Fleur Cowles

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Fleur Fenton Cowles Meyer (born January 20, 1910) is an American writer and editor best known as the creative force behind the short-lived but fabled Flair magazine. She was born in Boston, Massachusetts.

Contents

[edit] Personal

Cowles was born Fleur Fenton in Boston, Massachusetts.

She was the third wife of Mike Cowles, an heir to the Cowles Media Company (which at one time owned the Des Moines Register and the Minneapolis Star Tribune). Mike Cowles was the publisher of his family's Look magazine.

Around 1955 she married Tom Montague Meyer, CBE, a timber tycoon. The Meyers have lived for a number of years in the famous apartment building The Albany in London, England, as well as in Spain and the Sussex countryside. They have two children, Anne and Anthony.

[edit] Career

[edit] 1940s

Before founding Flair, Cowles was a special consultant to the Famine Emergency Committee in Washington, D.C.

In 1947, she became an associate editor at Look magazine.

In 1948, she became an associate editor at Quick magazine.

[edit] Flair magazine

Cowles founded Flair magazine in 1950, and it folded a year later, in 1951. The magazine was celebrated not only because of its design and editorial production, but also because of its lavish production. It was the resulting cost of production that killed the magazine, since the expensive special costs (for cover cut-outs for some issues, for example) could not be supported in the long run. This magazine is now much sought after by collectors and makes impressive sums on Ebay. Contributors included Saul Steinberg, Salvador Dali (“The Gypsy Angels Of Spain”) and many writers and artists who subsequently became well known. The first issue issue featured Auden, Cocteau, Lucian Freud, Tennessee Williams, Angus Wilson, and many others as contributors.

[edit] Post-Flair

In later decades, Cowles served on various government committees and represented Dwight D. Eisenhower at the coronation of Elizabeth II.

In 1996 the book The Best of Flair collected much of the material from the magazine she founded.

[edit] Artwork

As "Fleur Cowles Meyer," Cowles has also been known as a painter and illustrator.

[edit] Bibliography

Cowles is the author of ten books.