''The Smart Set'' was an American monthly literary magazine, founded by Colonel

William d'Alton Mann William d'Alton Mann (September 27, 1839 – May 17, 1920) was a Union officer in the American Civil War, a businessman, and a newspaper and magazine publisher. Early life He was born in Sandusky, Ohio on September 27, 1839. Career During the ...

and published from March 1900 to June 1930. Its headquarters was in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. During its

Jazz Age The Jazz Age was a period from 1920 to the early 1930s in which jazz music and dance styles gained worldwide popularity. The Jazz Age's cultural repercussions were primarily felt in the United States, the birthplace of jazz. Originating in New O ...

heyday under the editorship of H. L. Mencken and

George Jean Nathan George Jean Nathan (February 14, 1882 – April 8, 1958) was an American drama critic and magazine editor. He worked closely as an editor with H. L. Mencken bringing the literary magazine ''The Smart Set'' to prominence and while co-founding ...

, ''The Smart Set'' offered many up-and-coming authors their start and gave them access to a relatively large audience. Following a dispute with owner Eltinge Warner over an unprinted article mocking the national grief over President

Warren G. Harding Warren Gamaliel Harding (November 2, 1865 – August 2, 1923) was the 29th president of the United States, serving from 1921 until his death in 1923. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he was one of the most ...

's death, Mencken and Nathan departed the publication to create '' The American Mercury'' in 1924. After their departure, Warner sold the publication to press mogul

William Randolph Hearst William Randolph Hearst (; April 29, 1863 – August 14, 1951) was an American newspaper publisher and politician who developed the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications. His extravagant methods of yellow jou ...

. Although circulation increased under Hearst's ownership, the magazine's content declined in quality. Following the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the magazine failed to survive the economic slump and ceased publication in June 1930. Half a decade after its dissolution, critic Louis Kronenberger hailed ''The Smart Set'' in ''

The New York Times Book Review ''The New York Times Book Review'' (''NYTBR'') is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times'' in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely rea ...

'' as one of the greatest literary publications due to its influence over American culture during its brief existence. "You were very conscious that it was making literary history," Kronenberger wrote, "it was teaching a literary America that went about on all fours how to walk."

Early years

In 1900,

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

veteran and financier Colonel William d'Alton Mann sought to offer a cultural counterpart to his

gossip magazine A gossip magazine, also referred to as a tabloid magazine, is a magazine that features scandalous stories about the personal lives of celebrities and other well-known individuals. In North America, this genre of magazine flourished in the 1950s ...

'' Town Topics'', an infamous publication which he used for political and social gain among New York City's elite. Mann used his ''Town Topics'' investigators to gather embarrassing information about wealthy individuals in New York Society and would allow these individuals to suppress the articles in exchange for monetary remuneration. This practice led many historians to suggest the latter magazine functioned more or less as a means for Mann to collect

blackmail Blackmail is a criminal act of coercion using a threat. As a criminal offense, blackmail is defined in various ways in common law jurisdictions. In the United States, blackmail is generally defined as a crime of information, involving a thr ...

: When conceiving his new publication entitled ''The Smart Set'', Mann wished to include works "by, for and about ' The Four Hundred'," referring to Ward McAllister's claim that there were only 400 fashionable people in New York's upper society. As a so-called "

pasha Pasha (; ; ) was a high rank in the Ottoman Empire, Ottoman political and military system, typically granted to governors, generals, dignitary, dignitaries, and others. ''Pasha'' was also one of the highest titles in the 20th-century Kingdom of ...

of the

Gilded Age In History of the United States, United States history, the Gilded Age is the period from about the late 1870s to the late 1890s, which occurred between the Reconstruction era and the Progressive Era. It was named by 1920s historians after Mar ...

," Mann sought to provide sophisticated content that would reinforce the social values of New York's social elite. He sought out writers supposedly "from the ranks of the best society of Europe and America", and he gave his new publication the subtitle "The Magazine of Cleverness." Mann published the first issue of ''The Smart Set'' on March 10, 1900, under the editorship of young poet Arthur Grissom, who had also worked on ''Town Topics''. As editor, Grissom created the formula of the magazine that would remain intact throughout the greater part of its existence: 160 pages containing a novelette, a short play, several poems, and witticisms to fill blank spaces. Its first cover, by Kay Womrath, "depicted a dancing couple in evening dress controlled by strings held by a grinning Pan; the slashing S's of the title were in vermilion. The price was twenty-five cents." Its earliest contributors included poets

Ella Wheeler Wilcox Ella Wheeler Wilcox (November 5, 1850October 30, 1919) was an American author and poet. Her works include the collection '' Poems of Passion'' and the poem "Solitude", which contains the lines "Laugh, and the world laughs with you; weep, and you ...

