Woman's Home Companion
Encyclopedia
Woman's Home Companion was an American
monthly publication, published from 1873 to 1957. It was highly successful, climbing to a circulation peak of more than four million during the 1930s and 1940s.
Among the contributors to the magazine were editor Gene Gauntier
, and authors Temple Bailey
, Ellis Parker Butler
, Arthur Guiterman
, Shirley Jackson
, Anita Loos
, Neysa McMein
, Kathleen Norris
, Sylvia Schur
, John Steinbeck
, Willa Cather
and P. G. Wodehouse
. Notable illustrators included Rolf Armstrong
, Władysław T. Benda
, Elizabeth Shippen Green
, Bessie Pease Gutmann
, Rico Lebrun, Neysa McMein
, Violet Oakley
, Herbert Paus, May Wilson Preston, Olive Rush
, Arthur Sarnoff
and Frederic Dorr Steele
.
, moved to Springfield, Ohio
where he founded the Mast, Crowell and Kirkpatrick publishing firm (which later become the Crowell-Collier Publishing Company). In 1878, Crowell planned to use magazines to sell farm machinery and launched Farm and Fireside
, soon discovering that the publication's women's section was increasing in popularity. The firm acquired The Home Companion in 1883, and three years later, they changed the name of that magazine to Ladies Home Companion, with a focus on such features as crochet and embroidery instructions, serialized fiction and articles about the home, cookery, crockery, housekeeping and fashions. In 1897, Mast, Crowell and Kirkpatrick changed the title to Woman's Home Companion, preserving much of the previous content. On January 31, 1906, the Crowell Publishing Company was incorporated during the year it owned and published Woman’s Home Companion and Farm and Fireside and introduced The American Magazine, all edited and printed at the company's Springfield plant.
Occasionally, the Companions stories were collected in anthologies such as Seven Short Novels from the Woman's Home Companion, edited by Barthold Fles
. The magazine also published such non-fiction as John Wister's Woman's Home Companion Garden Book (Collier, 1947). A much-loved, classic collection of American recipes, The Woman's Home Companion Cook Book was compiled by the magazine's staff and edited by Dorothy Kirk in editions printed from 1942 through 1947 by P.F. Collier & Son Corporation, New York. This collection of over 2,600 recipes, with illustrations and homemaking instructions, is still prized by contemporary cooks.
was comparable. Publisher Crowell-Collier sold The American Magazine, its healthier publication, in order to save Collier's and the Companion. Just before Christmas 1956, both ailing publications folded, and 2740 employees, mostly printing workers, were laid off without severance pay or pensions. Collier's and Woman's Home Companion came to an end January 1957, shortly after the first 1957 issues were distributed.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
monthly publication, published from 1873 to 1957. It was highly successful, climbing to a circulation peak of more than four million during the 1930s and 1940s.
Among the contributors to the magazine were editor Gene Gauntier
Gene Gauntier
Gene Gauntier was an American screenwriter and actress who was one of the pioneers of the motion picture industry. A writer, director and actress in films from early 1906 to 1920, she wrote screenplays for 31 films...
, and authors Temple Bailey
Temple Bailey
Irene Temple Bailey was an American novelist and short story writer.Beginning around 1902, Temple Bailey was contributing stories to national magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post, Cavalier Magazine, Cosmopolitan, The American Magazine, McClure's, Woman's Home Companion, Good Housekeeping,...
, Ellis Parker Butler
Ellis Parker Butler
Ellis Parker Butler was an American author.Butler was born in Muscatine, Iowa. He was the author of more than 30 books and more than 2,000 stories and essays and is most famous for his short story "Pigs is Pigs", in which a bureaucratic stationmaster insists on levying the livestock rate for a...
, Arthur Guiterman
Arthur Guiterman
Arthur Guiterman was an American writer best known for his humorous poems.-Life and career:Guiterman was born of American parents in Vienna, graduated from the College of the City of New York in 1891, and was married in 1909 to Vida Lindo. He was an editor of the Woman's Home Companion and the...
