Conde Nast, Susan Ronald
Conde Nast, Susan Ronald
List: $22.95 | Sale: $16.07
Club: $11.47

Condé Nast
The Man and His Empire

Author: Susan Ronald

Narrator: Bernadette Dunne

Unabridged: 13 hr 29 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/03/2019


Synopsis

The first biography in over thirty years of Condé Nast, the pioneering publisher of Vogue and Vanity Fair and main rival to media magnate William Randolph HearstCondé Nast’s life and career was as high profile and glamourous as his magazines. Moving to New York in the early twentieth century with just the shirt on his back, he soon became the highest paid executive in the United States, acquiring Vogue in 1909 and Vanity Fair in 1913. Alongside his editors, Edna Woolman Chase at Vogue and Frank Crowninshield at Vanity Fair, he built the first-ever international magazine empire, introducing European modern art, style, and fashions to an American audience.Credited with creating the “café society,” Nast became a permanent fixture on the international fashion scene and a major figure in New York society. His superbly appointed apartment at 1040 Park Avenue, decorated by the legendary Elsie de Wolfe, became a gathering place for the major artistic figures of the time. Nast launched the careers of icons like Cecil Beaton, Clare Boothe Luce, Lee Miller, Dorothy Parker, and Noel Coward. He left behind a legacy that endures today in media powerhouses such as Anna Wintour, Tina Brown, and Graydon Carter.Written with the cooperation of his family on both sides of the Atlantic and a dedicated team at Condé Nast Publications, critically acclaimed biographer Susan Ronald reveals the life of an extraordinary American success story.

About Susan Ronald

Born and raised in the United States, Susan Ronald is a British-American biographer and historian. Her books include A Dangerous Woman, Hitler’s Art Thief, and Heretic Queen. She lives in rural England with her writer husband.

About Bernadette Dunne

Bernadette Dunne has been honored to narrate the work of some of the finest fiction and nonfiction writers of our time, including Margaret Atwood, Joyce Carol Oates, and Sandra Day O'Connor. The winner of more than a dozen Earphones Awards and a three-time Audie Award nominee, she has voiced countless bestsellers, including Memoirs of a Geisha, The Devil Wears Prada, and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. She studied at The Royal National Theater and lives in New York.


Reviews

Goodreads review by James on April 29, 2020

Clearly a fan of Conde Nast. Well researched. Organized chronologically. Some of the prose was awkwardly worded and tighter editing would have avoided some repetition. His business success is only explained superficially. So his apparent acumen did not apparently extend to business finance or the st......more

Goodreads review by Chloe on September 09, 2021

For the strivers, the society page readers, the style setters - this is THE book. An "Encyclopedia of How to Know Everything in Vogue". I came away realizing you had to really care about taste and style and sophistication (the latter if only casually) and I could not put it down. And by "in Vogue" m......more

Goodreads review by John on November 16, 2024

I have seen this name at various times without knowing who or what it meant. I'm not sure why I picked this up as I have never read Vogue or Vanity Fair. The man did obviously have an interesting life, and made his mark on magazine publishing. I recently watched a movie about the journalist Lee Mill......more

Goodreads review by Pam on January 05, 2020

A very interesting read about the live of a man who ran an empire of magazines. He came from humble beginnings, was a very caring, truthful man. And when he died he was penniless. He had 2 marriages - again very caring in them. This is an interesting story of the 1920-30's, WWI and WWII, the depress......more

Goodreads review by Mandy on September 03, 2019

I really enjoyed this light-hearted and “gossipy” biography of Condé Nast, the renowned publisher of Vogue and Vanity Fair. It’s well-researched, as all Ronald’s biographies are, and rattles along at a good pace. Nast was an interesting man, who, along with his rival William Randolph Hearst, was eno......more


Quotes

“With her breezy, gossipy style, Ronald brings to life the story of the influential American publisher and his magazines.” Library Journal

“Prolific biographer Ronald…does an exceptional job of integrating the story of Nast’s personal fortunes and misfortunes with the lives of those he sought to refine and educate.” Booklist