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To celebrate Glamour’s 85th birthday this year, we wrote a book. And not just any book. For the first time we wanted to tell the incredible story of Glamour’s origins, the famous names who helped shape the magazine, our many historic firsts, and our unique contribution to the evolution of women’s power over the past nine decades—and you can be among the first to order it.
Glamour was launched in 1939 as a magazine dedicated to recreating the beauty and fashions of Hollywood. But after the outbreak of World War II, women wanted more—and Glamour relaunched in 1943 “for the girl with a job.” That set the magazine, and its staff, on a journey that would define its whole future.
From the 1940s on, our book chronicles how Glamour became a fighting force for women’s freedom—be it financial, reproductive, sexual, and more. Glamour was the first American fashion magazine to feature a Black cover star, Katiti Kironde, and the first to put model Beverly Johnson on the cover (she starred 15 times). We covered Whitney Houston when she was a young model with aspirations to become a pop star.
We were also one of the first publications to present Gloria Steinem’s writing (she was a contributing editor for years), and publish Andy Warhol’s illustrations. Presidents Reagan, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Bush, and Obama all featured in or contributed to Glamour. And our reporting on reproductive rights, and more recently paid family leave, contributed to the many prestigious awards Glamour has won over the years.
Glamour has, in every iteration over the course of its 85 years, been so much more than a magazine. It’s been a place for women to celebrate and commiserate, a home for service and sexiness, a source of entertainment and enlightenment. It’s always been a destination and a community, bringing women together in its pages, online and in person. Now you can follow this journey through this beautiful coffee table book, featuring previously unpublished images, archival correspondence, and incredible stories and fashion photography from Glamour’s very first issue to today.
You can preorder Glamour: An Extraordinary History now on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Bookshop, and from other booksellers near you, as well at Indigo (Canada), Booktopia (Australia), and Waterstones (UK).