Salome Alexandra from "Promptuarii Iconum Insigniorum " 1553

Salome Alexandra or Alexandra of Jerusalem (139–67 BCE), (Hebrew: שְׁלוֹמְצִיּוֹן אלכסנדרה‎‎, Shelomtzion or Shlom Tzion) was the only Jewish regnant queen, with the exception of her own husband's mother whom he had prevented from ruling as his dying father had wished, and of the much earlier usurper Athaliah. The wife of Aristobulus I, and afterward of Alexander Jannaeus,^[1] she was the last woman ruler of Judaea, and the last ruler of ancient Judaea to die as the ruler of an independent kingdom.

Family[link]

Her personal genealogy is not given by Josephus. Rabbinical sources designate the Sage Simeon b. Shetah as her brother.^[2] If this is meant literally and true, she was the daughter of Setah Bar Yossei Rabbi and granddaughter of Yossei Bar Yochanan.^[3] Salome Alexandra's oldest son by Alexander Jannaeus was Hyrcanus II who fought his younger brother Aristobulus II in the 60's BC over the Jewish High Priesthood. Hyrcanus II was eventually successful after enlisting the help of the Nabataean king, Aretas III; bribing Roman officials, including Scaurus; and gaining the favour of Pompey the Great who defeated his brother and took him away to Rome.^[4]

Consort[link]

On Aristobulus' death (103 BCE), Aristobulus' wife liberated his brother Alexander Jannaeus, who had been held in prison. During the reign of Alexander, who (according to the historian Josephus) apparently married her shortly after his accession,^[5] Alexandra seemed to have wielded only slight political influence, as evidenced by the hostile attitude of the king to the Pharisees.

Regent[link]

Alexandra received the reins of government (76 or 75 BCE) at Jannaeus' camp before Ragaba, and concealed the king's death until the fortress had fallen, in order that the rigor of the siege might be maintained. She succeeded for a time in quieting the vexatious internal dissensions of the kingdom that existed at the time of Alexander's death; and she did this peacefully and without detriment to the political relations of the Jewish state to the outside world. Alexandra managed to secure assent to a Hasmonean monarchy from the Pharisees, who had suffered intense misery under Alexander and became Judea's ruling class.

Political ability[link]

The frequent visits to the palace of the chief of the Pharisaic party, Simeon ben Shetach, who was said to be the queen's brother must have occurred in the early years of Alexander's reign, before Alexander had openly broken with the Pharisees. Alexandra does not seem to have been able to prevent the cruel persecution of that sect by her husband. Nevertheless, the married life of the royal pair seems to have ended cordially; on his deathbed Alexander entrusted the government, not to his sons, but to his wife.

Her next concern was to open negotiations with the leaders of the Pharisees, whose places of concealment she knew. Having been given assurances as to her future policy, they declared themselves ready to give Alexander's remains the obsequies due to a monarch. By this step she avoided any public affront to the dead king, which, owing to the embitterment of the people, would certainly have found expression at the interment. This might have been attended with dangerous results to the Hasmonean dynasty.

Reestablishment of the Sanhedrin[link]

The Pharisees, who had suffered intense misery under Alexander, now became not only a tolerated section of the community, but actually the ruling class. Alexandra installed as high priest her eldest son, Hyrcanus II a man wholly after the heart of the Pharisees and the Sanhedrin was reorganized according to their wishes. This body had hitherto been, as it were, a "house of lords," the members of which belonged to the highest rabbinical court. From this time it became a "supreme court" for the administration of justice and religious matters, the guidance of which was placed in the hands of the Pharisees.

Internal and external policy[link]

Hasmonean Kingdom under Salome Alexandra

The Sadducees were moved to petition the queen for protection against the ruling party. Alexandra, who desired to avoid all party conflict, removed the Sadducees from Jerusalem, assigning certain fortified towns for their residence.

