Vanity Fair was a British weekly magazine that was published from 1868 to 1914. Founded byThomas Gibson Bowles in London, the magazine included articles on fashion, theatre, current events as well as word games and serial fiction. The cream of the period's "society magazines", it is best known for its witty prose andcaricatures of famous people ofVictorian andEdwardian society, including artists, athletes, royalty, statesmen, scientists, authors, actors, business people and scholars.[1][2]
Taking its title fromThackeray's popular satire on early 19th-century British society,Vanity Fair was not immediately successful and struggled with competition from rival publications. Bowles then promised his readers "Some Pictorial Wares of an entirely novel character", and on 30 January 1869, a full-page caricature ofBenjamin Disraeli appeared. This was the first of over 2,300 caricatures to be published. According to theNational Portrait Gallery in London, "Vanity Fair's illustrations, instantly recognizable in terms of style and size, led to a rapid increase in demand for the magazine. It gradually became a mark of honour to be the 'victim' of one of its numerous caricaturists. Bowles's witty accompanying texts, full of insights and innuendoes, certainly contributed towards the popularity of these images".[2]
When the history of the Victorian Era comes to be written in true perspective, the most faithful mirror and record of ... the spirit of the times will be sought and found inVanity Fair.
Subtitled "A Weekly Show of Political, Social and Literary Wares", it was founded in 1868 byThomas Gibson Bowles, who aimed to expose the contemporary vanities ofVictorian society. ColonelFred Burnaby provided £100 of the original £200 capital, and inspired byThackeray's popular satire on early 19th-century British society suggested the titleVanity Fair.[3] The first issue appeared in London on 7 November 1868. It offered its readers articles on fashion, current events, the theatre, books, social events and the latest scandals, together withserial fiction,word games and other trivia.[2][4]
Bowles wrote much of the magazine himself under various pseudonyms, such as "Jehu Junior", but contributors includedLewis Carroll,Arthur Hervey,Willie Wilde,Jessie Pope,P. G. Wodehouse (who also wrote for the unrelatedCondé Nast magazine of the same name) andBertram Fletcher Robinson (who was editor from June 1904 to October 1906).[5] Lewis Carroll created a series ofword ladder puzzles, which he then called "Doublets", which first appeared in the 29 March 1879 issue.[6]
Thomas Allinson bought the magazine in 1911 fromFrank Harris, by which time it was failing financially. He failed to revive it and the final issue ofVanity Fair appeared on 5 February 1914, after which it was merged intoHearth and Home.[4]
A full-page, colour lithograph of a contemporary celebrity or dignitary appeared in most issues, and it is for thesecaricatures thatVanity Fair is best known then[7] and today.[3] Subjects included artists, athletes, royalty, statesmen, scientists, authors, actors, soldiers, religious personalities, business people and scholars. More than two thousand of these images appeared, and they are considered the chief cultural legacy of the magazine, forming a pictorial record of the period. They were produced by an internationalgroup of artists, including SirMax Beerbohm, SirLeslie Ward (who signed his work "Spy" and "Drawl"), the ItaliansCarlo Pellegrini ("Singe" and "Ape"),Melchiorre Delfico ("Delfico"),Liborio Prosperi ("Lib"), the Florentine artist and criticAdriano Cecioni, the French artistsJames Tissot ("Coïdé"),Prosper d'Épinay ("Nemo") and the AmericanThomas Nast.[2]
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