A Woman to Know: Betsy Talbot Blackwell
She was of that breed of indomitable women editors. — Leo Lerman
She was of that breed of indomitable women editors. — Leo Lerman
(image via The University of Wyoming)
In 1937, when Betsy Talbot Blackwell took over as editor in chief of the legendary Mademoiselle magazine, the fashionable New York native had a plan: take the two-year-old women’s publication from “sensible” to “sensational.”
In her tenure, circulation skyrocketed from 178,000 subscribers in 1939 to 1 million in 1971. Her four decades at the magazine brought in numerous literary talents, many under Mademoiselle’s famous “college editors” program. Betsy published Sylvia Plath, Joan Didion, Meg Wolitzer, Betsey Johnson, Eudora Welty, Truman Capote, Dylan Thomas, William Faulkner and more. She insisted the magazine review once-taboo topics like sex, race and the feminist movement, even once threatening to resign if the publishing company wouldn’t allow her to print a piece related to the Kinsey Report (at 5:30 pm, after an entire day of negotiation, the directors relented).
Employees stood in awe of her. Some admitted they called her “Mother” behind her back.
Edie Locke, Betsy’s successor, said her mentor wanted Mademoiselle to “nourish young women inside and out.” Writer Janet Burroway described the presence “BTB,” as many knew her, projected at the magazine:
BTB came in, in black sheath, with pearl choker, a veeery long cigarette holder, which she did indeed handle as Audrey Hepburn would have, lectured us briefly on the glorious opportunity we had won, and said, ‘This year, we believe in pink.’
She broke barriers off the page, too. She became the first (and only) female member of the Street and Smith board of directors, and later became the only woman director of the Hanes Corporation.
When she retired in 1971, she told The New York Times she was already brainstorming a second career, this time publishing work specifically for women like her:
She’s always dreamed of a magazine for the woman in‐between (called Madame?): “She’s not a kid, nor is she deep in geriatrics,” B.T.B. explained. “She’s more sophisticated than the typical reader of mass women’s magazines, but not as far out as that of the high‐fashion magazines. I’d be awfully irritated if somebody does it first.”
Add to your library list:
Decoding Women’s Magazines: From Mademoiselle to Ms. (Ellen McCracken)
Wise Women: Singular Lives that Helped Shape Our Century (William Rayner)
Read more:
Betsy Blackwell, former magazine editor, dies (The Los Angeles Times)
At Mademoiselle, a changing of the guard (The New York Times)
A women’s magazine that treated its readers like they had brains, hearts and style (Timeline)
To a generation, Mademoiselle was the stuff of literary dreams (The Chicago Tribune)
My Mademoiselle Summer (The New York Times)
Betsy Talbot Blackwell, magazine innovator (The Houston Chronicle)
A Publication Date (The New York Times)
Hear more:
Archives on the Air: Mademoiselle Magazine (Wyoming Public Media)
See more:
Betsy Talbot Blackwell Papers (The University of Wyoming)
Send your own recommendations for women to know! Reply to this newsletter with your lady and she could be featured in an upcoming edition.