, Shirley Jackson
Shirley Jackson
Shirley Jackson was an American author. A popular writer in her time, her work has received increasing attention from literary critics in recent years...
, Anita Loos
Anita Loos
Anita Loos was an American screenwriter, playwright and author.-Early life:Born Corinne Anita Loos in Sisson, California , where her father, R. Beers Loos, had opened a tabloid newspaper for which her mother, Minerva "Minnie" Smith did most of the work of a newspaper publisher...
, Neysa McMein
Neysa McMein
-Life:Born Marjorie Moran in Quincy, Illinois, she attended the Art Institute of Chicago and in 1913 went to New York City. After a brief stint as an actress, she turned to commercial art...
, Kathleen Norris
Kathleen Norris
Kathleen Thompson Norris was an American novelist and wife of fellow writer Charles Norris, whom she wed in 1909...
, Sylvia Schur
Sylvia Schur
Sylvia Zipser Schur was an American food columnist and innovator. She wrote cookbooks and has been credited with developing Clamato and cranapple juice. She also wrote recipes for Ann Page and Betty Crocker and helped develop menus for restaurants, including the Four Seasons in Manhattan...
, John Steinbeck
John Steinbeck
John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. was an American writer. He is widely known for the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden and the novella Of Mice and Men...
, Willa Cather
Willa Cather
Willa Seibert Cather was an American author who achieved recognition for her novels of frontier life on the Great Plains, in works such as O Pioneers!, My Ántonia, and The Song of the Lark. In 1923 she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for One of Ours , a novel set during World War I...
and P. G. Wodehouse
P. G. Wodehouse
Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, KBE was an English humorist, whose body of work includes novels, short stories, plays, poems, song lyrics, and numerous pieces of journalism. He enjoyed enormous popular success during a career that lasted more than seventy years and his many writings continue to be...
. Notable illustrators included Rolf Armstrong
Rolf Armstrong
Rolf Armstrong was an American painter of pin-up art.-Biography:Rolf Armstrong was born in Bay City, Michigan on April 21, 1889 to Richard and Harriet Armstrong. His father owned the Boy-Line Fire Boat Company, which included a line of passenger ships. Some were deployed in Chicago for use at the...
, Władysław T. Benda
Władysław T. Benda
Władysław Teodor "W.T." Benda was a Polish-American painter, illustrator, and designer....
, Elizabeth Shippen Green
Elizabeth Shippen Green
Elizabeth Shippen Green was an American illustrator. She illustrated children's books and worked for many years for Harper's Magazine....
, Bessie Pease Gutmann
Bessie Pease Gutmann
Bessie Pease Gutmann was an American artist and illustrator most noted for her paintings of putti, infants and young children. During the early 1900s Gutmann was considered one of the better-known magazine and book illustrators in the United States. Her artwork was featured on 22 magazine covers...
, Rico Lebrun, Neysa McMein
Neysa McMein
-Life:Born Marjorie Moran in Quincy, Illinois, she attended the Art Institute of Chicago and in 1913 went to New York City. After a brief stint as an actress, she turned to commercial art...
, Violet Oakley
Violet Oakley
Violet Oakley was an American artist known for her murals and her work in stained glass. She was a student and later a faculty member at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.-Life:...
, Herbert Paus, May Wilson Preston, Olive Rush
Olive Rush
Olive Rush was an illustrator, muralist, and an important pioneer in Native American Art Education....
, Arthur Sarnoff
Arthur Sarnoff
Arthur Sarnoff was an American artist. Prior to working as an illustrator, Sarnoff studied at the Industrial School and the Grand Central School of Art in New York City. He was a member of the Society of Illustrators and exhibited widely including the National Academy of Design.Sarnoff was a...
and Frederic Dorr Steele
Frederic Dorr Steele
Frederic Dorr Steele is an American illustrator best known for his work on the Sherlock Holmes stories.Steele, a descendant of William Bradford , was born on 6 August 1873 at Eagle Mills, Marquette, Michigan, and studied at the National Academy of Design and elsewhere in New York City...
