Description
Greenwich, CT: The Conde Nast Publications, Inc., 1926. First Edition. January, 1926 issue, Vol. 25 No. 5. 12 5/8″ x 9 1/2″, illustrated wraps, 116 pp. A handsome and striking copy; minor peripheral wear, several inch spine slit at bottom; a bit of other spine wear; contents near fine. Extraordinarily clean and bright; better than Very Good. See scans. Heavily into art-deco presentation, not to mention presentation of fine vehicles and other luxurious niceties for the rich and the thus-aspiring folks of the time. An issue of the second notable publication developed by Conde Montrose Nast, the man who also published Vogue, House and Garden, and Glamor. Vanity Fair was Nast’s high-style, high-life entree, meant to compete with the New Yorker, and the illustrations and articles in this lavish oversized issue bear that out. A really quite stunning Stanley W. Reynolds cover, stylish Masqueraders in brilliant colors, captures the immediate interest; but the artists and art inside are something of a Hall of Fame in themselves. These include a full-page of caricatures by Benito, a 2-page spread by Covarrubias,”Familiar Figures of the Burlesque Stage”; and work by Frans Masereel, Nino Ronchi, Fish (“A Complete Set of Flappers”) Helen Hokinson, and the droll Alan Odle, among many others. Photographic work includes that of Steichen (including a photo essay on the Charleston and a great study of giant marionetts to be used in a Da Falla opera, about Don Quixote), Sobol, and Henry Waxman (Classic shot of Lillian Gish). Articles include “Modern Fashions in Tattooing” an “Estimate of Anton Tchekhov”, “Are ‘Sex’ Magazines Immoral?”, “How to Break Ninety at Golf,”; hilarious mock-fan-notes to Gloria Swanson by Sherwood Anderson; Paul Whiteman on the Progress of Jazz; Alexander Woollcott on the theatre, Aldous Huxley, a short story by Colette, a poem by George S. Chappell; and the first in a series of theatre diaries by an actor who would, 13 years later, achieve immortality playing Ashley Wilkes in Gone With the Wind – at the time of this issue, just Mr. Leslie Howard, from London. Great ads touting The High Life, as always, stock these pages, and are for some the focus of the magazine’s collectibility. Just of few of the topics for these are: Coral Gables–Miami Riviera; Buick; Lincoln; Cadillac; RCA Radiola; Jordan Motor Car Co.; (extraordinary, full page color, suitable for mounting), Camel; Wurlitzer; Listerine; Am. Radiator Co.; Steinway, etc. Vanity Fair merged with Dress magazine in 1913, but started to achieve its maximum popularity under Condé Nast, starting in 1914, though it turned a profit only once before closing its doors in 1936 (in the 1980s, Vanity Fair was revived by the new Conde Nast Publications, which had itself arisen from the ashes, under the ownership of S.I. Newhouse). Finding this magazine’s table of contents was, back in 1926, every bit as much of an adventure as it would become in the 80s under editor Tina Brown. Scarce, a visual treat, and a piece of American History in a handsome state of preservation. lg6
