Cosmopolitan magazine

Cosmopolitan

September 2015 cover featuring Demi Lovato
Editor-in-Chief	Michele Promaulayko
Categories	Female
Frequency	monthly
Total circulation (2011)	3,032,211 (USA)
First issue	1886 (as a literary magazine) 1965 (as a women's magazine)
Company	Hearst
Country	United States (other countries also available)
Language	English
Website	www.cosmopolitan.com
ISSN	0010-9541

Cosmopolitan is an international fashion magazine for women. As The Cosmopolitan it was first published in 1886 in the United States as a family magazine, it was later transformed into a literary magazine and eventually became a women's magazine in the late 1960s. Also known as Cosmo, its content as of 2011 included articles on women's issues, relationships, sex, health, careers, self-improvement, celebrities, fashion, and beauty. Published by Hearst Corporation, Cosmopolitan has 64 international editions, is printed in 35 languages and is distributed in more than 110 countries.

Cosmopolitan began as a family magazine, launched in 1886 by Schlicht & Field of New York as The Cosmopolitan.

Paul Schlicht told his first-issue readers that his publication was a "first-class family magazine", adding, "There will be a department devoted exclusively to the concerns of women, with articles on fashions, on household decoration, on cooking, and the care and management of children, etc. There was also a department for the younger members of the family."

Cosmopolitan's circulation reached 25,000 that year, but by November 1888, Schlicht & Field were no longer in business. John Brisben Walker acquired the magazine in 1889. That same year, he dispatched Elizabeth Bisland on a race around the world against Nellie Bly to draw attention to his magazine.

Under John Brisben Walker's ownership, E. D. Walker, formerly with Harper's Monthly, took over as the new editor, introducing colour illustrations, serials and book reviews. It became a leading market for fiction, featuring such authors as Annie Besant, Ambrose Bierce, Theodore Dreiser, Rudyard Kipling, Jack London, Willa Cather, and Edith Wharton. The magazine's circulation climbed to 75,000 by 1892.

In 1897, Cosmopolitan announced plans for a free correspondence school: "No charge of any kind will be made to the student. All expenses for the present will be borne by the Cosmopolitan. No conditions, except a pledge of a given number of hours of study." When 20,000 immediately signed up, Walker could not fund the school and students were then asked to contribute 20 dollars a year. Also in 1897, H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds was serialized, as was his The First Men in the Moon (1900). Olive Schreiner contributed a lengthy article about the Boer War.