.
The early years
In the pre-history of the magazine, the printer John Crowell (1850-1921), born and educated in Lexington, KentuckyLexington, Kentucky
Lexington is the second-largest city in Kentucky and the 63rd largest in the US. Known as the "Thoroughbred City" and the "Horse Capital of the World", it is located in the heart of Kentucky's Bluegrass region...
, moved to Springfield, Ohio
Springfield, Ohio
Springfield is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Clark County. The municipality is located in southwestern Ohio and is situated on the Mad River, Buck Creek and Beaver Creek, approximately west of Columbus and northeast of Dayton. Springfield is home to Wittenberg...
where he founded the Mast, Crowell and Kirkpatrick publishing firm (which later become the Crowell-Collier Publishing Company). In 1878, Crowell planned to use magazines to sell farm machinery and launched Farm and Fireside
Farm & Fireside (magazine)
Farm & Fireside was a semi-monthly national farming magazine that was published between 1878 and 1939.It was the original magazine for what eventually became the Crowell-Collier Publishing Company. In February 1930, it was renamed Country Home in an attempt to compete with Better Homes and...
, soon discovering that the publication's women's section was increasing in popularity. The firm acquired The Home Companion in 1883, and three years later, they changed the name of that magazine to Ladies Home Companion, with a focus on such features as crochet and embroidery instructions, serialized fiction and articles about the home, cookery, crockery, housekeeping and fashions. In 1897, Mast, Crowell and Kirkpatrick changed the title to Woman's Home Companion, preserving much of the previous content. On January 31, 1906, the Crowell Publishing Company was incorporated during the year it owned and published Woman’s Home Companion and Farm and Fireside and introduced The American Magazine, all edited and printed at the company's Springfield plant.
The Battles Lane years
The most influential editor of Woman's Home Companion was Gertrude Battles Lane, editor from 1911 to 1941. Under her directorship each issue featured two serials, four to five short stories, six specials and many monthly departments. The magazine gained advertising and grew in readership throughout the Battles Lane years.Occasionally, the Companions stories were collected in anthologies such as Seven Short Novels from the Woman's Home Companion, edited by Barthold Fles
Barthold Fles
Barthold Fles was a Dutch-American literary agent, author, translator, editor and publisher. Among his many clients were Raymond Loewy, Heinrich Mann, Joseph Roth, Felix Salten, Ignazio Silone, Bruno Walter and Arnold Zweig.-Life and career:Barthold "Bart" Fles was born in Amsterdam into an...
. The magazine also published such non-fiction as John Wister's Woman's Home Companion Garden Book (Collier, 1947). A much-loved, classic collection of American recipes, The Woman's Home Companion Cook Book was compiled by the magazine's staff and edited by Dorothy Kirk in editions printed from 1942 through 1947 by P.F. Collier & Son Corporation, New York. This collection of over 2,600 recipes, with illustrations and homemaking instructions, is still prized by contemporary cooks.
Final years and shutdown
A decade after editor Battles Lane departed, the magazine began a decrease in page count, from 945 pages in 1951 to 544 pages in 1956. The situation at Collier'sCollier's Weekly
Collier's Weekly was an American magazine founded by Peter Fenelon Collier and published from 1888 to 1957. With the passage of decades, the title was shortened to Collier's....
was comparable. Publisher Crowell-Collier sold The American Magazine, its healthier publication, in order to save Collier's and the Companion. Just before Christmas 1956, both ailing publications folded, and 2740 employees, mostly printing workers, were laid off without severance pay or pensions. Collier's and Woman's Home Companion came to an end January 1957, shortly after the first 1957 issues were distributed.