Alexandra increased the size of the army and carefully provisioned the numerous fortified places so that neighbouring monarchs were duly impressed by the number of protected towns and castles which bordered the Judean frontier. As well, she did not abstain from actual warfare; she sent her son Aristobulus with an army to besiege Damascus, then beleaguered by Ptolemy Menneus. The expedition was reportedly without result. Nevertheless the last days of her reign were tumultuous. Her son Aristobulus endeavored to seize the government, and succeeded her after her death.

Prosperity[link]

Rabbinical sources still further magnify the prosperity which Judea enjoyed under Alexandra. The Haggadah (Ta'anit, 23a; Sifra, ḤuḲḲat, i. 110) relates that during her rule, as a reward for her piety, rain fell only on Sabbath (Friday) nights; so that the working class suffered no loss of pay through the rain falling during their work-time. The fertility of the soil was so great that the grains of wheat grew as large as kidney-beans; oats as large as olives; and lentils as large as gold denarii. The sages collected specimens of these grains and preserved them to show future generations the reward of obedience to the Law, and what piety can achieve.

Name[link]

"Shlomtzion" (שלומציון), derived from the queen's name, is sometimes used as a female first name in contemporary Israel. Among others, the well-known Israeli writer Amos Kenan bestowed that name on his daughter.

In the 1977 Knesset elections Ariel Sharon accepted the advice of Kenan to give the name "Shlomtzion" to a new political party which Sharon was forming at the time (it later merged with the Likud).

In medieval sources[link]

According to some versions of the Toledoth Yeshu, a medieval anti-Christian life of Jesus, Salome is connected with Jesus of Nazareth, placing the death of Jesus 150 earlier.^[6].

References[link]

1. ^ That Alexandra, the widow of Aristobulus I, was identical with the one who married his brother Alexander Jannaeus is nowhere explicitly stated by Josephus, who, it is generally inferred, took it for granted that the latter performed the levirate marriage prescribed by the law for the widow of a childless brother deceased.
2. ^ Hezser, C. Rabbinic law in its Roman and Near Eastern context
3. ^ T. Stanford Mommaerts, Ancient Genealogy chart - Ansbertus. Available at http://groups.yahoo.com/groups/ancient_genealogy/files/ansbertus.gif, version of 4/11/2005.
4. ^ See Josephus, Jewish War (1.107 - 155)
5. ^ Josephus' statement (Jewish Antiquities xv. 6, § 3), that Hyrcanus II, Jannaeus' eldest son, was eighty years old when he was put to death by Herod, in 31 BCE, is probably erroneous, for that would set the year of his birth as 111 BCE, and Jannaeus himself was born in 125 BCE, so that he could have been but fourteen when Hyrcanus was born to him. It is difficult to understand how a thirteen-year-old boy married a widow of thirty. The statement, made by Josephus (Jewish Antiquities xiii. 11, §§ 1, 2), that during the reign of Aristobulus, Aristobulus' wife, presumably Salome Alexandra, brought about the death of the young prince Antigonus I, because she saw in him a rival of her husband, lacks additional confirmation.
6. ^ Goldstein, Jesus in the Jewish Tradition, pp. 148-154

See also[link]

• Hashmonean coinage

Sources[link]

• Josephus, Ant. xiii. 11, § 12; 15, § 16;
• idem, B. J. i. 5;
• Heinrich Ewald, History of Israel, v. 392-394;
• Heinrich Grätz, Gesch. d. Juden, 2d ed., iii. 106, 117-129;
• Hitzig, Gesch. d. Volkes Israel, ii. 488-490;
• Emil Schürer, Geschichte i. 220, 229-233;
• Joseph Derenbourg, Essai sur l'Histoire et la Géographie de Palestine, pp. 102–111;
• Wellhausen, I. J. G. pp. 276, 280-285;
• F. W. Madden, Coins of the Jews, pp. 91, 92;
• Hugo Willrich, Judaica: Forschungen zur Hellenisch-Jüdischen Geschichte und Litteratur, 1900, pp. 74, 96.

External links[link]

• Queen Salome Alexandra Entry in Chabad.org Gallery of Our Great
• The Salome No One Knows Biblical Archaeology Review July/August Issue
• The Jewish Queen Rivers from Eden.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Louis Ginzberg (1901–1906). "Alexandra". Jewish Encyclopedia. http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?letter=A&artid=1167. 

