Rosemary Barnsdall Blackmon Explained

Rosemary Barnsdall Blackmon
Birth Date:September 26, 1921
Birth Place:Buffalo, New York, US
Death Date:October 9, 1983
Death Place:Provence, France
Occupation:Editor
Known For:managing editor, Vogue (1962-1973); editor, Harper's Bazaar (1973-1978)

Rosemary Barnsdall Blackmon (September 26, 1921 – October 9, 1983) was an American writer and magazine editor.

Early life

Rosemary Barnsdall was born in Buffalo, New York as a daughter of Jay Thornton Barnsdall Jr. and Grace L. Devine Barnsdall.[1] Her father was a lawyer. She graduated from Hamburg High School in 1939, and from Barnard College[2] in 1943, where she majored in Latin and Greek, and was the president of the Classical Club.[3] [4] [5]

Career

Blackmon worked in editorial and writing jobs after college.[6] Her Latin and Greek degree from Barnard helped her find a job with the American College Dictionary, and that work in turn introduced her to Wilfred J. Funk, with whom she worked on Word Origins and Their Romantic Stories (1950).[7] After her children were born, she returned to editing work, saying "I'm not really domestic and I have no talent for children." She collaborated with photographer Irving Penn and publisher Alexander Liberman on Moments Preserved (1960).[8] [9]

Blackmon was managing editor of Vogue from 1962 to 1973, and wrote regularly for the magazine for a longer period,[10] [11] with titles like "I Went to the Fair" (1958), about the Expo 58 in Brussels,[12] "The Maugham Explosion at Sotheby's" (1962),[13] "New Japan" (1964),[14] [15] and "What Can Hypnosis Do for You" (1969).[16] William Safire suggested Blackmon may have coined the phrase "beautiful people" at Vogue.[17] She was an editor at Harper's Bazaar from 1973 to 1978.[18]

Personal life and legacy

In 1945,[19] Rosemary Barnsdall married William A. Blackmon Jr. They had children, Rosemary and William. She died in 1983, aged 62 years, in Provence. A Claire McCardell wool dress and a linen shift dress by B. H. Wragge, both worn by Blackmon, are in the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.[20] [21]

Notes and References

  1. News: 1991-09-19. Grace L. D. Barnsdall. 6. The Sun and the Erie County Independent. 2021-03-13. Newspapers.com.
  2. News: 1957-04-14. Recent Graduates List Guest Speaker. 1B. Poughkeepsie Journal. 2021-03-13. Newspapers.com.
  3. February 1959. Mrs. Blackmon of Greenwich Village. Barnard Alumnae Magazine. 48. 11–12, 17. Internet Archive.
  4. Barnard College. 1943. Classical Club. Mortarboard (Yearbook). 85. Internet Archive.
  5. News: May 12, 1942. Award Latin Prize. 1. Barnard Bulletin. March 13, 2021. NewspaperArchive.com.
  6. October 1943. Class Notes, 1943. Barnard College Alumnae Magazine. 33. 28. Internet Archive.
  7. September 1948. Class Notes 1943. Barnard College Alumnae Magazine. 38. 14. Internet Archive.
  8. Web site: Book Projects. 2021-03-13. Irving Penn Archives, The Art Institute of Chicago.
  9. Book: Penn, Irving. Moments Preserved: Eight Essays in Photographs and Words. 1960. Simon and Schuster. en.
  10. Book: Haslam, Nicholas. Redeeming Features: A Memoir. 2009. Alfred A. Knopf. 978-0-307-27167-9. 155–156. en.
  11. News: July 13, 1961. Copy Editor Turns Author. 6. Coronado Eagle and Journal. March 13, 2021. NewspaperArchive.com.
  12. Web site: Blackmon. Rosemary. July 1958. I Went to the Fair. 2021-03-13. Vogue The Complete Archive. en-US.
  13. Web site: Blackmon. Rosemary. June 1962. The Maugham Explosion. 2021-03-13. Vogue The Complete Archive. en-US.
  14. Web site: Blackmon. Rosemary. August 15, 1964. New Japan. 2021-03-13. Vogue The Complete Archive. en-US.
  15. Book: Editors of American Vogue. Vogue on Location: People, Places, Portraits. 2019-10-29. Abrams. 978-1-68335-661-5. en.
  16. Web site: Blackmon. Rosemary. January 15, 1969. What Can Hypnosis Do for You. 2021-03-13. Vogue The Complete Archive. en-US.
  17. Book: Safire, William. Coming to Terms. 2012-01-04. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. 978-0-307-80059-6. en.
  18. News: 1983-10-12. Rosemary B. Blackmon. en-US. The New York Times. 2021-03-13. 0362-4331.
  19. October 1945. Class Notes, 1943. Barnard College Alumnae Magazine. 35. 24. Internet Archive.
  20. Web site: Dress comprising blouse and skirt in raw umber and black fine gauge herringbone worsted wool - Claire McCardell. 2021-03-13. Google Arts & Culture. en.
  21. Web site: Dress in cocoa brown plain-weave linen with black mod stripe - B.H. Wragge. 2021-03-13. Google Arts & Culture. en.

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