Michael Grynbaum's history of Condé Nast, "Empire of the Elite," coming July 15
Why it matters: It's billed as a cultural history of Condé Nast — publisher of the New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Vogue and GQ — as titan of the "once-glamorous magazine world," and "the profound influence of its magazines on the last half-century of American life."
The book reveals how powerful editors including Graydon Carter, Anna Wintour and Tina Brown (cover photos, from left) " indelibly shaped our modern ideas of celebrity, fashion, class, and what it meant for Americans to aspire to 'the good life,'" Grynbaum tells Axios.
Grynbaum, who joined The Times as an intern after Harvard, adds: "Condé was a lot like a movie studio in the Golden Age of Hollywood: a dream factory of artistic all-stars, overseen by a mercurial and sometimes brutal benefactor, whose creative output defined the nation's aspirations and tastes. It was the ultimate media gatekeeper — until the internet happened."
"I love magazines, and I'm fascinated by how Americans decide who or what is elite," said Grynbaum, who also has covered presidential campaigns and City Hall. "I couldn't find a rigorously reported history of Condé's power and influence, so I decided to write one. The book is the result of four years of archival research and hundreds of interviews with Condé figures past and present."
Behind the scenes: Grynbaum tells me he started the book proposal in January 2021 (a pandemic project!) and sold the book in September 2021.
"I discovered [the late Condé owner] Si Newhouse's teenage letters, which I believe have never been published, in which Si writes about fighting with his father (Sam Newhouse, the newspaper magnate who bought Condé Nast) and admires his high school best friend, Roy Cohn," Grynbaum said.
"I've got a one-act play written by [former Vanity Fair and New Yorker editor] Tina Brown when she was 23 about a 'London career girl' who tries to break into Manhattan magazines. And an unpublished full-length screenplay by [legendary New Yorker reporter] Lillian Ross — about a literary magazine (like The New Yorker) that gets taken over by a glitzy businessman (like Si Newhouse and Condé Nast)."
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