This article is about the daughter of Herodias. For other uses, see Salome (disambiguation).

Coin of Salome (daughter of Herodias), queen of Chalcis and Armenia Minor.

Salome (Greek: Σαλωμη, Salōmē), the Daughter of Herodias (c AD 14 - between 62 and 71), is known from the New Testament (Mark 6:17-29 and Matthew 14:3-11, where, however, her name is not given). Another source from Antiquity, Flavius Josephus's Jewish Antiquities, gives her name and some detail about her family relations.

Her name in Hebrew is שלומית (Shlomiẗ, IPA: [ʃlomiθ]) and is derived from the root word ŠLM (שלם), meaning "peace".

Christian traditions depict her as an icon of dangerous female seductiveness, for instance depicting as erotic her dance mentioned in the New Testament (in some later transformations further iconised to the dance of the seven veils), or concentrate on her lighthearted and cold foolishness that, according to the gospels, led to John the Baptist's death.

A new ramification was added by Oscar Wilde, who in his play Salome portrayed her as something of a femme fatale. This last interpretation, made even more memorable by Richard Strauss's opera based on Wilde, is not consistent with Josephus's account; according to the Romanized Jewish historian, she lived long enough to marry twice and raise several children. Few literary accounts elaborate the biographical data given by Josephus.

Asteroid 562 Salome is named after her.

Biblical character[link]

According to Mark 6:21-29 (Salome is not mentioned by name in this passage so reference is incomplete), Salome was the stepdaughter of Herod Antipas. Salome danced before Herod and her mother Herodias at the occasion of his birthday, and in doing so gave her mother the opportunity to obtain the head of John the Baptist. According to Mark's gospel Herodias bore a grudge against John for stating that Herod's marriage to her was unlawful; she encouraged Salome to demand that John be executed.

And when a convenient day was come, that Herod on his birthday made a supper to his lords, high captains, and chief estates of Galilee; And when the daughter of the said Herodias came in, and danced, and pleased Herod and them that sat with him, the king said unto the damsel, Ask of me whatsoever thou wilt, and I will give it thee. And he sware unto her, Whatsoever thou shalt ask of me, I will give it thee, unto the half of my kingdom. And she went forth, and said unto her mother, What shall I ask? And she said, The head of John the Baptist.

And she came in straightway with haste unto the king, and asked, saying, I will that thou give me by and by in a charger the head of John the Baptist. And the king was exceeding sorry; yet for his oath's sake, and for their sakes which sat with him, he would not reject her. And immediately the king sent an executioner, and commanded his head to be brought: and he went and beheaded him in the prison, and brought his head in a charger, and gave it to the damsel: and the damsel gave it to her mother. And when his disciples heard of it, they came and took up his corpse, and laid it in a tomb. (Mark 6:21-29, KJV)

A parallel passage to Mark 6:21-29 is in the Gospel of Matthew 14:6-11:

But on Herod's birthday, the daughter of Herodias danced before them: and pleased Herod. Whereupon he promised with an oath, to give her whatsoever she would ask of him. But she being instructed before by her mother, said: Give me here in a dish the head of John the Baptist. And the king was struck sad: yet because of his oath, and for them that sat with him at table, he commanded it to be given. And he sent, and beheaded John in the prison.

And his head was brought in a dish: and it was given to the damsel, and she brought it to her mother. And his disciples came and took the body, and buried it, and came and told Jesus. (Matt 14:6-11, D-R)

Some ancient Greek versions of Mark read "Herod's daughter Herodias" (rather than "daughter of the said Herodias").^[1] To scholars using these ancient texts, both mother and daughter had the same name. However, the Latin Vulgate Bible translates the passage as it is above, and western Church Fathers therefore tended to refer to Salome as "Herodias's daughter" or just "the girl". Nevertheless, because she is otherwise unnamed in the Bible, the idea that both mother and daughter were named Herodias gained some currency in early modern Europe.^{[citation needed]}

This Salome is not considered to be the same person as Salome the disciple, who is a witness to the Crucifixion of Jesus in Mark 15:40.

