V
A naked house, a naked moor,
A shivering pool before the door,
A garden bare of flowers and fruit,
And poplars at the garden foot;
Such is the place I live in,
Bleak without and bare within.
1 Title: The House Beautiful (the article The was dropped in 1925). On mergers with Indoors and Out (1908), Modern Homes (1909), American Suburbs (1912), Home and Field (1934), their names appeared in subtitles for brief periods.
First issue: Dec. 1896. Current.
Periodicity: Monthly. Vols. 1-43 (semiannual, Dec-May, June-Nov.), Dec. 1896—May 1918; 44, June-Dee. 1918; 45-current (semiannual, Jan.-June, July-Dee.), 1919-current.
Owners: Klapp & Company (Eugene Klapp and Henry Blodgett Harvey), Chicago, 1896-97; Herbert S. Stone & Company, Chicago, 1897-1906; House Beautiful Company (H. S. Stone, pres.), Chicago, 1906-11; House Beautiful Company (H. S. Stone, pres., 1911-12; G. Henry Stetson, Wallace S. Peace, Stuart W. Buck, and others, officers and stockholders, 1912-13), New York, 1911-13; House Beautiful Company (Atlantic Monthly Co., MacGregor Jenkins, pres.), New York, 1913-15, Boston, 1915-34; International Magazines Company (renamed Hearst Magazines, 1936; Hearst Corporation, 1952), New York, 1934- current.
Editors: Eugene Klapp and H. B. Harvey, 1896-97; Eugene Klapp, 1897-98; Herbert Stuart Stone, 1898-1913; Virginia Robie, 1913-15; Mabel Kent, 1915— 16; Grace Atkinson Kimball, 1916-18; Mabel Rollins, 1918-20; Charlotte Lewis, 1921; Ellery Sedgwick, 1922; Ethel B. Power, 1923-34; Arthur H. Samuels, 1934-36; Kenneth K. Stowell, 1936-41; Elizabeth Gordon (Norcross), 1941-64; Sarah Tomerlin Lee, 1965-current.
Indexes: Semiannual for each volume; Readers’ Guide, 1909-current.
References: Virginia Robie, “How We Did It in the Old Days,” House Beautiful, v. 88, Dec. 1946 (50th anniversary number), pp. 153, 243-50; Amos Stote, “The Quality Quartette of the Hearst Collection,” Magazine World, v. 3, March 1947, pp. 11-13; Herbert E. Fleming, “The Literary Interests of Chicago- V,” American Journal of Sociology, v. 11, May 1906, pp. 803-4 (this series of papers was reissued in paper binding bj? the University of Chicago Press, 1906, with the title, Magazines of a Market-Metropolis).
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The verses go on to develop their theme:
God’s intricate and bright device Of days and seasons doth suffice. 2
This appears to suit, to a degree, the idea followed by this magazine throughout its long career—simplicity combined with beauty in the home. For many years The House Beautiful boasted that it was “The Only Magazine in America Devoted to Simplicity, Economy and Appropriateness in the Home.” And yet, viewed more critically and less poetically, Stevenson’s lines did not express fully the aims of this magazine; it wished for no naked house nor garden bare, but rather for one well provided with good furniture and a tended garden—all within a frame of beautiful simplicity.
The House Beautiful was begun in December 1896, by Eugene Klapp, a Chicago engineer who had a flair for architecture and literature, with the assistance of his friend Henry Blodgett Harvey, who also had a liking for such things along with some available cash. The first monthly number carried twenty-eight royal octavo pages of text, illustrated by ten pages of good halftones representing houses and interiors, plus sixteen pages of advertising. It sold for ten cents and quoted a subscription price of a dollar a year. Its articles were short and readable, and were obviouly designed for the average householder rather than for the rich home owner or the professional builder or decorator. The series “Successful Homes,” written by the senior editor, was begun in the first number; and there, on the very first page of the magazine, this principle was laid down: “A little money spent with careful thought by people of keen artistic perception will achieve a result which is astonishing.” 3 Also in this first issue—typical of many that followed—were articles on Satsuma ware, Oriental rugs, and “A Plea for the Amateur.” An essay entitled “The Moral Side of Beauty” emphasized a concept that was to reappear again and again in the magazine.
