24 
House & Garden 
W E 
BUY OURSELVES A BIRTHDAY CAKE 
W I1H this issue House Sc Garden attains the interesting age 
of twenty-one. It acquires a franchise, and can now vote against 
Prohibition, onyx lampstands and other forms of bad taste. 
It henceforth is responsible for its debts, excesses and mistakes. It 
can, without asking parental consent, marry. In fact, the number of 
things this lusty youth can do is only limited by its capacity for doing 
them. On such occasions one is tempted to speak glowingly on the 
available future. We would rather not. We are too busy laying plans 
for the development of the magazine in 1922 to talk about it. So, 
then, the irreparable past. 
House & Garden was started by a group of Philadelphia archi¬ 
tects who felt the need for showing to the public, in an attractive fashion, 
the best work in native and foreign domestic architecture and land¬ 
scaping. 
In those days, you will remember, this nation was beginning to 
lengthen her cords. The Spanish War was three years past and we 
had acquired overseas possessions that tore us away from the splendid 
isolation of previous years. Becoming a world power necessitated our 
taking interest in the rest of the world. One small but important 
phase of this foreign interest was the manner in which other peoples 
built and furnished their homes and made their gardens, and the way 
in which those styles could be adapted to this country. In some 
circles this interest had been long established; it required an organ 
of publicity to spread the ideas. 
Beginning thus as a magazine of architectural interest mainly, 
House & Garden found a ready market among general readers and 
consequently took on more practical aspects. Subscribers seeing the 
beautiful houses and gardens shown on its pages naturally wanted to 
know how such houses could be built and such gardens made. Under 
a new management House & Garden developed from a magazine of 
strictly architectural appeal to a medium of more general interest in 
this field. And thus it grew and was evolved through fourteen years. 
I N 1915 the magazine passed under the control of Mr. Conde 
Nast, who had already developed Vogue and created Vanity Fair. 
Vogue appealed to the desire of women to be dressed in good taste. 
Vanity Fair satisfied the desire of cultured people to keep in touch 
with the latest expressions of the arts. House & Garden was built 
to appeal to those who desired a home in the best taste. Certainly 
the desire for a good home is as fundamental as the desire for food. 
These facts had been long accepted by publishers but none had devised 
a new way of presenting them. It was this new way that brought 
success to House & Garden. 
There was an old game we played as children called “Follow’ the 
Leader.” The principle of this game, which is a principle of life 
itself, was applied to the magazine. House & Garden showed what 
the leaders were doing, created interest among these leaders and built 
up its circulation around them. Success came in logical order. The 
magazine was not edited down to a vast and assorted body of readers, 
but edited up to the intelligence of the most appreciative minds on these 
subjects. By practical and beautifully presented pages House & Garden 
showed how this best work, chosen by minds most keenly apprecia¬ 
tive of it, could be adapted and applied to many types of homes. 
Under this regime House & Garden not alone exhibited the best taste 
in architecture, decorating and gardening but became a powerful fac¬ 
tor in making interest in good taste widespread. The magazine at¬ 
tained a merited prestige. By showing authoritative work for many 
years it has today become the authority on such topics in America. 
It is one thing to show a beautiful home and quite another to tell 
how that home can be created. It is easy to rhapsodize over a garden 
but not so easy to say precisely how that garden can be made. With¬ 
out lowering its standard House & Garden has been able to present 
these practical aspects. Before we show a house, an interior, a garden 
or an accessor}’ w r e find where one can buy it, or how it can be made 
or how much it costs. Thus the Information and Shopping Services 
of the magazine carry into detailed completion the work begun on the 
printed page. 
There have been readers who complained that the houses and 
gardens shown in the magazine were miles above their purses. The 
accusation may be true, but the answer to it is also the secret of 
the magazine’s success. The best work is usually the most expensive, 
and it is best and most expensive because it has drawn on the best 
thought, ingenuity and time of its creators. Consequently it contains 
the greatest possible number of suggestions for one who wishes to 
adapt the general scheme to her own problem. Shoddy work, cheap 
work, work of poor conception has the minimum of help to offer the 
reader. The best work is always the most practical. 
T HE World War and its consequences have produced a peculiar 
effect on Americans. Without losing one iota of our cosmopolitan 
spirit we are beginning to appreciate anew our own country, its 
institutions and resources. This finds expression even in such matters 
as furnishing the home and making the garden. Today there is a 
marked return to native American forms of architecture and decora¬ 
tion and to a wider appreciation of our native plants and shrubs. 
Other countries appreciate them; now we, too, must appreciate them. 
From the styles abroad and at home we must evolve an individuality 
as distinct and complete as any of the styles on the Continent. We 
have passed the time when we can blame our gauche taste on mere 
youth. The country, as with House & Garden, has become twenty-one! 
Along these lines lies the available future of this magazine. Some 
time ago an English publisher protested against House & Garden. 
But it is too American. "Sir,’ we answered, "you could not more 
graciously compliment us.” However much material it may draw occa¬ 
sionally from other lands, House & Garden is always and will always 
be a magazine devoted to the enrichment of the American home, and 
through the American home the American nation. The strength of this 
country lies in the strength of its individual homes. Its standards can 
never be higher than the standards of its homes, or its sense of beauty, 
or its appreciation of the things that go to make a fuller life. 
A PPRECIATING this responsibility that the magazine has laid 
upon itself makes one feel rather solemn on this twenty-first birth¬ 
day. The cake that we would buy must be very large. There are 
many to enjoy it. Ten times more readers see the pages of the magazine 
today than saw it seven years ago; its circulation is more than the total 
circulations of all the other magazines devoted to these same interests. 
And yet, if it weren t for these loyal readers we could not aspire to 
so Gargantuan a cake. Perhaps we would have no cake at all! 
The one thing that bothers us at this moment is the icing. Shall 
we choose blonde or brunette, chocolate or vanilla? Personally, being 
a man, we prefer chocolate. 