Salome with the Head of John the Baptist by Titian, c 1515 (Galleria Doria Pamphilj, Rome)

Apocryphal[link]

According to "Letter of Herod To Pilate the Governor", Herod's daughter was playing in the pool with ice on the surface until it broke under and decapitated her. With Herod's wife holding her daughters head.

In the passage Herod to Pontius Pilate the Governor of Jerusalem, Peace:

"I am in great anxiety. I write these things to you, that when you have heard them you may be grieved for me. For as my daughter Herodias, who is dear to me, was playing upon a pool of water that had ice upon it, it broke under her and all her body went down, and her head was cut off and remained on the surface of the ice. And behold, her mother is holding her head upon her knees in her lap, and my whole house is in great sorrow."^[2][3]

The preceding passage was printed in an 18th century text entitled The Apocryphal Books of the New Testament.^[4] An edition published in Philadelphia in 1901 by David McKay (later a publisher of comic books) contains what is listed as a preface to the second edition of the work stating, "Concerning any genuineness of any portion of the work, the Editor has not offered an opinion, nor is it necessary that he should."^[5]

Account by Flavius Josephus[link]

The name "Salome" is given to the stepdaughter of Herod Antipas (unnamed in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark) in Josephus's Jewish Antiquities (Book XVIII, Chapter 5, 4):

Herodias, [...], was married to Herod,^[6] the son of Herod the Great, who was born of Mariamne, the daughter of Simon the high priest, who had a daughter, Salome; after whose birth Herodias took upon her to confound the laws of our country, and divorced herself from her husband while he was alive, and was married to Herod, her husband's brother by the father's side, he was tetrarch of Galilee; but her daughter Salome was married to Philip,^[7] the son of Herod, and tetrarch of Trachonitis; and as he died childless, Aristobulus,^[8] the son of Herod,^[9] the brother of Agrippa, married her; they had three sons, Herod, Agrippa, and Aristobulus;^[10]

Salome in the arts[link]

Salome has become a symbol for dangerous female seductiveness. Her dance before Herod, or with the head of John the Baptist on a charger have provided inspiration for Christian artists.

Despite Josephus's account, she was not consistently called Salome until the nineteenth century,^{[citation needed]} when Gustave Flaubert (following Josephus) referred to her as Salome in his short story "Herodias".

Painting and sculpture[link]

Salome and the Apparition of the Baptist's Head, watercolor by Gustave Moreau

This Biblical story has long been a favourite of painters. Painters who have done notable representations of Salome include Titian, Henri Regnault, Georges Rochegrosse, Gustave Moreau, Federico Beltran-Masses. Titian's version (illustration c.1515) emphasizes the contrast between the innocent girlish face and the brutally severed head. Because of the maid by her side, this Titian painting is also considered to be Judith with the Head of Holofernes. Unlike Salome who goes nameless in the Christian bible, Judith is a Judeo-Christian mythical patriot whose story is perhaps less psychological and being a widow, may not be particularly girlish nor innocent in representations. In Moreau's version (illustration, left) the figure of Salome is emblematic of the femme fatale, a fashionable trope of fin-de-siecle decadence. In his 1884 novel À rebours Frenchman Joris-Karl Huysmans describes, in somewhat fevered terms, the depiction of Salome in Moreau's painting:

No longer was she merely the dancing-girl who extorts a cry of lust and concupiscence from an old man by the lascivious contortions of her body; who breaks the will, masters the mind of a King by the spectacle of her quivering bosoms, heaving belly and tossing thighs; she was now revealed in a sense as the symbolic incarnation of world-old Vice, the goddess of immortal Hysteria, the Curse of Beauty supreme above all other beauties by the cataleptic spasm that stirs her flesh and steels her muscles, - a monstrous Beast of the Apocalypse, indifferent, irresponsible, insensible, poisoning.^[11]

Salomé, by Henri Regnault (1870).