, Bliss Carman and Clinton Scollard. Grissom was the first editor to publish works by O. Henry in ''The Smart Set'', and O. Henry's short story, ''The Lotos and the Bottle'', was published by Grissom "at the bargain rate of fifty dollars" in cash. After a brief tenure as editor, however, Grissom died of

typhoid fever Typhoid fever, also known simply as typhoid, is a disease caused by '' Salmonella enterica'' serotype Typhi bacteria, also called ''Salmonella'' Typhi. Symptoms vary from mild to severe, and usually begin six to 30 days after exposure. Often th ...

in December 1901. Novelist Marvin Dana took over as editor, in the first of a series of managerial turnovers that would define the evolution of magazine until its termination. Dana formed an editorial triumvirate consisting of himself and two associate editors, Charles Hanson Towne and newspaper correspondent Henry Collins Walsh. Dana remained as editor until 1904, when he left ''The Smart Set'' to work in newspapers. Dana's chosen successor was Towne, previously an editor at ''

Cosmopolitan Magazine ''Cosmopolitan'' (stylized in all caps) is an American quarterly fashion and entertainment magazine for women, first published based in New York City in March 1886 as a family magazine; it was later transformed into a literary magazine and, sinc ...

''. Towne was the magazine's first editor to actively push to publish new literary talents such as James Branch Cabell. He also oversaw a stable of famous contributors such as

Jack London John Griffith London (; January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916), better known as Jack London, was an American novelist, journalist and activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors t ...

Ambrose Bierce Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce (June 24, 1842 – ) was an American short story writer, journalist, poet, and American Civil War veteran. His book '' The Devil's Dictionary'' was named one of "The 100 Greatest Masterpieces of American Literature" by the ...

and

Theodore Dreiser Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser (; August 27, 1871 – December 28, 1945) was an American novelist and journalist of the naturalism (literature), naturalist school. His novels often featured main characters who succeeded at their objectives despi ...

. Under Towne's editorship, the ''Smart Set'' honed its tone and content: By 1905, the magazine reached its peak circulation of 165,000. However, due to allegations of blackmail associated with Mann's ''Town Topics'' in 1906, ''The Smart Sets popularity declined precipitously, immediately losing around 25,000 readers. Dissatisfied with the magazine's direction, Towne resigned his position as editor in 1908 to work with

on ''

The Delineator ''The Delineator'' was an American women's magazine of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, founded by the Butterick Publishing Company in 1869 under the name ''The Metropolitan Monthly.'' Its name was changed in 1875. The magazine was publi ...

'', an American women's magazine. After Towne's departure, Mann stepped up as editor alongside Fred Splint, and the two men set out to revitalize the magazine and to rebuild its readership. As part of this revitalization, Mann started a monthly book review column and, in 1908, Splint hired the

Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...

newspaperman Henry Louis Mencken to fill the book reviewer position at the suggestion of editorial assistant Norman Boyer. The twenty-eight-year-old Mencken became quite popular with readers as his "oracular, pungent, and racy" book reviews garnered much attention. Using his position as book reviewer for ''The Smart Set'', Mencken would become "America's most important literary and social critic." Soon after, in 1909,

became the magazine's drama columnist. During his tenure as the ''Smart Sets resident theater critic, Jean "would become an extremely influential figure in the New York drama scene." Nathan "matched Mencken in his defiance of conventional mores, his saucy style, ndhis magisterial attitude." Together, the combined criticisms of Mencken and Nathan elevated the substantive content of Mann's magazine to appeal to intellectuals and ensured the magazine's place in literary history.

Thayer years

With ''The Smart Set'' in perpetual decline, Mann sold the magazine in Spring 1911 to John Adams Thayer for $100,000. Thayer was a self-made millionaire who had "made a personal fortune as a successful advertising manager at the

Ladies' Home Journal ''Ladies' Home Journal'' was an American magazine that ran until 2016 and was last published by the Meredith Corporation. It was first published on February 16, 1883, and eventually became one of the leading women's magazines of the 20th centur ...

