Condé Montrose Nast

Nast was born in New York City on March 26, 1873, to William Nast and Esther Benoist. When he was three his father left for Europe for 13 years, and his mother took her four children to live with her family in St. Louis. A wealthy aunt paid for him to attend Georgetown University, where he met Robert J. CollierRobert J. CollierRobert J. Collier was an American publisher, the son of the publisher of Collier’s Weekly, which he later ran. He met Condé Montrose Nast at Georgetown University and in 1897 brought him to Collier’s. As an early president of the Aero Club of America, he established in 1911 the aviation award later named the Collier Trophy.Open the full entry, the son of a magazine publisher, and edited the school newspaper with him; he then earned a law degree from Washington University.⁠[1]

In 1897 Robert J. Collier offered Nast a job at his father’s magazine, Collier’s, in New York for $12 a week. Over ten years the magazine’s circulation grew from about 19,000 to more than 568,000 and its advertising revenue from $5,600 to more than $1 million; Nast introduced color pages, two-page spreads and special issues and divided the country into marketing regions. When he left he was earning $40,000 a year.⁠[1]

Nast began negotiating for Vogue in 1905 and completed the purchase in 1909, when it had a circulation of 14,000. He made it semimonthly, raised its price and added color covers, charging higher advertising rates to reach a small, affluent readership. In 1911 he bought interests in House & Garden and Travel; in 1913 he set out his idea of the “class publication,” aimed only at a group sharing a defining characteristic. He was the first publisher to produce international editions of a magazine, with British, French, Spanish and German editions of Vogue.⁠[1][2]

In 1913 Nast bought Vanity Fair and launched the combined Dress and Vanity Fair, relaunching it as Vanity Fair in 1914. He asked Frank CrowninshieldFrank CrowninshieldFrank Crowninshield (1872–1947) was an American editor, art critic and collector who edited Vanity Fair at Condé Montrose Nast’s invitation from 1914 until it merged into Vogue in 1936, focusing it on theater, art, literature and sports; he was also one of the original seven trustees of the Museum of Modern Art.Open the full entry to edit it; Crowninshield agreed on condition that it carry nothing on women’s fashion and focus on theater, art, literature and sports. The two men gave parties at Nast’s Park Avenue apartment that brought artists and society together, an early form of what became known as café society.⁠[1][3]

Nast married Clarisse CoudertClarisse CoudertClarisse Coudert was the first wife of Condé Montrose Nast and came from a New York society family of French descent. They married in 1902 and had a son, Charles, and a daughter, Natica; her social background helped Nast enter New York society. They separated in 1919 and divorced in 1925.Open the full entry in 1902; they had a son, Charles, and a daughter, Natica, and divorced in 1925. In 1928 he married Leslie Foster, with whom he had a daughter, Leslie, in 1930; they divorced in the early 1930s.⁠[1]

On October 29, 1929, Condé Nast Publications shares fell from $93 to $4.50; Nast owed a bank $2 million, lost control of his publishing business and within a few years was nearly $5 million in debt. Vanity Fair merged into Vogue in 1936, and in 1939 he started Glamour, with a crowded, many-picture layout.⁠[1]

Nast suffered heart attacks in December 1941 and September 1942 and died in New York City on September 19, 1942; about 800 people attended his funeral, and in January 1943 his possessions were auctioned to pay his debts.⁠[1]

Condé Nast: Official website: https://www.condenast.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[4]