[2] During its Jazz Age heyday under the editorship of H. L. Mencken and George Jean Nathan,[3] The Smart Set offered many up-and-coming authors their start and gave them access to a relatively large audience.

[4] Following a dispute with owner Eltinge Warner over an unprinted article mocking the national grief over President Warren G. Harding's death, Mencken and Nathan departed the publication to create The American Mercury in 1924.

[7] Half a decade after its dissolution, critic Louis Kronenberger hailed The Smart Set in The New York Times Book Review as one of the greatest literary publications due to its influence over American culture during its brief existence.

"[8] In 1900, American Civil War veteran and financier Colonel William d'Alton Mann sought to offer a cultural counterpart to his gossip magazine Town Topics,[1][9] an infamous publication which he used for political and social gain among New York City's elite.

"[9]When conceiving his new publication entitled The Smart Set, Mann wished to include works "by, for and about 'The Four Hundred',"[10] referring to Ward McAllister's claim that there were only 400 fashionable people in New York's upper society.

[15] As editor, Grissom created the formula of the magazine that would remain intact throughout the greater part of its existence: 160 pages containing a novelette, a short play, several poems, and witticisms to fill blank spaces.

Its first cover, by Kay Womrath, "depicted a dancing couple in evening dress controlled by strings held by a grinning Pan; the slashing S's of the title were in vermilion.

Dana formed an editorial triumvirate consisting of himself and two associate editors, Charles Hanson Towne and newspaper correspondent Henry Collins Walsh.

[17] Under Towne's editorship, the Smart Set honed its tone and content: "It sometimes relaxed its accent on high society for variety's sake; but the bon ton, the light satirical touch, social intrigue, love without benefit of clergy, and irony at the expense of conventions were of the essence of the magazine.

However, due to allegations of blackmail associated with Mann's Town Topics in 1906, The Smart Set's popularity declined precipitously, immediately losing around 25,000 readers.

"[18] Thayer, who previously pulled the muckraking Everybody's Magazine out of a slump and earned himself a significant fortune from its sale, hoped ownership of The Smart Set would allow him entrance into the social ranks of New York's high society.

[26] An expert in advertising, Thayer added a slogan to the magazine's subtitle, stating that "Its Prime Purpose is to Provide Lively Entertainment for Minds That Are Not Primitive.

"[27] The new slogan was unsuccessful in restoring the magazine's reputation and popularity, but in 1912 a younger, more rebellious audience began reading The Smart Set for that very reason.

Wright, immediately taking advantage of this position, began collecting manuscripts from new artists and hired Ezra Pound as an overseas talent scout.

Additionally, Wright was using The Smart Set's checkbook to overpay authors for their work and was attempting to secretly fund a prototype of a more radical publication with Mencken.

By the end of Wright's editorship, however, the magazine was in economic disrepair, and Thayer handed over ownership to Colonel Eugene Crowe in return for forgiveness of debts.

[33] Its readership included such notable writers as Sinclair Lewis, Theodore Dreiser, Hugh Walpole, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Ernest Hemingway, as well as college professors such as Stewart Sherman and Percy Boynton.

[9] In a series of measures to economize, Mencken and Nathan relocated the magazine's office to a smaller location and reduced the staff, retaining only themselves and a secretary, Sara Golde.

In their most successful effort to boost revenue, Mencken and Nathan began the pulp magazine The Parisienne in 1915 as a place to publish a surplus of manuscripts they deemed inferior for The Smart Set.

During this time the magazine featured works by Edna St. Vincent Millay, Theodore Dreiser, Aldous Huxley, Sinclair Lewis, Benjamin De Casseres, Eugene O'Neill and Dashiell Hammett, among others.

[21] During these years, "Mencken constantly exhorted his fellow critics and literary historians to provide realistic appraisals and re-evaluations of our [American] cultural past, which would then, he felt, influence the present.

Warner's removal of the satirical piece marked the end of the editors' carte blanche over the magazine's content, and they sought the freedom and control of their own publication.

[8] That same year, critic Louis Kronenberger hailed the magazine in The New York Times Book Review as one of the greatest literary publications due to its influence over American culture during its brief existence: "The Smart Set has become something of a legend.