{{Short description|American woodworker (1930–2018)}} {{more citations needed|date=March 2018}} {{Infobox artist | name = Jennie Alexander | image = Jennie Alexander.png | birth_name = John David Alexander Jr.<ref name="Obituary">[https://www.baltimoresun.com/obituaries/bs-md-ob-jennie-alexander-20180803-story.html Obituary], May 25, 2017.</ref> <!-- NOTE: BIRTHNAME INCLUDED IN REFLINK PROVIDED! --> | birth_date = {{Birth date|1930|12|8}} | death_date = {{Death date and age|2018|07|12|1930|12|8}} | alma_mater = University of Maryland | known_for = author | website = }}
'''Jennie Alexander''', born John David Alexander Jr, (December 8, 1930 – July 12, 2018) was an American author who transitioned at the age of 77.
==Background== Alexander spent early childhood in Baltimore, Maryland, learning to play the piano and later became a Jazz musician. Having been introduced to woodworking at the Baltimore polytechnic institute High School, Alexander would later go on to open a home shop in 1960.<ref name="Fort Mitchell 2012">{{Cite book|title=Make a joint stool from a tree : an introduction to 17th-century joinery|last1=Alexander|first1=Jennie|date=2012|publisher=Lost Art Press|last2=Follansbee|first2=Peter|isbn=9780985077709|location=Fort Mitchell, KY|pages=115|oclc=796739614}}</ref>
Alexander’s mother grew up in Quincy, Massachusetts, and was part of the educational sloyd system. Because of this Alexander was always encouraged to explore woodworking and learning through doing.<ref name="Uhl 2018" /> Alexander, whose father was a lawyer, also attended law school at the university of Maryland becoming a divorce lawyer, but embraced greenwoodworking as an avocation,<ref name="Uhl 2018" /> both practicing greenwoodworking, and studying the history of greenwoodworking by examining furniture at museums, private collections, auction houses, etc.
After marrying and having three daughters together, Alexander's wife, Joyce, died in 1996. Alexander eventually had five grandchildren and three great-grandchildren; one of whom is John D. Alexander III.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/obituaries/bs-md-ob-jennie-alexander-20180803-story.html|title=Jennie Alexander, attorney and woodworker, dies|last=Kelly|first=Jacques|website=baltimoresun.com|date=3 August 2018 |access-date=2019-10-10}}</ref>
Born as John David Alexander Jr., Alexander transitioned in 2007, becoming Jennie Alexander, at the age of 77.<ref name="Obituary"/><ref name="Uhl 2018">[https://blog.lostartpress.com/2017/05/25/meet-the-author-jennie-alexander "Meet the author: Jennie Alexander"], blog.lostartpress.com, May 25, 2017.</ref> <!-- NOTE: BIRTHNAME INCLUDED IN REFLINKS PROVIDED! -->
== Career == {{missing information|section|pre-woodworking education and career (jazz training, divorce lawyer)|date=March 2023}} In 1978, Alexander wrote, ''Make a Chair from a Tree: An Introduction to Working Green Wood'', which was the first woodworking book published by Taunton Press''.'' This book describes the process and tools required to construct a shaved two-slat post-and-rung chair without the use of a wood lathe. Becoming a member of the Early American Industries Association (EAIA) which was a crucial step in Alexander’s exploration of woodworking and chair making as it gave access to collections of joined furniture.<ref name="Uhl 2018" /> Alexander also demonstrated how to make the shaved two-slat post-and-rung chair at an event hosted by EAIA and later taught classes at Drew Langsner's Country Workshops in North Carolina, mentoring many students.<ref name="Uhl 2018" />
At Country Workshops she met Peter Follansbee, and after years of corresponding, would go on to co write a book with him called, ''Make a Joint Stool from a Tree: An Introduction to 17th-Century Joinery.''<ref name="Fort Mitchell 2012" /> She spent her later years mentoring many in greenwoodworking techniques and joinery. Jennie died July 12, 2018.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.greenwoodworking.com/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19991007150640/http://www.greenwoodworking.com/|url-status=usurped|archive-date=October 7, 1999|title=Greenwoodworking|website=www.greenwoodworking.com|access-date=2019-07-23}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Jennie Alexander, attorney and woodworker, dies |url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/obituaries/bs-md-ob-jennie-alexander-20180803-story.html |work=The Baltimore Sun |date=3 August 2018 |accessdate=August 13, 2019}}</ref>
== Two-slat post-and-rung shaving chair == {{missing information|section|modern "JA Chair" and "Jennie Chair" names|date=March 2023}} Jennie Alexander had attributed the success of the post-and-rung shaving chair to her wife, who after Jennie was told she could not wood turn in front of a live audience, encouraged Jennie to make the same chair by shaving all the parts close to round without a lathe. Jennie said, "So the shaving, really, made the existence of the post-and-rung chair a reality in this country."<ref name="Uhl 2018" />
From her book, ''Make a Chair from a Tree: An Introduction to Working Green Wood'':{{Quote |text=A post and rung chair is a stick chair with a fiber seat. It has cylindrical mortises bored into vertical posts to receive the ends of horizontal rungs. When the chair is first assembled, the posts contain more moisture than the rungs. The chair is held together by the shrinking of the posts around the dry rungs. It is one of the few things made today that depends on the shrinking actions of wood.<ref name="Alexander 1978" /> }}
This chair differs in part from the Windsor chair because it does not have a solid carved seat. In a Ladderback Chair, the seat is not structural. Where in a Windsor chair, the seat is structural - all the legs, back and arms terminate in the seat.
== Education == * High School Baltimore City Polytechnic Institute<ref name="Uhl 2018" /> * St. John's College<ref name="Uhl 2018" /> * University of Maryland<ref name="Uhl 2018" />
== Publications == * ''Make a Chair from a Tree: An Introduction to Working Green Wood''<ref>{{Cite book|title=Make a Chair from a Tree: Third Edition|url=https://lostartpress.com/products/make-a-chair-from-a-tree|access-date=2021-11-14|date=30 June 2021 |publisher=Lost Art Press|language=en|isbn=978-1-954697-02-7}}</ref><ref name="Alexander 1978">{{Cite book |last=Alexander |first=Jennie |url=https://archive.org/details/makechairfromtre00john/n11 |title=Make a chair from a tree : an introduction to working green wood |year=1978 |publisher=Taunton Press |isbn=0918804019 |location=Newtown, Conn. |pages=11 |oclc=4715888}}</ref> * ''Make a Joint Stool from a Tree: An Introduction to 17th-century Joinery'' (co-written with Peter Follansbee)<ref name="Fort Mitchell 2012" />
== See also == * Woodturning * Woodworking * Joiner * Sloyd * List of chairs
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links == * {{Official|http://www.greenwoodworking.org}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alexander, Jennie}} Category:1930 births Category:Transgender women writers Category:Transgender women artists Category:American woodworkers Category:Women woodworkers Category:American transgender women Category:American transgender writers Category:American transgender artists Category:20th-century American non-fiction writers Category:2018 deaths Category:Artists from Baltimore Category:20th-century American LGBTQ people Category:21st-century American LGBTQ people Category:American LGBTQ women writers