The Smart Set - The Thayer Years

The Thayer Years

Due to The Smart Set’s perpetual decline, Mann sold the magazine in 1911 to John Adams Thayer for $100,000. Thayer, a self-made millionaire who had previously pulled Everybody’s Magazine 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 (Rascoe xix). 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 decline the offer of editorship, Thayer assumed the position of editor-in-chief and appoints the magazine’s Associate Editor, Norman Boyer, as Managing Editor. An expert in advertising, Thayer added the additional slogan to The Smart Set’s subtitle stating “Its Prime Purpose is to Provide Lively Entertainment for Minds That are not Primitive.” Although the new slogan was unsuccessful in restoring the magazine’s reputation and popularity, in 1912 a younger, more rebellious audience began reading The Smart Set for that very reason. In order to accommodate this new demographic, Thayer, at the recommendation of Mencken, handed editorship over to Willard Huntington Wright in 1913.

Although only lasting a year, Wright’s editorship marked a period of artistic prosperity for The Smart Set. Thayer, undoubtedly regretting the decision later, 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 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 literary works by authors such as D.H. Lawrence, Joseph Conrad, William Butler Yeats, and Ford Madox Ford. Predictably, Wright’s editorial decision caused a drastic reduction in readership and angered the magazine’s advertisers who then began withdrawing financial backing. Additionally, Wright was using The Smart Set’s 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 him 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 owed.