Rosemary Barnsdall Blackmon

Rosemary Barnsdall was born in Buffalo, New York as a daughter of Jay Thornton Barnsdall Jr. and Grace L. Devine Barnsdall.^[1] Her father was a lawyer. She graduated from Hamburg High School in 1939, and from Barnard College^[2] in 1943, where she majored in Latin and Greek, and was the president of the Classical Club.^[3][4][5]

Blackmon worked in editorial and writing jobs after college.^[6] Her Latin and Greek degree from Barnard helped her find a job with the American College Dictionary, and that work in turn introduced her to Wilfred J. Funk, with whom she worked on Word Origins and Their Romantic Stories (1950).^[7] After her children were born, she returned to editing work, saying "I'm not really domestic and I have no talent for children."^[3] She collaborated with photographer Irving Penn and publisher Alexander Liberman on Moments Preserved (1960).^[8][9]

Blackmon was managing editor of Vogue from 1962 to 1973, and wrote regularly for the magazine for a longer period,^[10][11] with titles like "I Went to the Fair" (1958), about the Expo 58 in Brussels,^[12] "The Maugham Explosion at Sotheby's" (1962),^[13] "New Japan" (1964),^[14][15] and "What Can Hypnosis Do for You" (1969).^[16] William Safire suggested Blackmon may have coined the phrase "beautiful people" at Vogue.^[17] She was an editor at Harper's Bazaar from 1973 to 1978.^[18]

In 1945,^[19] Rosemary Barnsdall married William A. Blackmon Jr.^[3] They had children, Rosemary and William. She died in 1983, aged 62 years, in Provence.^[18] A Claire McCardell wool dress and a linen shift dress by B. H. Wragge, both worn by Blackmon, are in the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.^[20][21]