They were raised in their mother's religion, Catholicism. Nast attended public school in St. Louis. A wealthy aunt paid for his college education at Georgetown University, where he excelled in rational philosophy and mathematics. There Nast met Robert J. Collier, whose father owned a weekly magazine called
Collier's. Together the friends edited the school newspaper and performed at musical events. Nast went on to earn a law degree from Washington University.
In 1897, Collier offered Nast a job on the staff of his father's magazine in New York City, for a $12 weekly salary. Nast expanded the magazine's readership from a circulation of approximately 19,000 to over 568,000 over the course of ten years. Advertising revenues went from $5,600 to more than one million dollars in the same period. Nast introduced a number of innovations at Collier's, such as color pages, two-page spreads, and the "special number" (an issue devoted to one topic). Nast also divided the United States into marketing regions, noting that certain products sold more readily in certain areas of the country. When Nast resigned from Collier's his salary was $40,000 per year.
In 1902, Nast married Clarisse Couder, a society woman of French descent. Their son, Charles, was born in 1903 and a daughter, Natica, in 1905.
