A Dash of Daring: Carmel Snow and Her Life in Fashion, Art, and Letters

By Penelope Rowlands

Book Overview

Carmel Snow, who changed the course of our culture by launching the careers of some of today's greatest figures in fashion and the arts, was one of the most extraordinary women of the twentieth century. As editor in chief of Harper's Bazaar from 1934 to 1958 she championed the concept of "a well-dressed magazine for the well-dressed mind," bringing cutting-edge art, fiction, photography, and reportage into the American home.
Now comes A Dash of Daring, a first and definitive biography of this larger-than-life figure in publishing, art, and letters. Veteran magazine journalist Penelope Rowlands describes the remarkable places Snow frequented and the people whose lives she transformed, among them Richard Avedon, Diana Vreeland, Geoffrey Beene, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Cristobal Balenciaga, Lauren Bacall, and Truman Capote.
She chronicles Snow's life on both sides of the Atlantic, beginning in nineteenth-century Ireland and continuing to Paris, Milan, and New York City, the fashion capitals of the world.
Snow was the daughter of an Irish immigrant, who was herself a forward-thinking businesswoman, and she worked in her mother's custom dressmaking shop before being discovered by the magazine publisher Conde Nast and training under Edna Woolman Chase, the famous longtime editor of Vogue. From there it was on to Harper's Bazaar which, with the help of such key employees as Avedon, Vreeland, and art director Alexei Brodovitch, Snow turned into the most admired magazine of the century. Among the disparate talents who worked at Bazaar in the Snow era were Andy Warhol, the heiress Doris Duke, Maeve Brennan, and members of the storied Algonquin Round Table.
Overflowing with previously untold stories of the colorful and glamorous, A Dash of Daring is a compelling portrait of the fashion world during a golden era.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0743480465
• ISBN13: 9780743480468
• Release Date: November 2008
• Publisher: Atria Books
• Length: 576 Pages
• Weight: 2.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 7.5" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

A Bazaar Life

When you crack open a 500 page book, it better be good. This biography of Harper's Bazaar fashion editor Carmel Snow is everything a heavy tome should be: entertaining, insightful, and thouroughly researched. The writing style is a perfect match for the subject matter: Penelope Rowlands' prose is as sharply defined as a couture garment, and, as a result, reading her book is the next best thing to actually owning a Dior original. But the most rewarding part of the book is the revelation that elegance is all about gutsiness. In fact, if you look objectively at the clothes women wore back then (the book is rife with photographic documents) all those proper little wool suits and belted silk dresses look quite frumpy in restrospect. But what poise those girls had! Where did their get their attitude? Reading A Dash of Daring is a lesson in real coolness.

An exceptional biography

This beautifully produced and perceptive biography of Carmel Snow, arguably the greatest fashion editor who ever lived, is a sheer delight to read. The author focuses our gaze on both the biographical subject and the milieu in which Snow lived and worked. Penelope Rowland's impressive research and extensive interviews, combined with her sure touch as a storyteller, have yielded an engaging and compelling story.

Wonderful!

I have bought many copies of this book to give to friends. I think it is a very special. It is a fascinating story, beautifully told. It is not just for those interested in fashion. It is a masterpiece of biography.

More Than A Dash

"A Dash of Daring" is a biography that offers a comprehensive look at a fashion icon. The life of Carmel Snow should interest fashion connousseurs and others alike. This reader was especialy fascinated by the detailed description of life in war-torn Paris. It is relevant to the world today.

A Dash of Delight

This is a handsomely produced book, filled with wonderful photos, about a fascinating woman, the daughter of an Irish immigrant, who traveled the major capitals of the world and transformed Harper's Bazaar into one of the liveliest magazines of the 20th century. Clearly and elegantly written, the book is rife with wonderful anecdotes about major designers, writers, artists, movie stars, and grand eccentrics. Snow's was an extraordinary life, and Rowlands does it full justice while giving us a detailed portrait of the fashion world during its golden age.