''Mademoiselle'' was a women's magazine first published in 1935 by Street and Smith and later acquired by Condé Nast Publications. ''Mademoiselle'', primarily a fashion magazine, was also known for publishing

short stories A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest t ...

by noted authors including

Truman Capote Truman Garcia Capote ( ; born Truman Streckfus Persons; September 30, 1924 – August 25, 1984) was an American novelist, screenwriter, playwright and actor. Several of his short stories, novels, and plays have been praised as literary classics, ...

, Joyce Carol Oates,

William Faulkner William Cuthbert Faulkner (; September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer known for his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, based on Lafayette County, Mississippi, where Faulkner spent most o ...

Tennessee Williams Thomas Lanier Williams III (March 26, 1911 – February 25, 1983), known by his pen name Tennessee Williams, was an American playwright and screenwriter. Along with contemporaries Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller, he is considered among the thr ...

, James Baldwin,

Flannery O'Connor Mary Flannery O'Connor (March 25, 1925August 3, 1964) was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist. She wrote two novels and 31 short stories, as well as a number of reviews and commentaries. She was a Southern literature, Southe ...

Sylvia Plath Sylvia Plath (; October 27, 1932 – February 11, 1963) was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer. She is credited with advancing the genre of confessional poetry and is best known for two of her published collections, '' Th ...

Paul Bowles Paul Frederic Bowles (; December 30, 1910November 18, 1999) was an American expatriate composer, author, and translator. He became associated with the Moroccan city of Tangier, where he settled in 1947 and lived for 52 years to the end of his ...

Jane Bowles Jane Bowles (; born Jane Sydney Auer; February 22, 1917 – May 4, 1973) was an American writer and playwright. Early life Born into a Jewish family in New York City on February 22, 1917, to Sydney Auer (father) and Claire Stajer (mother), Jane ...

Jane Smiley Jane Smiley (born September 26, 1949) is an American novelist. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1992 for her novel ''A Thousand Acres'' (1991). Biography Born in Los Angeles, California, Smiley grew up in Webster Groves, Missouri, a s ...

, Mary Gordon, Paul Theroux, Sue Miller, Barbara Kingsolver,

Perri Klass Perri Klass (born 1958) is an American pediatrician and writer who has published extensively about her medical training and pediatric practice. Among her subjects have been the issues of women in medicine, relationships between doctors and patient ...

Mona Simpson Mona Simpson (née Jandali; June 14, 1957) is an American novelist. She has written six novels and studied English at the University of California, Berkeley and Languages and Literature at Columbia University. She won a Whiting Award for her fir ...

Alice Munro Alice Ann Munro (; ; born 10 July 1931) is a Canadian short story writer who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013. Munro's work has been described as revolutionizing the architecture of short stories, especially in its tendency to move f ...

Harold Brodkey Harold Brodkey (October 25, 1930 – January 26, 1996), born Aaron Roy Weintraub, was an American short-story writer and novelist. Life Brodkey was the second child born in Staunton, Illinois, to Max Weintraub and Celia Glazer Weintraub (1899 ...

, Pam Houston,

Jean Stafford Jean Stafford (July 1, 1915 – March 26, 1979) was an American short story writer and novelist. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for '' The Collected Stories of Jean Stafford'' in 1970. Biography She was born in Covina, California, to M ...

, and Susan Minot.

Julia Cameron Julia B. Cameron (born March 4, 1948Floor Sample, by Julia Cameron, (Tarcher, 2006; ), a memoir) is an American teacher, author, artist, poet, playwright, novelist, filmmaker, pigeon fancier, composer, and journalist. She is best known for her ...

was a frequent columnist. The art director was

Barbara Kruger Barbara Kruger (born January 26, 1945) is an American conceptual artist and collagist associated with the Pictures Generation. She is most known for her collage style that consists of black-and-white photographs, overlaid with declarative captio ...

. In 1952,

's short story "Sunday at the Mintons" won first prize and $500, as well as publication in the magazine. Her experiences during the summer of 1953 as a guest editor at ''Mademoiselle'' provided the basis for her novel, ''

The Bell Jar ''The Bell Jar'' is the only novel written by the American writer and poet Sylvia Plath. Originally published under the pseudonym "Victoria Lucas" in 1963, the novel is semi-autobiographical with the names of places and people changed. The book ...

''. The August 1961 "college issue" of ''Mademoiselle'' included a photo of

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

senior class president Willette Murphy, who did not realize she was making history as the first African-American model to appear in a mainstream fashion magazine. During an interview with ''Fashion Week Online'',

Fern Mallis Fern Mallis (born March 26, 1948 in Brooklyn, New York) was the executive director of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) from 1991–2001, and created 7th on Sixth productions or New York Fashion Week as it is known today. She was ...

mentioned that she was one of 20 winners of the guest editing competition that she entered while attending college. She stated that she "was the only one of the 20 asked to come back and get a full-time job with the magazine." Mallis attributed that her publishing career began at ''Mademoiselle''. The

New York Social Diary New York Social Diary is a website that publishes photographs of "the rich and powerful" socialites and a social calendar of events that they might attend. It is maintained by David Patrick Columbia, who founded it in 2000. History The ''Diary'' ...

stated that she “worked at the magazine for six years.” In the sixties, ''Mademoiselle'' was geared toward "the smart young woman". It categorically stated in its editorials that despite the young, maidenly name, it was not geared toward young teenagers. The majority of readers may have been in college or in a job, and some may have been married. ''Mademoiselle'' was interested in reaching mature college freshmen and up who were being exposed to the greatest literature and facing the greatest moral problems coping with all the complexities of the atomic age. ''Mademoiselle'' continued throughout the eighties and nineties featuring the top models on its covers and in the pages of the editorial sections. In 1993, Elizabeth Crow was appointed editor-in-chief. The November 2001 magazine was the final issue. Some of the 93 employees and features moved over to '' Glamour'', also published by Condé Nast. The magazine's demise was due to multiple factors, including an editorial inability to update the magazine to appeal to a sufficient audience and an overall decline in advertising revenues across the magazine industry.''Goodbye to Mademoiselle: Condé Nast Closes Magazine'' – ''The New York Times'', October 2, 2001
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Editors

*Desmond Hall and F. Orlin Tremaine (1935) *F. Orlin Tremaine (1935–1937) *

Betsy Blackwell Betsy Talbot Blackwell (1905 – February 4, 1985) was an editor of several women's magazines, best known for being the editor-in-chief of '' Mademoiselle'' from 1937 to 1971. Under her leadership, sales surged to nearly one million by the time sh ...

(1937–1971) * Edie Locke (1971–1980) *Amy Levin Cooper (1981–1992) *Gabe Doppelt (1992) *Elizabeth Crow (1993–2000) *Mandi Norwood (2000–2001)

Notable people

* Svetlana Lloyd, assistant editor for 50 years.

References

External links

Mademoiselle CoversCyrilly Abels papers
at the University of Maryland libraries. Abels was a managing editor of the magazine from 1950 to the early 1960s. {{Advance Publications Defunct Condé Nast magazines Defunct women's magazines published in the United States Magazines established in 1935 Magazines disestablished in 2001 1935 establishments in New York City 2001 disestablishments in New York (state) Street & Smith Women's fashion magazines Magazines published in New York City