Buy new:
-36% $44.48
Delivery Friday, December 13
Ships from: Amazon
Sold by: shinystars
$44.48 with 36 percent savings
List Price: $69.00
FREE International Returns
$13.09 Shipping & Import Charges to Canada Details

Shipping & Fee Details

Price $44.48
AmazonGlobal Shipping $10.78
Estimated Import Charges $2.31
Total $57.57

Delivery Friday, December 13
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
$$44.48 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$44.48
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Ships from
Amazon
Ships from
Amazon
Sold by
shinystars
Sold by
shinystars
Returns
Returnable until Jan 31, 2025
Returnable until Jan 31, 2025
For the 2024 holiday season, eligible items purchased between November 1 and December 31, 2024 can be returned until January 31, 2025.
Read full return policy
Returns
Returnable until Jan 31, 2025
For the 2024 holiday season, eligible items purchased between November 1 and December 31, 2024 can be returned until January 31, 2025.
Read full return policy
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
Payment
Secure transaction
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
$16.75
FREE International Returns
Delivery Thursday, December 12
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
$$44.48 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$44.48
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.
Added to

Sorry, there was a problem.

There was an error retrieving your Wish Lists. Please try again.

Sorry, there was a problem.

List unavailable.
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Monica Penick
Follow
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Tastemaker: Elizabeth Gordon, House Beautiful, and the Postwar American Home Hardcover – Illustrated, June 13, 2017

by Monica Penick (Author)
4.8 4.8 out of 5 stars 11 ratings
See all formats and editions
{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$44.48","priceAmount":44.48,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"44","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"48","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"zmv45MSyoObVuRgFc2e7tlA%2BB%2FyvVR8I9maz8Ud9hPieWYpPLA84PzTtbfZDqwx24t6JCKJ49HWPkZ3nKonm3hTd2%2FG19MfKFuR5aeq88WpjgaoNz3%2BowukeboiblkXQFBn%2Fk0ZaHJ3cTGPVIvmnnPQZ1iUxxNYxAeFsXiLMQKerQ6L09tQhpc74xthhTdoE","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$16.75","priceAmount":16.75,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"16","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"75","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"zmv45MSyoObVuRgFc2e7tlA%2BB%2FyvVR8IArZW6fUk16nBa%2FigwWECQTFsjOQAsDh5fZkRywXLXIHxeeHVtivIZ4xwmX07ZnBhcR8Lgq8%2Bvy5oxeTUunRkUs4AoR%2F4IDPss%2FHHtuNHBuNtpBHXNn8KLtXbncbRnkXkDlqVSJwCigPV3Y3nVuHWyfYCaTNWJHWx","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

A riveting and superbly illustrated account of the enigmatic House Beautiful editor’s profound influence on mid-century American taste 

From 1941 to 1964, House Beautiful magazine’s crusading editor-in-chief Elizabeth Gordon introduced and promoted her vision of “good design” and “better living” to an extensive middle-class American readership. Her innovative magazine-sponsored initiatives, including House Beautiful’s Pace Setter House Program and the Climate Control Project, popularized a “livable” and decidedly American version of postwar modern architecture. Gordon’s devotion to what she called the American Style attracted the attention of Frank Lloyd Wright, who became her ally and collaborator. Gordon’s editorial programs reshaped ideas about American living and, by extension, what consumers bought, what designers made, and what manufacturers brought to market. This incisive assessment of Gordon’s influence as an editor, critic, and arbiter of domestic taste reflects more broadly on the cultures of consumption and identity in postwar America. Nearly 200 images are featured, including work by Ezra Stoller, Maynard Parker, and Julius Shulman. This important book champions an often-neglected source—the consumer magazine—as a key tool for deepening our understanding of mid-century architecture and design.
Previous slide of product details
  1. Print length
    260 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Yale University Press
  4. Publication date
    June 13, 2017
  5. Dimensions
    11.1 x 8.4 x 0.9 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0300221762
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0300221763
  8. See all details
Next slide of product details