." Thayer, who previously pulled the

muckraking The muckrakers were reform-minded journalists, writers, and photographers in the Progressive Era in the United States (1890s–1920s) who claimed to expose corruption and wrongdoing in established institutions, often through sensationalist publ ...

Everybody's Magazine ''Everybody's Magazine'' was an American magazine published from 1899 to 1929. The magazine was headquartered in New York City. History and profile The magazine was founded by Philadelphia merchant John Wanamaker in 1899, though he had little r ...

'' out of a slump and earned himself a significant fortune from its sale, hoped ownership of ''The Smart Set'' would allow him entrance into the social ranks of New York's high society. However, the magazine's ruined reputation made this difficult and his purchase left him in charge of a sinking ship. After Mencken and Nathan both declined the offer of editorship, Thayer assumed the position of editor-in-chief and appointed the magazine's associate editor, Norman Boyer, as managing editor. An expert in advertising, Thayer added a slogan to the magazine's subtitle, stating that "Its Prime Purpose is to Provide Lively Entertainment for Minds That Are Not Primitive." The new slogan was unsuccessful in restoring the magazine's reputation and popularity, but in 1912 a younger, more rebellious audience began reading ''The Smart Set'' for that very reason. To accommodate this new demographic, Thayer, at the recommendation of Mencken, handed over the editorship to Willard Huntington Wright in 1913. Wright was a Harvard graduate and had served as the literary editor of ''

The Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper in the U.S. and the larges ...

''. Wright outlined the magazine's new editorial direction in the next month's issue: Although only lasting a year, Wright's tenure marked a period of artistic prosperity for ''The Smart Set''. Thayer appointed Wright as editor with complete control of the magazine's content and direction. Wright, immediately taking advantage of this position, began collecting manuscripts from new artists and hired

Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an List of poets from the United States, American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Ita ...

as an overseas talent scout. With an appreciation for new and unconventional literary styles, Wright steered the magazine into publishing more experimental and ''

avant-garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

'' literary works by authors such as D.H. Lawrence,

Joseph Conrad Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, ; 3 December 1857 – 3 August 1924) was a Poles in the United Kingdom#19th century, Polish-British novelist and story writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest writers in the Eng ...

William Butler Yeats William Butler Yeats (, 13 June 186528 January 1939), popularly known as W. B. Yeats, was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer, and literary critic who was one of the foremost figures of 20th century in literature, 20th-century literature. He was ...

, and

Ford Madox Ford Ford Madox Ford (né Joseph Leopold Ford Hermann Madox Hueffer ( ); 17 December 1873 – 26 June 1939) was an English novelist, poet, critic and editor whose journals ''The English Review'' and ''The Transatlantic Review (1924), The Transatlant ...

. Wright's editorial decision caused a drastic reduction in readership and angered the magazine's advertisers, who began withdrawing financial backing. Additionally, Wright was using ''The Smart Sets checkbook to overpay authors for their work and was attempting to secretly fund a prototype of a more radical publication with Mencken. As a result, Thayer fired Wright in 1914 and announced an end to the magazine's ''avant-garde'' content and a return to more traditional material. By the end of Wright's editorship, however, the magazine was in economic disrepair, and Thayer handed over ownership to Colonel Eugene Crowe in return for forgiveness of debts. Due to the fired Wright's editorial decisions, the magazine had acquired a new intellectual audience. Its readership included such notable writers as

Sinclair Lewis Harry Sinclair Lewis (February 7, 1885 – January 10, 1951) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and playwright. In 1930 Nobel Prize in Literature, 1930, he became the first author from the United States (and the first from the America ...

Hugh Walpole Sir Hugh Seymour Walpole, Commander of the Order of the British Empire, CBE (13 March 18841 June 1941) was an English novelist. He was the son of an Anglican clergyman, intended for a career in the church but drawn instead to writing. Among ...

, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and

Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway ( ; July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer and journalist. Known for an economical, understated style that influenced later 20th-century writers, he has been romanticized fo ...

, as well as college professors such as Stewart Sherman and Percy Boynton. The magazine also had garnered the attention of a number of critics and journalists, including Burton Rascoe,

Edmund Wilson Edmund Wilson Jr. (May 8, 1895 – June 12, 1972) was an American writer, literary critic, and journalist. He is widely regarded as one of the most important literary critics of the 20th century. Wilson began his career as a journalist, writing ...

