The Smart Set
Encyclopedia
The Smart Set was a literary magazine
founded in America in March 1900 by Colonel William d'Alton Mann
.
, a gossip rag which he used for political and social gain among New York City's infamous elite known as "The Four Hundred." With The Smart Set, Mann initially wanted to publish fiction written by The Four Hundred as his entrance into the literary world, but he found they had little talent. He soon gave full editorial authority to Charles Hanson Towne who ran the magazine from 1904 to 1909 when Norman Boyer took over the editorship until 1913.
During Boyer's control over The Smart Set, Mann sold the magazine in 1911 to retired publisher and former advertising guru John Adams Thayer for $100,000. Thayer offered the editorship of the magazine to both H.L. Mencken and George Jean Nathan
, two contributors and reader favorites, who turned the position down; however, they recommended Willard Huntington Wright for the job. Wright would hold the position for only a single year, 1913–14, but in that time he introduced major European authors such as D.H. Lawrence to the magazine's readers. Despite Wright's international literary connections, his extravagant, and sneaky, spending of Thayer's money caused him to be fired.
Thayer held onto ownership of The Smart Set until 1914 when he sold his majority holdings to Eugene Crowe and Eltinge F. Warner. Shortly after gaining control of the magazine, Crowe and Warner convinced Mencken and Nathan to become co-editors. Under Mencken and Nathan's control, The Smart Set provided a haven for writers just getting started, as well as for established authors whose more daring efforts could find no other market. From 1914 to 1923, these friends would direct The Smart Set with a combination of literary dexterity and cantankerous aplomb. The two men of letters would help introduce readers to a wide scope of authors such as Dorothy Parker
, Aldous Huxley
, Sinclair Lewis
, James Joyce
, Dashiell Hammett
, and many more.
Because of these two vastly talented men, The Smart Set was able to survive falling readership and revenue caused by Wright's financial indifference and, later, World War I
. Beginning in 1915 with Parisienne, Mencken and Nathan gathered submitted short stories they deemed unsuitable for The Smart Set but, nonetheless, had monetary value. Parisienne along with Saucy Stories in 1916 and Black Mask in 1920 were all fiction magazines initially published by Mencken and Nathan for readers of detective and mystery stories. After establishing a solid readership, the two savvy businessmen sold the magazines for profit using the money to keep The Smart Set financially viable. After nine years of writing, editing, and publishing for others, Mencken and Nathan had had enough of The Smart Set wanting to begin a magazine which would be fully in their control. Upon leaving, the two men got together with publishing magnate Alfred A. Knopf
and started The American Mercury
. In May 1929, The Smart Set absorbed The New McClure's Magazine. The last issue was published in July 1930 after having changed its name to The New Smart Set for the last three issues.
Written by Doug Zimmerman.
,
Willa Cather
,
Ben Hecht
,
Carl Van Vechten
,
Maxwell Anderson
,
S.S. Van Dine a.k.a. Willard Huntington Wright,
Dorothy Parker
,
Sinclair Lewis
,
Dashiell Hammett
,
Aldous Huxley
,
James Joyce
,
Eugene O'Neill
,
Ezra Pound
,
D.H. Lawrence,
Edna St. Vincent Millay
,
Robinson Jeffers
,
O. Henry
- a nonprofit that works to increase interest, literacy, and involvement in science, design, and culture - was founded in 2006. The Smart Set became Future-ish in 2010.
In 2007, Drexel University
launched an online cultural journal named The Smart Set. Drexel's journal shares some ideals with the original Smart Set, and lists Owen Hatteras, a pen name
used by H.L. Mencken and George Jean Nathan of the original journal on its masthead, but its connection to Mencken and Nathan's magazine is unofficial.
Literary magazine
A literary magazine is a periodical devoted to literature in a broad sense. Literary magazines usually publish short stories, poetry and essays along with literary criticism, book reviews, biographical profiles of authors, interviews and letters...
founded in America in March 1900 by Colonel William d'Alton Mann
William d'Alton Mann
William d'Alton Mann was an American Civil War soldier, businessman, and newspaper and magazine publisher....
.
History
Mann had previously published Town TopicsTown Topics (magazine)
Town Topics: The Journal of Society was a magazine published in New York City by William d'Alton Mann and others from 1879 to 1937 . Title varies: Andrew's American Queen; Art, Music, Literature and Society ; and American Queen Town Topics: The Journal of Society was a magazine published in New...
, a gossip rag which he used for political and social gain among New York City's infamous elite known as "The Four Hundred." With The Smart Set, Mann initially wanted to publish fiction written by The Four Hundred as his entrance into the literary world, but he found they had little talent. He soon gave full editorial authority to Charles Hanson Towne who ran the magazine from 1904 to 1909 when Norman Boyer took over the editorship until 1913.
