The inspiration for her first novel, "Delta Wedding," was owed directly to Robinson... Her 1954 novella, "The Ponder Heart" is essentially "The Robber Bridegroom" rewritten, was an alternate selection of the Book-of-the-Month Book-of-the-Month Book-of-the-Month Book-of-the-Month Clubandtage adaption on Broadway in 1956.
Women like Ms. Byun, or Lauren Wynns, a 27-year-old law student in Washington, who works for a business consulting firm, or Nicky Deam, a 25-year-old publicist in New York, do much of their shopping online.
Dwell also took on its first outside investor, though Ms. Deam would not disclose who or how much.
Mr. Deam opened her to the world of design, bringing her to the Salone Internazionale del Mobile in Milan and the International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York.
I was like, 'What if we had a magazine in this country that had really great architecture and design but talked about it really accessibly?' " Several weeks after Dwell started publishing in 2000, she married Mr. Deam in a geodesic dome on Treasure Island.
(Ms. Deam would neither confirm nor deny her source of financing).
But Ms. Deam points out there's an audience for design gawking.
Sitting in her Manhattan office, swathed in dark Rick Owens leather and with a blond blunt cut, Lara Deam, 46, the founder of Dwell magazine, seemed the living embodiment of a New York kind of Usonia.
But if the magazine features chimeras, like the 17th-century mill turned private home in Salento, Italy, in the June issue, it's a reflection of Ms. Deam's charmed upbringing.
After graduating from Miami University in 1989, Ms. Deam moved to Chicago to run one of her father's side businesses: selling semiprecious rocks like amethyst.
Nicky Deam, who works for the fashion publicity firm KCD, said she plans to extend her shorts into fall, wearing tights and booties.
