Louis family rich in tradition and culture. Nast's Benoist ancestors included a chamberlain to King Louis XI of France and a court painter to Louis XIV. Nast's mother was determined to raise her children in her own traditions of an economic, rigidly Catholic, middle-western family. His father was often absent and his family's finances limited, so Nast, his brother, and two sisters were reared in St. Louis by his mother. Nast's paternal grandfather, Wilhelm Nast, was a leading founder of German Methodism in America and edited its leading newspaper,
Der Christliche Apologete, for more than fifty years. It was perhaps from this stern ancestor that Nast inherited his love of publishing as well as his solemn and methodical nature.
Nast was never the creative one, his mother remarked to Vogue editor Edna Chase. Rather, his notable skills were thoroughness, neatness, and completeness. "He's always been like that, even as a child," she said. "When they were boys, he and [his brother] Louis used to cut the lawn in front of our house in St. Louis.... There was a path down the middle of the plot and Condé's side was always very neat, each blade of grass in scrupulous order, but Louis's was more laissez faire, uneven spots and artistic outcroppings."
Nast's devotion to order impressed a wealthy aunt, who agreed to finance his education at Georgetown.
