Frank Crowninshield
Encyclopedia
Francis Welch Crowninshield (June 24, 1872 – December 28, 1947), better known as Frank or Crownie (informal), was an American journalist
and art and theatre critic
best known for developing and editing the magazine
Vanity Fair
for 21 years, making it a pre-eminent literary journal.
, France
, to the Americans Frederic Crowninshield
(1845–1918) and his wife, the former Helen Suzette Fairbanks, what he called "poor but good" members of the well-heeled Boston Brahmin
Crowninshield family
. His father, a man of "independent means", was a poet
and a respected painter
of landscape and murals. He served for two years as director of the American Academy in Rome
.
As an adult Frank Crowninshield lived in New York
City, where he was active in the high-class life and socialized on a regular basis with the elite
s of the period, as well as rising artists and writers. He was a member of the exclusive Knickerbocker Club
and Union Club
.
Crowninshield never married.
to become editor of the new Vanity Fair. Crowninshield immediately dropped the magazine's fashion
elements and helped turn the periodical into the preeminent literary
voice of sophisticated American society, a position it held until 1935. As young adults, Nast and Crowninshield were roommates.
During his tenure as editor, Crowninshield attracted the best writers of the era. In fact, Aldous Huxley
, T. S. Eliot
, Ferenc Molnár
, Gertrude Stein
, and Djuna Barnes
, all appeared in the issue of July 1923, while some of F. Scott Fitzgerald
's earliest works were published by the magazine. Dorothy Parker
's first poem was bought for the magazine under Crowninshield's advisement, and the magazine was also the first to print reproductions of works by artists such as Picasso and Matisse.
Crowninshield revised the magazine's policies on advertising. In 1915, Vanity Fair published more pages of ads than any other magazine in the country, though the number dwindled under Crowninshield's leadership. The magazine lost valuable revenue, especially during and following the Great Depression
, when businesses purchases fewer ads in any case.
and modern French art
.
Crowninshield was widely published outside Vanity Fair, including in Vogue
, for which he later served as an editor, and The Century Magazine
, where he had been an art critic.
According to Sybil Gordon Kantor in her book Alfred H. Barr, Jr. and the Intellectual Origins of the Museum of Modern Art, Frank Crowninshield was one of the founding member trustees along with several others.
, Degas, Renoir
, and others.
Crowninshield died December 28, 1947 at the age of 75. The New York Times credited Crowninshield with developing "café society" in the United States and noted his long leadership at Vanity Fair. He was buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery
in Boston, Massachusetts.
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
and art and theatre critic
Critic
A critic is anyone who expresses a value judgement. Informally, criticism is a common aspect of all human expression and need not necessarily imply skilled or accurate expressions of judgement. Critical judgements, good or bad, may be positive , negative , or balanced...
best known for developing and editing the magazine
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...
Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair (American magazine 1913-1936)
Vanity Fair was an American society magazine published from 1913-1936. It was highly successful until the Great Depression led to it becoming unprofitable, and it was merged into Vogue magazine in 1936.-History:...
for 21 years, making it a pre-eminent literary journal.
Personal life
Crowninshield was born June 24, 1872 in ParisParis
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, to the Americans Frederic Crowninshield
Frederic Crowninshield
Frederic Crowninshield was an American artist and author.-Life:Crowningshield was born in Boston on November 27, 1845 into the Crowninshield family....
(1845–1918) and his wife, the former Helen Suzette Fairbanks, what he called "poor but good" members of the well-heeled Boston Brahmin
Boston Brahmin
Boston Brahmins are wealthy Yankee families characterized by a highly discreet and inconspicuous life style. Based in and around Boston, they form an integral part of the historic core of the East Coast establishment...
Crowninshield family
Crowninshield family
The Crowninshield family is an American family that has been prominent in seafaring, political and military leadership, and the literary world. The founder of the American family immigrated in the late 17th century from what is now Germany...
. His father, a man of "independent means", was a poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
and a respected painter
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
of landscape and murals. He served for two years as director of the American Academy in Rome
American Academy in Rome
The American Academy in Rome is a research and arts institution located on the Gianicolo in Rome.- History :In 1893, a group of American architects, painters and sculptors met regularly while planning the fine arts section of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition...
.
As an adult Frank Crowninshield lived in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
City, where he was active in the high-class life and socialized on a regular basis with the elite
Elite
Elite refers to an exceptional or privileged group that wields considerable power within its sphere of influence...
s of the period, as well as rising artists and writers. He was a member of the exclusive Knickerbocker Club
Knickerbocker Club
The Knickerbocker Club , is a gentlemen's club in New York City founded in 1871. Its current location, a neo-Georgian structure at 2 East 62nd Street, was commissioned in 1913. It was designed by William Adams Delano and Chester Holmes Aldrich...
and Union Club
Union Club
Union Club may refer to:* Union Club of Boston* Union Club of the City of New York* Pacific-Union Club* Union Club , a London gentlemen's club based in Trafalgar Square, between 1827 and 1923, in what is now Canada House.* Union Club, Cleveland, Ohio...
.
Crowninshield never married.
