Rosemary Barnsdall Blackmon

Rosemary Barnsdall was born in Buffalo, New York, the 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 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]