Theatre and literature[link]

In 1877 Gustave Flaubert's Three Tales were published, including "Herodias". In this story full responsibility for John's death is given to Salome's mother Herodias and the priests who fear his religious power. Salome herself is shown as a young girl who forgets the name of the man whose head she requests as she is asking for it. Jules Massenet's 1881 opera Hérodiade was based on Flaubert's short story.

"The Peacock Skirt", illustration by Aubrey Beardsley for Oscar Wilde's play Salome, 1896

Oscar Wilde's play[link]

Salomé's story was made the subject of a play by Oscar Wilde that premiered in Paris in 1896, under the French name Salomé. In Wilde's play, Salome takes a perverse fancy for John the Baptist, and causes him to be executed when John spurns her affections. In the finale, Salome takes up John's severed head and kisses it.

Because at the time British law forbade the depiction of Biblical characters on stage, Wilde wrote the play originally in French, and then produced an English translation (titled Salome). To this Granville Bantock composed incidental music, which was premiered at the Court Theatre, London, on 19 April 1918.

Richard Strauss opera[link]

The Wilde play (in a German translation of Hedwig Lachmann) was edited down to a one-act opera by Richard Strauss. The opera Salome, which premiered in Dresden in 1905, is famous for the Dance of the Seven veils. As with the Wilde play, it turns the action to Salome herself, reducing her mother to a bit-player, though the opera is less centered on Herod's motivations than the play.

Antoine Mariotte opera[link]

Shortly after the success of Strauss's opera, Antoine Mariotte created another opera based on Wilde's original French script. It was premiered on 30 October 1908 at the Grand Théâtre at Lyon. This opera was revived only in 2005 at the Montpellier Festival.

Ballet[link]

In 1907 Florent Schmitt received a commission from Jacques Rouché to compose a ballet, La tragédie de Salomé, for Loie Fuller to perform at the Théâtre des Arts. Another Salome ballet was composed by the Japanese composer Akira Ifukube in 1948. Danish choreographer Flemming Flindt's ballet Salome with music by Peter Maxwell Davies premiered in 1978.

Poetry[link]

In "Salome" (1896) by the Greek poet Constantine Cavafy, characterised by some critics as "neo-Pagan", Salome instigated the death of John the Baptist as part of a futile effort to get the interest of "a young sophist who was indifferent to the charms of love". When Salome presents to him the Baptist's head, the sophist rejects it, remarking in jest "Dear Salome, I would have liked better to get your own head". Taking the jest seriously, the hopelessly infatuated Salome lets herself be beheaded and her head is duly brought to the sophist, who however rejects it in disgust and turns back to studying the Dialogues of Plato.

Other Salome poetry has been written by among others including Ai (1986), Nick Cave (1988), and Carol Ann Duffy (1999).

Songs[link]

Songs about Salome were written by, among others, Tommy Duncan (1952), Karel Kryl (1965), Drs. P (1974), John Cale (1978), Kim Wilde (1984), U2 (1990), Andrew Lloyd Webber (1993), Liz Phair (1993), Kurt Elling (1995), Susan McKeown (1995), Mark St. John Ellis as Elijah's Mantle (1995), Old 97's (1997), The Changelings (1997), The Residents (1998), Enrique Bunbury (1998), Chayanne (1999), Patti Smith (2000), Killing Miranda (2001), Gary Jules's "Pills" (2001), The Booda Velvets (2001), Xandria (2007), Pete Doherty (2009), Os Pontos Negros (2009), 9GOATS BLACK OUT (2009), Justin Vivian Bond (2011).

Film[link]

Depictions[link]

Wilde's Salome has often been made into a film, notably a 1923 silent film, Salome, starring Alla Nazimova in the title role and a 1988 Ken Russell play-within-a-film treatment, Salome's Last Dance, which also includes Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas as characters. Steven Berkoff filmed his stage version of the play in 1988.

In the 1950 film Sunset Boulevard, the principal character Norma Desmond is portrayed as writing a screenplay for a silent film treatment of the legend of Salome, attempting to get the screenplay produced, and performing one of the scenes from her screenplay after going mad.