Vanity Fair
In 1914, Crowninshield – who was considered "the most cultivated, elegant, and endearing man in publishing, if not Manhattan" – was hired by his friend Condé NastCondé Montrose Nast
Condé Montrose Nast was the founder of Condé Nast Publications, a leading American magazine publisher known for publications such as Vanity Fair, Vogue and The New Yorker.-Background:...
to become editor of the new Vanity Fair. Crowninshield immediately dropped the magazine's fashion
Fashion
Fashion, a general term for a currently popular style or practice, especially in clothing, foot wear, or accessories. Fashion references to anything that is the current trend in look and dress up of a person...
elements and helped turn the periodical into the preeminent literary
Literature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
voice of sophisticated American society, a position it held until 1935. As young adults, Nast and Crowninshield were roommates.
During his tenure as editor, Crowninshield attracted the best writers of the era. In fact, Aldous Huxley
Aldous Huxley
Aldous Leonard Huxley was an English writer and one of the most prominent members of the famous Huxley family. Best known for his novels including Brave New World and a wide-ranging output of essays, Huxley also edited the magazine Oxford Poetry, and published short stories, poetry, travel...
, T. S. Eliot
T. S. Eliot
Thomas Stearns "T. S." Eliot OM was a playwright, literary critic, and arguably the most important English-language poet of the 20th century. Although he was born an American he moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 and was naturalised as a British subject in 1927 at age 39.The poem that made his...
, Ferenc Molnár
Ferenc Molnár
LanguageFerenc Molnár was a Hungarian dramatist and novelist. His Americanized name was Franz Molnar...
, Gertrude Stein
Gertrude Stein
Gertrude Stein was an American writer, poet and art collector who spent most of her life in France.-Early life:...
, and Djuna Barnes
Djuna Barnes
Djuna Barnes was an American writer who played an important part in the development of 20th century English language modernist writing and was one of the key figures in 1920s and '30s bohemian Paris after filling a similar role in the Greenwich Village of the teens...
, all appeared in the issue of July 1923, while some of F. Scott Fitzgerald
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was an American author of novels and short stories, whose works are the paradigm writings of the Jazz Age, a term he coined himself. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. Fitzgerald is considered a member of the "Lost...
's earliest works were published by the magazine. Dorothy Parker
Dorothy Parker
Dorothy Parker was an American poet, short story writer, critic and satirist, best known for her wit, wisecracks, and eye for 20th century urban foibles....
's first poem was bought for the magazine under Crowninshield's advisement, and the magazine was also the first to print reproductions of works by artists such as Picasso and Matisse.
Crowninshield revised the magazine's policies on advertising. In 1915, Vanity Fair published more pages of ads than any other magazine in the country, though the number dwindled under Crowninshield's leadership. The magazine lost valuable revenue, especially during and following the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, when businesses purchases fewer ads in any case.
Other work
Crowninshield remained active in the arts and high society. He often advised the affluent on art investments and helped develop younger artists of the period, including Clara Tice He built his own art collection as well, including a large assortment of AfricanAfrican art
African art constitutes one of the most diverse legacies on earth. Though many casual observers tend to generalize "traditional" African art, the continent is full of people, societies, and civilizations, each with a unique visual special culture. The definition also includes the art of the African...
and modern French art
French art
French art consists of the visual and plastic arts originating from the geographical area of France...
.
Crowninshield was widely published outside Vanity Fair, including in Vogue
Vogue (magazine)
Vogue is a fashion and lifestyle magazine that is published monthly in 18 national and one regional edition by Condé Nast.-History:In 1892 Arthur Turnure founded Vogue as a weekly publication in the United States. When he died in 1909, Condé Montrose Nast picked up the magazine and slowly began...
, for which he later served as an editor, and The Century Magazine
The Century Magazine
The Century Magazine was first published in the United States in 1881 by The Century Company of New York City as a successor to Scribner's Monthly Magazine...
, where he had been an art critic.
According to Sybil Gordon Kantor in her book Alfred H. Barr, Jr. and the Intellectual Origins of the Museum of Modern Art, Frank Crowninshield was one of the founding member trustees along with several others.
Post-career
After his retirement, Crowninshield began to sell most of his private art collection. In 1943, he sold a total of 1019 items, earning a total of $181,747. His collection had included pieces from Impressionist and Modern artists such as Jules Pascin, ManetManet
-MANET as an abbreviation:*MANET is a mobile ad hoc network, a self-configuring mobile wireless network.*MANET database or Molecular Ancestry Network, bioinformatics database-People with the surname Manet:*Édouard Manet, a 19th-century French painter....
, Degas, Renoir
Renoir
-People with the surname Renoir :* Pierre-Auguste Renoir , French painter* Pierre Renoir , French actor and son of Pierre-Auguste Renoir* Jean Renoir , French film director and son of Pierre-Auguste Renoir...
, and others.
Crowninshield died December 28, 1947 at the age of 75. The New York Times credited Crowninshield with developing "café society" in the United States and noted his long leadership at Vanity Fair. He was buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery
Mount Auburn Cemetery
Mount Auburn Cemetery was founded in 1831 as "America's first garden cemetery", or the first "rural cemetery", with classical monuments set in a rolling landscaped terrain...
in Boston, Massachusetts.
In popular culture
- The film Mrs. Parker and the Vicious CircleMrs. Parker and the Vicious CircleMrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle is a 1994 film scripted by writer/director Alan Rudolph and former Washington Star reporter Randy Sue Coburn...
(1994) featured Crowninshield played by the actor Peter BenchleyPeter BenchleyPeter Bradford Benchley was an American author, best known for his novel Jaws and its subsequent film adaptation, the latter co-written by Benchley and directed by Steven Spielberg...
.