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
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 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. 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.
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, 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): 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).
Death
Condé 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.