Alfred Kazin Alfred Kazin (June 5, 1915 – June 5, 1998) was an American writer and literary critic. His literary reviews appeared in ''The New York Times'', the '' New York Herald-Tribune'', ''The New Republic'' and ''The New Yorker''. He wrote often a ...

Franklin Pierce Adams Franklin Pierce Adams (November 15, 1881 – March 23, 1960) was an American columnist known as Franklin P. Adams and by his initials F.P.A. Famed for his wit, he is best known for his newspaper column, "The Conning Tower", and his appearances a ...

and

Harold Ross Harold Wallace Ross (November 6, 1892 – December 6, 1951) was an American journalist who co-founded ''The New Yorker'' magazine in 1925 with his wife Jane Grant, and was its editor-in-chief until his death. Early life Born in a prospector' ...

, the co-founder of ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

'' magazine who was inspired to create the latter publication upon the demise of ''The Smart Set''.

Mencken and Nathan years

Having little interest in running a magazine, Crowe gave control of ''The Smart Set'' to Eltinge Warner, who then appointed Mencken and Nathan as co-editors with total artistic control. Warner remained in control of the magazine's accounts—circulation, advertising, and bookkeeping—while Mencken and Nathan focused on literary content. In a series of measures to economize, Mencken and Nathan relocated the magazine's office to a smaller location and reduced the staff, retaining only themselves and a secretary, Sara Golde. Warner reprinted previous issues of ''The Smart Set'' under the title ''Clever Stories''. In their most successful effort to boost revenue, Mencken and Nathan began the pulp magazine ''The Parisienne'' in 1915 as a place to publish a surplus of manuscripts they deemed inferior for ''The Smart Set''. ''The Parisienne'' "capitalized on the then current war interest in France" generated significant profits, which they used to offset the production costs of ''The Smart Set''. The co-editors sold ''The Parisienne'' to Warner and Crowe in 1916 and repeated the process with ''Saucy Stories'' and, in 1920, '' Black Mask''. Mencken and Nathan's co-editorship helped to bring about a golden era for new literature and ''The Smart Set''. Together, they "created a uniquely liberated mass-market venue for American fiction; this fact alone suggests the importance of this magazine in relation to American literary developments in the teens and early twenties." Circulation during their co-editorship was between 40,000 and 50,000, making it one of the most widely read literary publications. During this time the magazine featured works by

Edna St. Vincent Millay Edna St. Vincent Millay (February 22, 1892 – October 19, 1950) was an American lyric poetry, lyrical poet and playwright. Millay was a renowned social figure and noted Feminism, feminist in New York City during the Roaring Twenties and beyond. ...

Aldous Huxley Aldous Leonard Huxley ( ; 26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. His bibliography spans nearly 50 books, including non-fiction novel, non-fiction works, as well as essays, narratives, and poems. Born into the ...

, Benjamin De Casseres,

Eugene O'Neill Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama techniques of Realism (theatre), realism, earlier associated with ...

and

Dashiell Hammett Samuel Dashiell Hammett ( ; May 27, 1894 – January 10, 1961) was an American writer of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories. He was also a screenwriter and political activist. Among the characters he created are Sam Spade ('' The Ma ...

, among others. Millay's short story "Barbara on the Beach" appeared in November 1914. In May 1915 ''The Smart Set'' published two stories from

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influentia ...

's ''

Dubliners ''Dubliners'' is a collection of fifteen short stories by James Joyce, first published in 1914. It presents a naturalistic depiction of Irish middle class life in and around Dublin in the early years of the 20th century. The stories were writ ...

'', the first time Joyce's work appeared in an American publication. The magazine introduced F. Scott Fitzgerald in September 1919, when it published his short story ''Babes in the Woods''. In addition to introducing new literary talent, the two editors were renowned social critics, who lampooned virtually every facet of American culture. Although they were known for their satire, their controversial material became the reason for their departure from ''The Smart Set'' and would set in motion the end of the magazine itself. HardingFuneral

Mencken and Nathan cultivated a youthful readership who had grown increasingly restive and disillusioned with America in the aftermath of The Great War. During these years, "Mencken constantly exhorted his fellow critics and literary historians to provide realistic appraisals and re-evaluations of our mericancultural past, which would then, he felt, influence the present." Mencken and Nathan's editorship at ''The Smart Set'' came to an end after they planned to run a satirical piece on President

following his death. Harding died in August 1923. His funeral procession involved transporting the body across the country from

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

to Ohio. The mainstream media began to sentimentalize the procession, to the dismay of Mencken and Nathan, who noticed a hypocritical change in the press's attitude. They planned to run a satirical piece on the president's funeral, treating the president in death as they did in life. However, the magazine's printers noticed the piece and reported its contents to owner Eltinge Warner. Considering the piece to be a form of

treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state (polity), state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to Coup d'état, overthrow its government, spy ...

