Table Of Content‘Nova Magazine 1965 – 1975: A History’
By Alice Beard
A thesis submitted to the University of London in partial
fulfillment for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
Goldsmiths College, December 2013
Declaration
I,
Alice
Beard,
herby
declare
that
the
material
contained
within
this
thesis
is
my
own
work.
1
Nova 1965-1975: A History
Abstract
This thesis provides an original case history of Nova magazine from 1965-1975, and
analyses the magazine’s construction, content and consumption through material
culture. Nova made a distinct offering to the world of women’s magazines in the
Sixties and Seventies and can be defined by its unique synthesis of editorial breadth
and visual innovation.
The study considers the correlation between a magazine’s intended, implied and
realised meanings. In my analysis of Nova, intended meanings are revealed through
an examination of the production process; implied meaning is found within the
magazine as an object and text; and Nova’s realised meanings are those articulated
through oral history by its readers.
Interviews
with
staff
cover
the
four
key
areas
of
Nova’s
production;
Caroline
Baker,
Fashion
Editor
1967-‐1975;
Gillian
Cooke,
Editor
1970-‐1975;
David
Hillman,
Art
Director
1969-‐1975;
Maggy
Meade-‐King,
Features
Writer,
1970-‐
1975.
Analysis
of
these
interviews
and
the
design
and
content
of
Nova
reveals
the
motivation
and
ambitions
of
individual
production
staff,
and
evaluates
the
crucial
collaborative
practice,
creative
conflicts
and
networks
of
production
at
the
heart
of
Nova’s
making.
To better understand magazines, their histories and their
futures, it is time that these individuals, working practices and creative networks are
both acknowledged and critically evaluated.
Recognising the nature and importance of the magazine as composite I adopt a
holistic approach as a methodological model for Nova’s analysis. In this thesis I
examine the magazine as a whole entity; I analyse its design and contents, alongside a
narrative of the processes of its production from its staff and contributors, and
consider the use and value of the magazine by its contemporary readers. The agenda
for this work, is to plot the processes of production and consumption of Nova in order
to reveal the various elements and practices that construct the identity and history of
the magazine as a visual, textual and material object.
2
Acknowledgements
This thesis would have not been completed without the support of so many people. I
must express my deepest gratitude to Sally Alexander for her guidance and advice,
matched with intellectual rigour and a sharp critical eye. Sally’s continued support
and enthusiasm for this project has kept me going.
I would like to thank all the Nova staff I interviewed; Caroline Baker, Gillian Eeley
(nee Cooke), David Hillman and Maggy Meade-King - without your collaboration the
production history of Nova could not have been told. Thank you also to Mike
McInnerney and David Pocknell for the insights they provided about their
commissioned illustrations for Nova.
The readers I have interviewed have provided invaluable information in
understanding and reconstructing the story of Nova’s consumption. I am immensely
grateful to Jeannie Davidson, Susan Holder, Catherine Horwood, Deborah Jaffé,
Suzanne Perkins, Liz Mason, John Maclachlan, Sue Teddern, Jane Thomas, June
Thornton and Muriel Warner for taking the time to tell their stories. Thank you also to
all the readers from the UK, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand who competed
the ‘Remembering Nova’ questionnaire, and to Robyn Daw and Michael Desmond for
their correspondence. I am very grateful to The Women’s Library for their assistance
in organizing and hosting the ‘Remembering Nova’ oral history project. Many thanks
to Jarvis Cocker for allowing me to view and photograph his Nova collection and the
unpublished launch material.
I am indebted to Frank Cartledge, Carol Tulloch, Geraldine Biddle-Perry and Djurdja
Bartlett for their constructive feedback on early drafts, and to Vivienne Richmond and
Angela Phillips at Goldsmiths for their useful suggestions at my upgrade examination.
Thank you to my colleagues in the School of Art and Design History for their support
and encouragement, to Kingston University for financial support and research
funding, and to Gloria Bassoli for her accurate transcriptions.
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Finally I would like to offer my deepest thanks to my long-suffering family - for their
belief in me, and their continued encouragement; May, Pauline, Sophie, Stuart, Greta,
John, Wendy, Eliza, Louis, Nell, Mack, Sylvie, Lesley, Graham and Ellie. Thank to
my sister for the many, many hours spent transcribing, editing and formatting, and to
my mother for all her help and support. And thank you to my husband Louis for your
undeterred confidence, interest, questions, ideas and patience. And finally a special
thank you to my little daughter Sylvie who has been so patient and who will be so
pleased I have finished!
