[Biographies M-R]
[Biographies S-Z]
Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Site:
[Introduction]
[Activities]
[Biographies]
[Chronology]
[Clothing styles]
[Countries]
[Bibliographies]
[Contributions]
[FAQs]
[Glossaries]
[Images]
[Links]
[Registration]
[Tools]
[Boys' Clothing Home]