, Warner demanded that the editors remove it. "I don't give a damn what you thought of him," Warner stormed at Mencken and Nathan, "Harding was our President, after all." In a rage, Warner announced that he would sell the magazine within a year. Warner's removal of the satirical piece marked the end of the editors' ''carte blanche'' over the magazine's content, and they sought the freedom and control of their own publication. Upon leaving, Mencken and Nathan began a collaboration with the publishing magnate Alfred A. Knopf and started '' The American Mercury''.

Decline and final years

Before leaving ''The Smart Set'', Mencken and Nathan recommended Morris Gilbert to replace them as editor. Reportedly, Gilbert had no idea that Warner was planning to sell the magazine upon accepting his position as editor. Under the editorship of Gilbert, the magazine's attitude and content reverted to the days before Mencken and Nathan's—or even Wright's—time as editors. However, Gilbert's position as editor was short-lived. In 1924, Warner sold the magazine to the publishing tycoon

, who immediately gave editorial control to George D'Utassey. Unable to cope with the new management, Gilbert resigned soon after. Hearst's ownership ushered in an editorial focus on commercialism and superficial moral themes. As the magazine's new editor, D'Utassey reversed the artistic headway that Mencken and Nathan had established for the magazine and changed the subtitle to "True Stories from Real Life." Under D'Utassey the magazine veered away from unconventional literature and satire. Although the content changed, Hearst's promotion of the magazine in other publications caused circulation to increase to 250,000 in 1925. In 1929, the magazine merged with Hearst's newly acquired ''

McClure's ''McClure's'' or ''McClure's Magazine'' (1893–1929) was an American illustrated monthly periodical popular at the turn of the 20th century. The magazine is credited with having started the tradition of muckraking journalism (investigative journ ...

'' to form ''The New Smart Set'', under the editorship of Margaret Sangster. Under Sangster, the magazine became a publication targeted towards young women and was given a new subtitle, "The Young Woman's Magazine." However, following the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the magazine was unable to survive the economic slump. It ceased publication in June 1930.

Legacy and influence

In 1934, nearly half a decade after the publication's dissolution, some of the best pieces from the magazine's heyday were collected in ''

The Smart Set Anthology ''The Smart Set Anthology'' is an anthology of selections from ''The Smart Set'' literary magazine, edited by Burton Rascoe and Groff Conklin. It was first published in hardcover by Reynal & Hitchcock in 1934, and reprinted as ''The Smart Set Antho ...

'', published by

Reynal & Hitchcock Reynal and Hitchcock was a publishing company in New York City. Founded in 1933 by Eugene Reynal and Curtice Hitchcock, in 1948 it was absorbed by Harcourt, Brace.'' American Authors and Books: 1640 to Present Day'' Third Revised Edition, Crow ...

. That same year, critic Louis Kronenberger hailed the magazine in ''

'' as one of the greatest literary publications due to its influence over American culture during its brief existence: In 1944, Grayson Publishing published a 840-page hardcover anthology of magazine's articles, titled ''The Bachelor's Companion: A Smart Set Collection'', edited by Burton Rascoe and Groff Conklin. On the inside copyright page of this 1944 book is printed that the book was originally published and copyrighted by Reynal & Hitchcock in 1934. In 2007,

Drexel University Drexel University is a private university, private research university with its main campus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Drexel's undergraduate school was founded in 1891 by Anthony Joseph Drexel, Anthony J. Drexel, a financier ...

launched an online cultural journal titled ''The Smart Set''. Drexel's journal shares some ideals with the original ''Smart Set'' and lists Owen Hatteras, a

pen name A pen name or nom-de-plume is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen name may be used to make the author's na ...

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.

Editorial tenures

List of contributing authors

Maxwell Anderson James Maxwell Anderson (December 15, 1888 – February 28, 1959) was an American playwright, author, poet, journalist, and lyricist. Anderson faced many challenges in his career, frequently losing jobs for expressing his opinions or supporting ...