After less than a year on their own, Klapp and Harvey
2 Reprinted from Stevenson’s Poems and Ballads in The House Beautiful, v. IS, Dec. 1903, p. 1.
3 The House Beautiful, v. 1, Dec. 1896, p. 1. The series was reprinted in book form under the same title by Herbert S. Stone & Co., Chicago, 1898.
found a good publisher in Herbert S. Stone & Company, though they remained as editors until the end of 1897. Indeed Klapp continued in the chief editorial position through May of the next year, after which he joined the army as a volunteer
in the war in Cuba. Later he was a faithful contributor for
*
many years, usually writing under the pen-name of Oliver Coleman.
Stone had first attained prominence in the world of letters when he and his partner Ingalls Kimball, while they were still Harvard undergraduates, had begun publication of the Chap- Book , 4 5 a pioneer in the “little magazine” movement. As soon as their college days were over, Stone and Kimball moved their operations, which already included a small book-publishing business, to Chicago. That city was then becoming a lively literary center; and it was the home of the senior partner’s father, Melville E. Stone, general manager of the Associated Press and a prosperous banker. But by 1896, Kimball wanted to move to New York, and so Stone sold his share of the book business to his partner and stayed behind in Chicago to run the Chap-Book .
That periodical, though undeniably a succes d’estime, showed no signs of yielding a financial profit, and in 1897 Stone purchased The House Beautiful and the next year disposed of the Chap-Book to the Chicago Dial 5 in order to devote himself to publishing and editing the new magazine. He was well fitted by talent and inclination to conduct such a periodical as The House Beautiful. He had an almost religious devotion to simple beauty, an abhorrence of display and bla- tancy in modern life, and a special interest in the development of new art forms and the revival of old ones as he found them within the framework of beauty and suitability. Stone remained as editor after the magazine removed to New York, serving in that capacity for sixteen years in all. Returning from a European holiday on the “Lusitania” in 1915, he was drowned when the ship was sunk by a German submarine.
The House Beautiful continued on much the same lines under Stone as it had begun under Klapp, the only marked changes being the use of calendered paper, so that the halftones could be scattered more freely throughout the text; an increased attention to country homes and to French, Swedish, and Oriental houses and furnishings; and the addition of some departments, such as one for housekeeping advice and another for inquiries and comments from readers. In 1900 the size of the magazine was increased to sixty-four pages, the price was doubled, and Stone was claiming a circulation of seven thousand. The cover subtitle was “A Monthly Magazine of Art and Artisanship.”
An episode in the early history of the magazine that illustrated better than any other its crusading spirit was the publication in 1904-1905 of several essays under the general title, “The Poor Taste of the Rich: A Series of Articles Which Show That Wealth Is Not Essential to the Decoration of a House, and That the Homes of Many of Our Richest Citizens Are Furnished in Execrable Taste.” These severely critical pieces were not only illustrated by halftones from actual photographs of the homes discussed, but the names of the rich men with bad taste were not withheld. The series attracted much attention, and the rich men may have felt some resentment; if so, none invited further publicity by suing for damages to his injured feelings. Shortly before this series began, The House Beautiful had published a two-part article (July- August, 1904) by Ethel M. Colson and Anne Higginson Spicer entitled “Successful Furnishing and Decoration on an Income of $3,500 a Year.” But the magazine was generally aimed at families enjoying about double that income 6 —in other words, at the upper middle class of those times.
Betes noires of the magazine were golden oak (and later, mission) furniture, overcrowded rooms, mansard roofs, multiple gables, and other “gingerbread” decoration in house design and furnishings. As early as 1898, The House Beautiful conducted its first competition for house plans; it was for the best design for a $3,000 house. These contests continued for many
6 Fleming, “Literary Interests,” p. 804.
158 HOUSE BEAUTIFUL
years, though of course the price levels increased, especially in the inflationary 1920’s. In the late 1930’s actual blueprints were being folded into the magazine.
