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Tastemaker: Elizabeth Gordon, House Beautiful, and the Postwar American Home
A riveting and superbly illustrated account of the enigmatic House Beautiful editor’s profound influence on mid-century American taste
From 1941 to 1964, House Beautiful magazine’s crusading editor-in-chief Elizabeth Gordon introduced and promoted her vision of “good design” and “better living” to an extensive middle-class American readership. Her innovative magazine-sponsored initiatives, including House Beautiful ’s Pace Setter House Program and the Climate Control Project, popularized a “livable” and decidedly American version of postwar modern architecture. Gordon’s devotion to what she called the American Style attracted the attention of Frank Lloyd Wright, who became her ally and collaborator. Gordon’s editorial programs reshaped ideas about American living and, by extension, what consumers bought, what designers made, and what manufacturers brought to market. This incisive assessment of Gordon’s influence as an editor, critic, and arbiter of domestic taste reflects more broadly on the cultures of consumption and identity in postwar America. Nearly 200 images are featured, including work by Ezra Stoller, Maynard Parker, and Julius Shulman. This important book champions an often-neglected source—the consumer magazine—as a key tool for deepening our understanding of mid-century architecture and design.
From 1941 to 1964, House Beautiful magazine’s crusading editor-in-chief Elizabeth Gordon introduced and promoted her vision of “good design” and “better living” to an extensive middle-class American readership. Her innovative magazine-sponsored initiatives, including House Beautiful ’s Pace Setter House Program and the Climate Control Project, popularized a “livable” and decidedly American version of postwar modern architecture. Gordon’s devotion to what she called the American Style attracted the attention of Frank Lloyd Wright, who became her ally and collaborator. Gordon’s editorial programs reshaped ideas about American living and, by extension, what consumers bought, what designers made, and what manufacturers brought to market. This incisive assessment of Gordon’s influence as an editor, critic, and arbiter of domestic taste reflects more broadly on the cultures of consumption and identity in postwar America. Nearly 200 images are featured, including work by Ezra Stoller, Maynard Parker, and Julius Shulman. This important book champions an often-neglected source—the consumer magazine—as a key tool for deepening our understanding of mid-century architecture and design.
260 pages, Hardcover
Published June 13, 2017
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January 20, 2018
This book is the result of 16 years of work which began when Monica Penick enrolled as a doctoral student at the University of Texas to research what became her PhD dissertation ‘The Pace Setter Houses: Livable Modernism in Postwar America' (2007). The term ‘livable modernism’ will be familiar to readers of this journal from Kristina Wilson’s book Livable Modernism: Interior Decorating and Design During the Great Depression (2004) which is not mentioned by Penick although Wilson herself is thanked in Penick’s acknowledgements. In developing her thesis for publication Penick has shifted the focus from ‘livable modernism’ to place this term within a group of keywords used by Gordon in her work at House Beautiful, including ‘taste’, ‘good design’, ‘bad design’, ‘”modern” and all its derivatives’ and ‘organic’ (p. x).
The book is based on close reading of 25 years of House Beautiful back issues alongside several other magazines and newspapers. Penick has also consulted, she tells us, material from fifteen archives in the US (p. xi). These include the papers of Elizabeth Gordon, of course, plus the papers and collections of Alfred Browning Parker, Curtis Besinger, Thomas D. Church, Ralph C. Henning, Harwell Hamilton Harris, John deKoven Hill, Cliff May and Maynard L. Parker and materials in the archives of the American Institute of Architects, the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation and the Guggenheim Museum.
Penick states the contribution to knowledge of her book as being based on: her decision to study a mediator rather than an architect or designer; the need therefore to consider the groups between which she served as mediator; the presentation of designs which have been eclipsed by other better-known examples such as the Case Study Houses; and the fact that it is a study of a popular magazine. Of these four claims to significance, the third is the strongest.
Design historians will enjoy this book. It offers another closely developed case study of the role of mediators in making meaning for design and, in this case, the home. Typically for a Yale University Press book, Penick’s is substantial and generously illustrated. Most of the images are from House Beautiful and are therefore familiar to readers of the magazine but the visual quality of this book does not simply enhance the story being told; rather, it is the story being told.
The book is based on close reading of 25 years of House Beautiful back issues alongside several other magazines and newspapers. Penick has also consulted, she tells us, material from fifteen archives in the US (p. xi). These include the papers of Elizabeth Gordon, of course, plus the papers and collections of Alfred Browning Parker, Curtis Besinger, Thomas D. Church, Ralph C. Henning, Harwell Hamilton Harris, John deKoven Hill, Cliff May and Maynard L. Parker and materials in the archives of the American Institute of Architects, the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation and the Guggenheim Museum.
Penick states the contribution to knowledge of her book as being based on: her decision to study a mediator rather than an architect or designer; the need therefore to consider the groups between which she served as mediator; the presentation of designs which have been eclipsed by other better-known examples such as the Case Study Houses; and the fact that it is a study of a popular magazine. Of these four claims to significance, the third is the strongest.
Design historians will enjoy this book. It offers another closely developed case study of the role of mediators in making meaning for design and, in this case, the home. Typically for a Yale University Press book, Penick’s is substantial and generously illustrated. Most of the images are from House Beautiful and are therefore familiar to readers of the magazine but the visual quality of this book does not simply enhance the story being told; rather, it is the story being told.
Displaying 1 of 1 review