IMDB lists at the very least 25 Salome/Salomé films, and numerous resettings of the Salome story to modern times. These films include:

• Salomé (1918), starring Theda Bara in the title role. Flavius Josephus was credited for the story.
• Salomé (1953), starring Rita Hayworth in the title role.
• King of Kings (1961), a biblical epic film with Brigid Bazlen as Salomé.
• The Nativity (1978), with Kate O'Mara playing Salome.
• Salome (1981), a Filipino film, directed by Laurice Guillen. Salome is played by Gina Alajar
• Salome (1986), a French-Italian production
• Salomé (2002), directed by Carlos Saura, using flamenco dance.
• Salomé in Low Land (2006), an animated short film by Christian Zagler using low-tech videogame style combined with opera music.
• Visage, a film based on the myth of Salomé at the Louvre starring Fanny Ardant and Laetitia Casta
• Jesus, a film which features Salome, played by Gabriella Pession.
• Wilde Salomé (2011), a film by Al Pacino. Salomé is played by Jessica Chastain.

Television[link]

In 2011, American broadcasting company HBO announced that in the fifth season of their popular supernatural drama series True Blood, a character by the name of Salome would appear as an ancient vampire, sharing many traits with the biblical figure.^[12]

Video game[link]

The 2009 art game Fatale, by developer Tale of Tales, is a depiction of Salome in the context of an interactive vignette. The player begins by controlling John the Baptist prior to and during his execution. The second section is a courtyard scene, where Salome stands in silence, next to the head. The player is invited to examine the scene. When they have examined it sufficiently, their view is changed again, this time to that of Herod during the dance.

See also[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Salome

• Dance of the seven veils
• List of names for the Biblical nameless

References[link]

• Gillman, Florence Morgan. Herodias: At Home in the Fox's Den. Interfaces. Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 2003. ISBN 0-8146-5108-9

External links[link]

• "Salome's Slow Drag" by Brun Campbell, c.1900-1908. (Ragtime piano with bones accompaniment)
• Salome II entry in historical sourcebook by Mahlon H. Smith
• FATALE, the computer game by Tale of Tales about Salome

Alexandra Shulman, OBE (born 1958), is the editor of the British edition of Vogue. She is one of the country's most oft-quoted voices on fashion trends. She took the helm of Vogue in 1992, presiding over a circulation increase to 200,000 and a higher profile for the publication. She has also written for The Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail.

Early life[link]

Alexandra Shulman was born in 1958, the daughter of the late drama critic Milton Shulman and the writer Drusilla Beyfus; her mother returned to work two weeks after giving birth, with Alexandra later noting that "the men she worked for were horrified that she was returning to work at all and had simply assumed she would stop".^[1] She has two siblings, Nicola and Jason. The family lived in Belgravia and Shulman attended St Paul's Girls' School.^[2] Due to both her parents working in the journalism profession, the thought of following their career paths did not appeal to Shulman. Instead, she expressed an interest in becoming a hairdresser,^[3] or working in the music industry, saying: "Nobody believes me when I say it's not what I thought I was going to do. But my heroines were singers like Joni Mitchell, Patti Smith or Carly Simon. I didn't think about whether they wore Chanel or not".^[4]

Shulman studied social anthropology at the University of Sussex.^[3] In 1980 she graduated, receiving a 2:2, later recalling herself being "in tears".^[5] In the following months, she became an assistant at an independent record label, enabling her to move out of her parents' flat.^[5] However, she failed to last long at her job and was sacked. She then took on a role in the artists and repertoire department of Arista Records briefly, before losing her job again.^[4] Having had her foray into a career in the music business fail, she became a secretary at the now-defunct Over 21 magazine.^[4]

Career[link]

She began her fashion journalism career in 1982 at The Tatler, working subsequently for The Sunday Telegraph, Vogue and the British edition of GQ, where she became editor in 1990.