Apartment-house furnishing gained some attention by 1903, as did antiques, collections, fabrics, gardens, and so on. The magazine was growing, and the next year it was enlarged to a quarto of fifty pages, including advertisements. Then began such features as a household helps department, first conducted by Dean Marion Talbot, of the University of Chicago, and afterward by a long train of other specialists in the field of home economics; one on the home garden, edited by the well- known botanist and author, Clarence Moores Weed; “The Woman’s Forum,” dealing chiefly with social and industrial problems, edited by Ellen M. Henrotin, a former president of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs; “Notes and Comments,” by the faithful “Oliver Coleman;” as well as a department about household equipment and one dealing with the new-fangled automobile.
Much had been printed from the beginning of the magazine about good pictures and good floor and wall coverings, but soon after the turn of the century a more modern note began to appear in its art criticism. This was especially true in respect to architecture, and articles stimulated by the work of Frank Lloyd Wright, Howard Shaw, Alfred Granger, and others were notable.
Circulation and advertising responded to the enlargement and improvements of 1904, the former reaching twenty thousand and the latter reaching twenty pages or more the following year. 7
Excursions into the fiction field were made more than once, only to be abandoned after brief experiments. George Barr Mc- Cutcheon’s Castle Craneycrow was a serial of 1902-1903, and C. N. and A. M. Williamson’s The Motor Maid ran in 1907— 1908. A few short stories, by such writers as Grace Ellery Channing and “Octave Thanet,” appeared; and some were reprinted from the Chap-Book. Dallas Lore Sharp’s pleasant sketches of country life were a feature in 1915. Reprinted
7 The House Beautiful, v. 17, May 1905, p. 50. Circulation checked in N.W. Ayer & Son’s Directory of Newspapers and Periodicals.
HOUSE BEAUTIFUL 159
verse occasionally found a place, and through 1909 a full page of each number was devoted to “Old Favorites.’’
Three-color covers began in 1906. As early as 1903, fine art reproductions in one color printed on manila sheets had begun to adorn the magazine, and a few full-color plates appeared from time to time after the turn of the century; but it was not until the late 1930’s that House Beautiful really adjusted to the color cult of the magazines of the time, and it reached its full polychromous effulgence in the following decade.
In the meantime the magazine’s basic financial and management structure had been undergoing changes. Indoors and Outdoors was absorbed in 1908, and two years later a merger with Modern Homes, of Memphis, brought in fresh management. In 1911, the magazine, still called The House Beautiful and still edited by Stone (who retained at least a minority interest) was moved to New York. But the New York climate was difficult, and a new purchaser was soon found in G. Henry Stetson and his associates, publishers of a monthly called American Suburbs, which they immediately consolidated with their new purchase. Again The House Beautiful kept its own name, its established character, and its long-time editor. Yet the very next year (1913), the ownership changed again, passing into the hands of the Atlantic Monthly Company. Under the enterprising and knowledgeable management of MacGregor Jenkins, who had already, in partnership with Ellery Sedgwick, achieved the rescue of the Atlantic Monthly from impending desuetude, 8 The House Beautiful was now given a fresh impulse to active and progressive life. New typographical designing, with initials and decorations by Bruce Rogers, improved its appearance, and in 1915 it was removed from New York to Boston.
Stone had resigned as editor when the Atlantic management took over, though he retained a financial interest until his untimely death. Virginia Robie, who had long been a staff member and a leading contributor, succeeded him, following the pattern of what she affectionately called the “Stone Age” during her brief editorship. She was the first of a line of six women who served successively as editors of the magazine
8 Mott, American Magazines, v. 2 (1938), pp. 513-14.
f rjilv-.tlw-k Registered All lights Reserved Copyright 1907 by The House Beautiful Company
published monthly BY THE HOUSE BEAUTIFUL COMPANY republic building. Chicago
COZY COVER OF THE HOUSE BEAUTIFUL, 1908
Because of Robert Louis Stevenson’s poem, “The” was kept in the title until 1925.
IN BOORS AND OUT combined with THE. HOUSE BEAUTIFUL
Hlf (SOME BUILDERS’ MAGAZINE THE AUTHORITY ON HOUSEHOLD ART
COLOR! COLOR!
44 Pages of FRESH
AND DELICIOUS
COLOR
SCHEMES