Talent scout

One of the most colorful agebusters I’ve known was Frank Crowninshield, who helped found the magazine Vanity Fair with Conde Nast in 1913. He was Vanity Fair’s first editor. I did not know “Crownie” then , but in his last years when he was editorial advisor to the Nast publications at the age of 74.

He never retired–retirement was anathema to him. His thirst for talent was a passion and he was still developing writers. In his 70s, still a man of impeccable taste (on the verge of being foppish), he was a sight to behold, walking in the halls with a manuscript in hand, looking for someone who had submitted her writing to him. As a secretary on Vogue, I was luck enough to have caught his editorial eye and at his suggestion, I became editor of the new staff magazine.

He died at 75, faithful to his career til the end.