As Shulman took on the role as editor-in-cheif of Vogue in 1992, some speculated that she was not well exerienced enough for the role. Furthermore, others commented that her personal appearance did not conform to previous Vogue editors; as The New York Times noted, "The British press has made much of the fact that when it comes to personal wardrobe, Ms. Schulman [sic] could learn a thing or two from Ms. Tilberis's trademark Chanel, and that she could also become better acquainted with a hairbrush".^[6] It has been noted that it is still remarked upon that she doesn't "look" like an editor of Vogue.^[7]

Her tenure at Vogue has been marked with various iconic issues of the magazine. Her December 1999 "Millenium Issue", possessing a simplistic page layout and a reflective, mirror-like cover — giving the illusion that its reader was on the front cover — became the highest selling issue of Vogue, with circulation of 241,001, including a newsstand sale of 142,399.^[8] The "Gold Issue," a December 2000 edition with Kate Moss on the cover in silhouette, also became a well-known cover. A 1997 cover in memoriam of Diana, Princess of Wales was included in a poll deciding the UK's best ever magazine cover. As The Guardian noted, "Vogue stood out with a simple bare cover using a Patrick Demarchelier photograph of Diana in a red dress".^[9]

As the editor of Vogue, Shulman makes various decisions on the magazine's stance. She has stated that, "we never publish diets. We've never published things on cosmetic surgery",^[7] adding that she does not want to prescribe as specific way a woman should look to the reader. She also refuses to put celebrities on the cover if they demand copy approval and picture approval, saying "I just find that so offensive".^[10]

The magazine drew criticism in the early 1990s for photos of an emaciated Moss that were dubbed heroin chic, part of a larger ongoing debate over whether fashion magazines present an unhealthy image for girls and contribute to the anorexia problem. In 1997, the watchmaker Omega pulled an ad campaign from Vogue over this issue. Shulman dismissed these concerns in a 1998 interview with the PBS public affairs television programme Frontline, stating: "Not many people have actually said to me that they have looked at my magazine and decided to become anorexic."^[11]

She has become more sensitive to the issue in recent years, acknowledging that anorexia is a "huge problem" in a January 2005 interview with The Scotsman: "I really wish that models were a bit bigger because then I wouldn't have to deal with this the whole time. There is pressure on them to stay thin, and I'm always talking to the designers about it, asking why they can't just be a bit closer to a real woman's physique in terms of their ideal, but they're not going to do it. Clothes look better to all of our eyes on people who are thinner."^[12] In 2009 Shulman spoke out over the sample sizes leading designers were producing - some were so small they restricted Vogue using the models they wished in the magazine, resulting in some models being airbrushed to look bigger. Shulman wrote to designers to draw their attention to the situation calling for larger sized samples to be produced.^[13]

Contrary to expectations, Shulman describes her own life as work-dominated and not particularly glamorous. In an October 2004 newspaper column on her Telegraph portrait, she said:

"Leaving aside the obvious but unlikely criteria of beautiful and thin, I realised that there was no look that was achievable which was going to make me happy. In my mind I am a free spirit of about 25 wafting around in second-hand cocktail dresses; in reality I am a 47-year-old businesswoman and journalist. The pictures unfortunately, tell the whole story."^[14]

She was a regular columnist for The Daily Telegraph newspaper, but started writing a column for the Daily Mail in 2006, which ran until 2009, when she was replaced by Liz Jones.^[15] Shulman's first novel, Can We Still Be Friends, was published by Fig Tree in 2012.^[16]

Personal life[link]

She has a son, Samuel Robert (born 6 April 1995), by the writer Paul Spike, whom she married on 26 May 1994 and from whom she is divorced. She lives in the Queen's Park area of London.

Shulman received an OBE in 2004, which Janet Street-Porter wrote in The Independent was "proof that the honours system is an embarrassment".^[17] She also was named "Editors' Editor of the Year" by the British Society of Magazine Editors and is a trustee of the National Portrait Gallery.

Shulman's hobbies include music, tennis and reading fiction. Her favourite author is Rosamond Lehmann and she's an avid fan of the Inspector Wallander novels by Henning Mankell. She critiqued the Wikipedia entry on haute couture for The Guardian in October 2005, rating it a 0 out of 10.^[18] She plays the guitar and owns a Nissan Figaro and a Toyota Corolla Verso.

References[link]