The Smart Set: A Magazine of Cleverness

The Smart Set: A Magazine of Cleverness was launched in 1900 in New York City by Colonel William D'Alton Mann. It was designed to cater to the American social elite, positioning itself as a sophisticated, urban publication focused on high-society gossip, satire, and avant-garde literature. Throughout its early years, it served as a platform for writers to challenge the rigid moral standards of the Victorian era, eventually evolving into an influential literary magazine under the editorship of H.L. Mencken and George Jean Nathan.

The magazine's design and editorial direction were defined by its commitment to intellectual independence and biting wit. Mencken and Nathan transformed it into a vehicle for modernism, publishing early works by figures such as James Joyce, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Sinclair Lewis. It was widely received as a champion of American letters, noted for its rejection of sentimentality and its embrace of a sharp, cynical, and cosmopolitan sensibility that significantly impacted the development of 20th-century American journalism.