Prudence Penny
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History of Washington State Food Editors
I am going over the page proofs for the upcoming “Recipes & Reporting” for Columbia Magazine. The article is about the food editors from Washington State; all of the editors used pen names which made the research challenging. The article will be published this summer.
- Dorothy Dean, Dorothy Neighbors, food editors, food journalism, food section, pen names, Prudence Penny, Washington food editors
Washington Food Editors & Pen Names
I am working on a history magazine article about three of the 1950s era food editors in Washington State who all wrote under pen names: Dorothy Dean (Spokesman-Review), Dorothy Neighbors (Seattle Times) and Prudence Penny (Seattle Post-Intelligencer). My goal is to tell the stories of the women behind the pen names. For example, this is Joan Conner McDonnell who wrote for the Dorothy Neighbors department. She raised eight children and went back to the newspaper each time. Her daughter Mimi said: “I am proud to say that my mother was a feminist before the phrase was coined, as well as after it was used as a pejorative label.” Another longtime…
- Alice Richards, food journalism, Marian Manners, Mary Cullen, Mary Meade, Prudence Penny, Ruth Ellen Church
Food Writers & Pen Names
Several of the newspaper food writers in the women’s pages of newspapers used pen names such as Ruth Ellen Church (pictured above from when she was home economics journalism student at Iowa State University) who wrote under the byline of Mary Meade during her long career at the Chicago Tribune. This link shows that it was Virginia Harms who wrote under the byline of Alice Richards at the Milwaukee Journal. Here is a story about the use of two pen names at Los Angeles newspapers: Prudence Penney and Marian Manners. Mary Cullen was a food writing pen name in the Northwest. I am continuing to research this food writing trend…
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Food writer Prudence Penny
I have been researching syndicated food writer Prudence Penny who penned a column in the women’s pages of the Hearst newspapers beginning after World War I. (It was a pen name for several writers – at least one was a man.) Above is a photo of one of the writers of the Prudence Penny columns. It was taken in Seattle in 1939. It can be found on this blog. This blog post refers to a Prudence located in L.A. This blog includes several great references to the history of Prudence Penny.
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