During Boyer's control over The Smart Set, Mann sold the magazine in 1911 to retired publisher and former advertising guru John Adams Thayer for $100,000. Thayer offered the editorship of the magazine to both H.L. Mencken and George Jean Nathan
George Jean Nathan
George Jean Nathan was an American drama critic and editor.-Early life:Nathan was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana...
, two contributors and reader favorites, who turned the position down; however, they recommended Willard Huntington Wright for the job. Wright would hold the position for only a single year, 1913–14, but in that time he introduced major European authors such as D.H. Lawrence to the magazine's readers. Despite Wright's international literary connections, his extravagant, and sneaky, spending of Thayer's money caused him to be fired.
Thayer held onto ownership of The Smart Set until 1914 when he sold his majority holdings to Eugene Crowe and Eltinge F. Warner. Shortly after gaining control of the magazine, Crowe and Warner convinced Mencken and Nathan to become co-editors. Under Mencken and Nathan's control, The Smart Set provided a haven for writers just getting started, as well as for established authors whose more daring efforts could find no other market. From 1914 to 1923, these friends would direct The Smart Set with a combination of literary dexterity and cantankerous aplomb. The two men of letters would help introduce readers to a wide scope of authors such as 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....
, 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...
, Sinclair Lewis
Sinclair Lewis
Harry Sinclair Lewis was an American novelist, short-story writer, and playwright. In 1930, he became the first writer from the United States to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, "for his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create, with wit and humor, new types of...
, James Joyce
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
, Dashiell Hammett
Dashiell Hammett
Samuel Dashiell Hammett was an American author of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories, and political activist. Among the enduring characters he created are Sam Spade , Nick and Nora Charles , and the Continental Op .In addition to the significant influence his novels and stories had on...
, and many more.
Because of these two vastly talented men, The Smart Set was able to survive falling readership and revenue caused by Wright's financial indifference and, later, World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. Beginning in 1915 with Parisienne, Mencken and Nathan gathered submitted short stories they deemed unsuitable for The Smart Set but, nonetheless, had monetary value. Parisienne along with Saucy Stories in 1916 and Black Mask in 1920 were all fiction magazines initially published by Mencken and Nathan for readers of detective and mystery stories. After establishing a solid readership, the two savvy businessmen sold the magazines for profit using the money to keep The Smart Set financially viable. After nine years of writing, editing, and publishing for others, Mencken and Nathan had had enough of The Smart Set wanting to begin a magazine which would be fully in their control. Upon leaving, the two men got together with publishing magnate Alfred A. Knopf
Alfred A. Knopf
Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. is a New York publishing house, founded by Alfred A. Knopf, Sr. in 1915. It was acquired by Random House in 1960 and is now part of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group at Random House. The publishing house is known for its borzoi trademark , which was designed by co-founder...
and started The American Mercury
The American Mercury
The American Mercury was an American magazine published from 1924 to 1981. It was founded as the brainchild of H. L. Mencken and drama critic George Jean Nathan. The magazine featured writing by some of the most important writers in the United States through the 1920s and 1930s...
. In May 1929, The Smart Set absorbed The New McClure's Magazine. The last issue was published in July 1930 after having changed its name to The New Smart Set for the last three issues.
Written by Doug Zimmerman.
Short list of contributing authors
F. Scott FitzgeraldF. 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...
,
Willa Cather
Willa Cather
Willa Seibert Cather was an American author who achieved recognition for her novels of frontier life on the Great Plains, in works such as O Pioneers!, My Ántonia, and The Song of the Lark. In 1923 she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for One of Ours , a novel set during World War I...
,
Ben Hecht
Ben Hecht
Ben Hecht was an American screenwriter, director, producer, playwright, and novelist. Called "the Shakespeare of Hollywood", he received screen credits, alone or in collaboration, for the stories or screenplays of some 70 films and as a prolific storyteller, authored 35 books and created some of...
,
Carl Van Vechten
Carl van Vechten
Carl Van Vechten was an American writer and photographer who was a patron of the Harlem Renaissance and the literary executor of Gertrude Stein.-Biography:...
,
Maxwell Anderson
Maxwell Anderson
James Maxwell Anderson was an American playwright, author, poet, journalist and lyricist.-Early years:Anderson was born in Atlantic, Pennsylvania, the second of eight children to William Lincoln "Link" Anderson, a Baptist minister, and Charlotte Perrimela Stephenson, both of Scots and Irish descent...
,
S.S. Van Dine a.k.a. Willard Huntington Wright,
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....
,
Sinclair Lewis
Sinclair Lewis
Harry Sinclair Lewis was an American novelist, short-story writer, and playwright. In 1930, he became the first writer from the United States to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, "for his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create, with wit and humor, new types of...
