On paper, they seem almost interchangeable. Young, attractive products of privileged British households, both are working mothers of small children and second wives to older, distinguished husbands. More important, Editors Tina Brown of Vanity Fair and Anna Wintour of House & Garden are journalistic prodigies boldly imposing their visions on two venerable American magazines in the same publishing empire. Recruited by Newspaper Scion S.I. Newhouse, proprietor of the eleven Conde Nast magazines, Brown and Wintour are rising stars who may one day equal such Conde Nast legends as Diana Vreeland, formerly of Vogue, and Ruth Whitney of Glamour.
Up close, however,...