The Smart Set

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For the nonprofit, The Smart Set, see The Smart Set (TSS)

The Smart Set was a literary magazine founded in America in March 1900 by William d'Alton Mann. It was edited by H. L. Mencken (1914–1923) and George Jean Nathan. Calling itself "a magazine of cleverness," it provided a haven for writers just getting started, as well as for established authors whose more daring efforts could find no other market.

In May 1929 it absorbed The New McClure's Magazine. The last issue was published in July 1930 after having changed its name to The New Smart Set for the last three issues. Authors represented it its pages during its 30-year run included Willa Cather, Dorothy Parker, Ben Hecht, Sinclair Lewis, Dashiell Hammett, Carl Van Vechten and Maxwell Anderson. Willard Huntington Wright, later to become a famous detective writer under the pseudonym S.S. Van Dine served as an editor from 1912 to 1914.

F. Scott Fitzgerald's first professional story sale was "Babes in the Woods," published in the September 1919 issue of The Smart Set. Though its circulation at the time was relatively small at 22,000, it was a highly regarded magazine with a sophisticated, literary reputation.^{[citation needed]}

Inspired by the magazine, The Smart Set (TSS) - a nonprofit that works to increase interest, literacy, and involvement in science, design, and culture - was founded in 2006.

In 2007, Drexel University launched an online cultural journal named The Smart Set. Drexel's journal shares some ideals with the original Smart Set, and lists Owen Hatteras, a pen name used by the editors of the original journal, on its masthead, but its connection to Mencken and Nathan's magazine is unofficial.

"The Smart Set" is also an electronic/trip-hop band started by Rick Torres (also of musical groups "Supreme Beings of Leisure" And "Bitter:Sweet"). The band's name was inspired by both the album cover for "Dancing with the Smart Set" by Meyer Davis and his Orchestra, and the Drexel University literary magazine.

[edit] External links

• The Smart Set at Internet Archive, various volumes (scanned books original editions color illustrated)
• Louise Brooks Studies: Smart Set Magazine
• Drexel University's new Smart Set
• The Smart Set at Reverbnation
• The Smart Set at URB MAGAZINE