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Table
of
Contents
Declaration
1
Abstract
2
Acknowledgements
3-‐4
Table
of
Contents
5-‐6
List
of
Illustrations
7-‐20
Introduction:
Photo
Essay
21-‐24
Introduction
25-‐60
Analysing
Women’s
Magazines
Reading
Women’s
Magazines
The
‘New
Woman’
Audience
The
Reader:
Real
&
Imagined
Remembering
Nova:
Reader
Interviews
Material
Memories
Production
Studies
Production
Staff
Interviews
Design
History
and
Magazine
Design
Fashion
Photography
Structure
Chapter
One:
Photo
Essay
61-‐92
Chapter
One:
Production
History:
‘A
New
Kind
of
Magazine
for
the
New
Kind
of
Woman’
93-‐143
A
New
Concept:
The
Dummy
Issue,
Advertisers
and
Trade
Issue
One:
March
1965
Rivals
Designing
the
Magazine:
Content
and
Image
Developing
Readers
Troubles
5
Chapter
Two:
Photo
Essay
144-‐177
Chapter
Two:
‘All
Dressed
and
Made
Up’:
Fashion
in
Nova
178-‐226
Introduction
Fashion
Pages
to
‘Make
you
Think
about
Colour’:
Molly
Parkin,
Fashion
Editor
1965-‐67
Rethinking
Fashion:
Caroline
Baker,
Fashion
Editor
1967-‐1975
Anti-‐Fashion:
A
Fashion
Statement
Collage,
Cut
Ups
and
Pull-‐Outs:
Designing
Fashion
Editorial
‘All
Dressed
and
Made
Up’:
Narrating
Fashion
Editorial
‘Adding
up
The
Look’:
Fashion
as
a
Mannerism
Dressed
Overall:
Fashion,
Function
and
Reform
Conclusion
Chapter
Three:
Photo
Essay
227-‐277
Chapter
Three:
‘Making
Raids
on
the
Real
World’:
Editorial
Content
and
Design
278-‐332
Introduction
Nova
World
Editorial
Focus:
Driving
Change
‘Women’s
Affairs’,
Sex
and
the
Body
Designing
Editorial:
Image
and
Text
Conclusion
Conclusion
A
‘New
Kind
of
Magazine
for
the
New
Kind
of
Woman’?
333-‐350
Editorial
Contribution
Controversy
and
Conflict
Designing
Nova
Rethinking
Fashion
Editorial
Failure?
Nova’s
Legacy
Production
Networks
and
Collaborative
Practice
A
Community
of
Readers
Bibliography
351-‐371
Appendix
6
Introduction
List of Illustrations
Figure 1
Evidence of a reader ‘cutting along the seams’ of Nova’s graphic design. ‘Daring
Duds of May’ by Caroline Baker, photographs by Peter Knapp. Nova, May 1970.
Figure 2
Photograph of my parent’s living room showing a cork-board collage containing
pages cut out from Nova. 1968.
Figure 3
Photograph of Suzanne Perkins in her office space at ‘Yost’s Department Store’ in
Wisconsin. Her pin board is decorated with pages torn out of Nova. 1967
Figure 4
‘The Cardigan Is Borrowed but the Shoes Are Mine ...’, by Brigid Keenan,
photographs by Steve Hiett, Nova, September 1967
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Chapter One:
Production History: ‘A New Kind of Magazine for the New Kind of Woman’
List of Illustrations
Figure 1
Nova Dummy Issue Folder, 1964
Figure 2
Nova Dummy Issue Front Cover, 1964
Figure 3
Statement of Editorial Intent, Nova Dummy Issue 1964
Figure 4
Nova Dummy Issue, Inside Cover
Figure 5
Nova Dummy Issue, ‘A New Advertising Medium’, 1964
Figure 6
Nova Dummy Issue, ‘The AA Woman’, 1964
Figure 7
Nova Dummy Issue, Advertising Rates, 1964
Figure 8
Nova Advertisement ‘For the Woman who isn’t Afraid of Virginia Woolf’, Observer,
Sunday, March 07, 1965
Figure 9
Advertisements for Dereta Dandycoats and Austin Cars, Nova March 1965
Figure 10
Advertisement for Reaffirm by Dorothy Gray, Nova March 1965
Figure 11
Advertisement for Poly hair colourant, Nova March 1965
Figure 12
Advertisement for Ceylon New Nylon by Courtaulds , Nova March 1965
Figure 13
Advertisement for Orlon Air India, Nova March 1965
Figure 14
Cover, Nova Issue 1, March 1965
Figure 15
Cover, Vogue 15th March 1965
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Figure 16
‘Blondes’, Vogue 15th March 1965
Figure 17
Selection of covers from Queen, 1963-1965
Figures 18-19
‘One woman in her day’, by Jill Butterfield. Nova March 1965,
Figure 20
‘Stars of the subtitle circuit’, by Christopher Booker. Nova March1965
Figure 21
‘British Painting in the 1930s’, by Frank Whitford, Nova March 1965,
Figure 22
‘The Reading Revolution for Tots,’ by Anne Scott-James, Nova March 1965
Figure 23
‘Doctors and Adultery, and the Muddle of Medical Ethics Today’, by Brian Inglis,
Nova March 1965
Figure 24
‘Marriage Roundabout, One Couple’s Experience of Marriage, Divorce and
Remarriage: A Documentary’, by Alma Birk MP, Nova March 1965
Figure 25
‘Isometric exercises’, by Jill Butterfield, photographs by Peter Rand, Nova March
1965
Figure 26
‘Happy Families 1965,’, by Angela Ince, Illustrations by Robin Ince, Nova March
1965
Figure 27
‘Do Your Legs Give you Away?’ by Jill Butterfield, photographs by Roy Cuthbert,
Nova March 1965
Figure 28
Cover, WM 13th November 1965
Figure 29
Cover, WM 18th October 1965
Figure 30
Cover, Nova January 1966
Figure 31
‘Looking-Glass War’, by Elizabeth Williamson, Nova, January 1966,
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Description:'The £10,000,000 four-day week, City king from the suburbs. A profile of Jim Slater' by Russell Miller. Illustrated by Jean Lagarrigue. Nova, May 1973. Figure 67. 'Inflationary Times' by David Jenkins. Illustration by Chris McEwan. Nova, May 1973. Figure 68. 'Changes in the children's ward' by Rut