Customer reviews

4.8 out of 5 stars
11 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Robert Aiosa
5.0 out of 5 stars wonderful
Reviewed in the United States on December 4, 2022
Verified Purchase
wonderful
Helpful
 Report
buckwriter
5.0 out of 5 stars A strong editor made the difference!
Reviewed in the United States on November 3, 2018
Confess this: when you bought your new house you searched for inspiration in a magazine or more, of the sector.
You searched for some creative inspirations; interior and exterior of a house are important thematic.
It's more common than what we can think to search for an inspiration and magazines are ones of the most powerful sources where to find answers in this sense.
Sure a magazine that made the difference, with its powerful editor Elizabeth Gordon from 1941 to 1964 was House Beautiful specialized in middle-class houses.
The book I am reviewing, Tastemaker Elizabeth Gordon, House Beautiful and the Postwar American Home by Monika Penick is an interesting, researched book about the biggest past "influencer" of middle-class homes; Elizabeth Gordon.
Born in Indiana in a Methodist family pretty observant, this girl experienced some problems when she went to the university, because of the religious rigidity of her family. Elizabeth later decided to attend the University of Chicago, modern, progressive and no one this time will stop her to become a leader of the communication with the time: a great reporter in particular of magazines treating homes and architecture at first. The big occasion?
In 1941 she became the editor in chief of House Beautiful, a magazine born at the end of 1800s for giving advice to the families regarding homes; tips, suggestions. War changes everything and Gordon one of the few women editors in the USA, was in grade to create a beautiful reality although in time of war; the magazine obtained a great success and a new debate starting to emerges while war was was still going on: what kind of house would have known the post-war?
Predicting a good postwar prosperity, Gordon tried all her best for defining various profiles, starting from the working class house for arriving at the upper middle class house; thinking that the owners of these houses would have been young families.
House Beautiful from 1943 "became a reliable planning guide," as writes the author, "where her readers learnt how dreams could be dreamt and realities could be built."
An important voice of Gordon's magazine became the "Home Planners Study Course" where she offered in 14 pages the so-called "Livability" and what it means, with important voices like "Money Matters."
The course started to become an educational course for learning more than some bits about architectural style.
What Gordon wanted to avoid, was the arrival of people, also pretty erudite from outside telling to Americans how to build homes.
Proud to be American, Gordon thought that this one was a story that needed to be sorted out by Americans and their personal desires.
Not only: Elizabeth Gordon thought also that: "Architecture is like Religion. There are many faiths...The architectural faith that you adopt is, in a way a symbol of your life." Adding also: "Your House is a Statement of Your Life."
The PostWar House was fresh,comfortable; a new modernism was thought and surpassed, and Gordon wanted to encourage Americans to design, build and live in modern houses.
Thanks also to her personal suggestions.
The house of the last second post war had to conceived with a New Look: she asked to American of changing their "National Mental Attitudes", for discovering a new emerging cultural desire for self-expression.
Gordon launched these powerful messages to her readers using an inclusive language: she used words like "we" and ours."
House Beautiful penetrated slowly slowly in the social tissue of Americans, influencing their choices.
From 1947, Gordon started to treat Climate problems, and later she would have launched House Beautiful's Climate Control Project.
Gordon has been editor of House Beautiful till 1964. The magazine grew from 226,304 to just under one million in 1964.

Beautiful book, if you love history of architecture, if you search for some inspiration or, if you want to discover more closely who made the modern house in the USA.

I thank Yale University Press for the physical copy of this book.
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Sempstress
4.0 out of 5 stars Not quite was I was seeking but a good looking book
Reviewed in the United States on February 12, 2018
Verified Purchase
The book is well made with color photos, but the print on some is so small it's nearly impossible to read without a magnifying glass. It is well written and seems to be a well researched book. I was disappointed there were not more photos. There may be 200 images but I expected more images concerning the actual rooms in House Beautiful. So it wasn't quite what I was looking for. I recommend it to someone doing research on advertising and influence in the 1940-1960 period.
2 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report