Sherwood Anderson Sherwood Anderson (September 13, 1876 – March 8, 1941) was an American novelist and short story writer, known for subjective and self-revealing works. Self-educated, he rose to become a successful copywriter and business owner in Cleveland and ...

Djuna Barnes Djuna Barnes ( ; June 12, 1892 – June 18, 1982) was an American artist, illustrator, journalist, and writer who is perhaps best known for her novel '' Nightwood'' (1936), a cult classic of lesbian fiction and an important work of modernist lite ...

* Bliss Carman *

Willa Cather Willa Sibert Cather (; born Wilella Sibert Cather; December 7, 1873 – April 24, 1947) was an American writer known for her novels of life on the Great Plains, including ''O Pioneers!'', ''The Song of the Lark (novel), The Song of the Lark'', a ...

* Lord Dunsany * F. Scott Fitzgerald * Ford Maddox Ford *

Zona Gale Zona Gale (August 26, 1874 – December 27, 1938), also known by her married name, Zona Gale Breese, was an American novelist, short story writer, and playwright. She became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1921. The close r ...

* Richard Le Gallienne *

Ben Hecht Ben Hecht (; February 28, 1894 – April 18, 1964) was an American screenwriter, director, producer, playwright, journalist, and novelist. A journalist in his youth, he went on to write 35 books and some of the most enjoyed screenplays and play ...

* O. Henry *

* William F. Jenkins * Robinson Jeffers *

* Harry Kemp * D.H. Lawrence *

* Anita Loos *

Dorothy Parker Dorothy Parker (née Rothschild; August 22, 1893 – June 7, 1967) was an American poet and writer of fiction, plays and screenplays based in New York; she was known for her caustic wisecracks, and eye for 20th-century urban foibles. Parker ros ...

* John Reed *

Bertram Fletcher Robinson Bertram Fletcher Robinson (22 August 1870 – 21 January 1907) was an English sportsperson, sportsman, journalist, editor, author and Liberal Unionist Party activist. During his life-time, he wrote at least three hundred items, including a ser ...

* Clinton Scollard *

Carl Van Vechten Carl Van Vechten (; June 17, 1880December 21, 1964) was an American writer and Fine-art photography, artistic photographer who was a patron of the Harlem Renaissance and the literary estate, literary executor of Gertrude Stein. He gained fame ...

* S.S. Van Dine *

* Isabel Briggs Myers

Cover gallery

File:The Smart Set January 1920.jpg, Cover of the January 1920 issue by Archie Gunn File:SmartSetFeb20.jpg, Cover of the February 1920 issue by Archie Gunn File:SmartSetJuly20.jpg, Cover of the July 1920 issue by Archie Gunn File:Smart-Set-April-1921-FC.jpg, Cover of the April 1921 issue by Archie Gunn File:The Smart Set July 1921.jpg, Cover of the July 1921 issue by Eliot Keen File:The Smart Set March 1922.jpg, Cover of the March 1922 issue by Albert Barbelle File:The Smart Set June 1922.jpg, Cover of the June 1922 issue by A.G.L. File:The Smart Set October 1922.jpg, Cover of the October 1922 issue

British edition

A British edition of ''The Smart Set'' was published in London from May 1901 to June 1925, running for 290 issues. Initially a straight reprint, it contained increasingly more material. Later issues had art-deco covers. Editors of the British edition were W. J. Thorold (1905–1911), H. J. Gillespie (1911–1915), James W. Milne (1915–1923) and Kitty Shannon (1923–1925).

References

Citations

Works cited

* * * * * * * * * *

External links

''The Smart Set''
at The

Modernist Journals Project The Modernist Journals Project (MJP) was created in 1995 at Brown University in order to create a database of digitized periodicals connected with the period loosely associated with modernism. University of Tulsa, The University of Tulsa joined in ...

: a cover-to-cover, searchable digital edition of 120 issues across ten years—from January 1913 (issue 38.4) through December 1922 (issue 69.4). PDFs of these issues may be downloaded for free from the MJP website.
''The Smart Set''
at

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

, various volumes (scanned books original editions color illustrated), mixing indiscriminately issues of the American parent magazine and the British edition.
Drexel University's new ''Smart Set''

''The Smart Set'' essays from ''Old Magazine Articles''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smart Set, The Defunct literary magazines published in the United States Magazines established in 1900 Magazines disestablished in 1930 Magazines published in New York City Progressive Era in the United States 1900 establishments in New York City 1930 disestablishments in New York (state)