,
Dashiell Hammett
Dashiell Hammett
Samuel Dashiell Hammett was an American author of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories, and political activist. Among the enduring characters he created are Sam Spade , Nick and Nora Charles , and the Continental Op .In addition to the significant influence his novels and stories had on...
,
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...
,
James Joyce
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
,
Eugene O'Neill
Eugene O'Neill
Eugene Gladstone O'Neill was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in Literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into American drama techniques of realism earlier associated with Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, and Swedish...
,
Ezra Pound
Ezra Pound
Ezra Weston Loomis Pound was an American expatriate poet and critic and a major figure in the early modernist movement in poetry...
,
D.H. Lawrence,
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Edna St. Vincent Millay was an American lyrical poet, playwright and feminist. She received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, and was known for her activism and her many love affairs. She used the pseudonym Nancy Boyd for her prose work...
,
Robinson Jeffers
Robinson Jeffers
John Robinson Jeffers was an American poet, known for his work about the central California coast. Most of Jeffers' poetry was written in classic narrative and epic form, but today he is also known for his short verse, and considered an icon of the environmental movement.-Life:Jeffers was born in...
,
O. Henry
O. Henry
O. Henry was the pen name of the American writer William Sydney Porter . O. Henry's short stories are well known for their wit, wordplay, warm characterization and clever twist endings.-Early life:...
Legacy
Inspired by the magazine, The Smart Set (TSS)The Smart Set (TSS)
The Smart Set was a Seattle-based nonprofit organization that worked to increase interest, literacy, and involvement in the fields of science, design, and culture. The idea of TSS was inspired by the early 20th century literary magazine The Smart Set. TSS was founded in 2006 by social entrepreneur...
- a nonprofit that works to increase interest, literacy, and involvement in science, design, and culture - was founded in 2006. The Smart Set became Future-ish in 2010.
In 2007, Drexel University
Drexel University
Drexel University is a private research university with the main campus located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. It was founded in 1891 by Anthony J. Drexel, a noted financier and philanthropist. Drexel offers 70 full-time undergraduate programs and accelerated degrees...
launched an online cultural journal named The Smart Set. Drexel's journal shares some ideals with the original Smart Set, and lists Owen Hatteras, a pen name
Pen name
A pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a pseudonym adopted by an author. A pen name may be used to make the author's name more distinctive, to disguise his or her gender, to distance an author from some or all of his or her works, to protect the author from retribution for his or her...
used by H.L. Mencken and George Jean Nathan of the original journal on its masthead, but its connection to Mencken and Nathan's magazine is unofficial.
Further reading
- Angoff, Charles. "The Mystique of The Smart Set." Literary Review: An International Journal of Contemporary Writing 11 (1967): 49-60.
- Bruce, Sam. "George Jean Nathan." American Magazine Journalists, 1900-1960: Second Series. Sam G. Riley. Ed. Dictionary of Literary Biography 137. Detroit, MI: Gale, 1994.
- Curtiss, Thomas Quinn. The Smart Set: George Jean Nathan & H.L. Mencken. New York: Applause, 1998.
- Dolmetsch, Carl R. The Smart Set: A History and Anthology. New York: Dial, 1966.
- "A History of The Smart Set Magazine, 1914-1923." Dissertation. U of Chicago, 1957.
- Fitzpatrick, Vincent. "H.L. Mencken." American Magazine Journalists, 1900-1960: Second Series. Sam G. Riley. Ed. Dictionary of Literary Biography 137. Detroit, MI: Gale, 1994.
- Hamilton, Sharon. "The "Smart Set" Magazine and the Popularization of American Modernism, 1908-1920." Dissertation. Dalhousie University (Canada), 1999.
- "The First New Yorker! The Smart Set Magazine, 1900-1924. The Serials Librarian 37.2 (1999): 89-104.
- Hagemann, Edward R. "The Smart Set." Library Review (Louisville) 28 (1979): 25-29.
- Hatteras, Owen. Pistols for Two. New York: Knopf, 1917.
- William H. Nolte, H.L. Mencken's Smart Set Criticism. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1968. "In gathering these criticisms, reviews, comments, barbs, horselaughs, prophecies, and assorted miscellanea, which constitute about one-sixth of Mencken's Smart Set literary criticism, I was guided by a desire to collect material that deals with books or men still of interest, or that vividly displays what was of special interest in the period, or that helps us to understand better the multifarious personality of Mencken."--From the Editor's Introduction.
- Rascoe, Burton and Groff Conklin. Eds. The Smart Set Anthology. New York: Reynal and Hitchcock, 1934.
External links
- The Smart Set at Internet ArchiveInternet ArchiveThe Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...
, various volumes (scanned books original editions color illustrated) - Louise Brooks Studies: Smart Set Magazine
- Drexel University's new Smart Set