The World in Vogue, Signed by Alexander Liberman and Jessica Daves
[Signed by Alexander Liberman and Jessica Daves] Daves, Jessica (ed.) The World in Vogue. First Edition. 1963. Book and dust jacket are both in very good minus condition—book has a distracting third-party gift inscription on the flyleaf, and jacket shows edge tears, fraying, and minor soiling (a nice example; the jacket for this title is often in tatters). Book is signed “Jessica Daves” and “Alexander Liberman” on the title page.
At time of publication, this book’s editors were headed in opposite directions. Alexander Liberman, who had been Vogue’s art director from 1944-1961, had been promoted to editorial director of all Condé Nast publications (a position he continued to hold well into the 1990s). Jessica Daves had been editor-in-chief of Vogue since 1952 but had recently left that position to make way for Diana Vreeland, whose flamboyant style was a better match for the rollercoaster ride of the coming decade. (As Grace Mirabella once commented, what makes someone a good Vogue editor in one era becomes her downfall in the next.) This the first book Daves published in her new position. It was released on the magazine’s seventieth anniversary and is a compendium of its best writing, photographs, and illustration with contributions by Edward Steichen, Emily Post, Dorothy Parker, Frank Crowninshield, Baron de Meyer, Elsa Maxwell, Somerset Maugham, Jean Cocteau, it’s more than just seventy years of Vogue, it’s a history of the 20th Century.
“Vogue has sometimes been called a civilizing force. If that is true, perhaps it is because a civilization, to endure, needs voices to sing its praise.”
--Jessica Daves