{{Short description|Pen name used by women home economics writers}} '''Prudence Penny''' was a pen name used by women home economics writers and editors - and one man - in various Hearst newspapers in America, starting in the 1920s.<ref name=":0" />
Under the pseudonym, the writer would write regular newspaper columns where she shared recipes (often emphasizing frugality), answered reader letters, gave advice for the home, and offered local cooking demonstrations. Some of them also hosted radio presentations, and wrote and edited cookbooks. Mabelle Burbridge, one of the first to write under the "Prudence Penny" byline, replied to 70,000 letters from readers in her first year.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Garbee |first=Jenn |date=2009-04-22 |title=Marian Manners, Prudence Penny, the first celebrity cooks |url=https://www.latimes.com/food/la-fo-prudence22-2009apr22-story.html |access-date=2022-10-22 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}}</ref>
"Prudence Penny" also starred as "Herself" in several films, most notably in Penny Wisdom which won an Academy Award in 1938 for best short subject.
{{Quote box |width=30em|bgcolor=#c6dbf7|quote="Come to Prudence with confidence! Your letter is not departmentalized, rubber stamped, or form-letter-answered. If you have never received a letter from Prudence Penny, you have a sweet experience before you!"|source=—Mabelle Burbridge, writing as Prudence Penny<ref name=":0" />}}
Some of the women who used the "Prudence Penny" nom de plume were:
* Mary Baker (died 1932), radio speaker and columnist for the ''Omaha Bee-News''<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Omaha Morning Bee-News 24 Sep 1936, page 3 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/742818248 |access-date=2022-10-22 |website=Newspapers.com |language=en}}</ref> * Martha Bohlsen (1905-1984), start as Prudence Penny in 1936 Nebraskan home economics writer, radio, and TV pioneer<ref>{{Cite web |title=Bohlsen, Martha {{!}} Nebraska Archives Online |url=https://archives.nebraska.edu/agents/people/4253 |access-date=2022-10-22 |website=archives.nebraska.edu}}</ref> * Mabelle Burbridge, home economist writing for the ''New York Daily Mirror'' starting in the 1920's<ref name=":0" /> * Claire Charles (died 1969), writer of nationally syndicated column "Household Hints"<ref>{{Cite web |title=Arizona Republic 19 Jun 1969, page Page 41 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/118356985 |access-date=2022-10-22 |website=Newspapers.com |language=en}}</ref> * Aleene Gregory Houghton, teacher, educator, editor, and journalist<ref>{{Cite web |date=May 27, 1948 |title=Rites held in Queens for Prudence Penny |url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1948/05/27/issue.html |access-date=2022-10-22 |publisher=The New York Times |language=en}}</ref> * Leona Alford Malek (1878-1953), home economist writing for the ''Chicago Herald and Examiner'' * Dorothy Malone (born 1901), cookbook writer writing for the ''New York American'' * Vaudine Newell, writing for 26 years as Prudence Penny for the ''New York Daily Mirror''<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=MacMillan |first=Robert |last2=Bainbridge |first2=John |date=1963-09-07 |title=Prudence |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1963/09/14/prudence |access-date=2022-10-22 |website=The New Yorker |language=en-US}}</ref> * Bernice Orpha Redington (1891-1966), home economist writing for the ''Seattle Post-Intelligencer'' * Norma Young, home economist and radio personality, writing for the ''Los Angeles Examiner''<ref>{{Cite web |title=Honolulu Star-Bulletin 21 Aug 1952, page 16 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/268842689 |access-date=2022-10-22 |website=Newspapers.com |language=en}}</ref> In June 1963, a male writer, Hyman Goldberg, began to write the weekly column for the ''Mirror'' under the byline after the death of Vaudine Newell,<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite news |date=1970-09-20 |title=Hyman Goldberg, Writer, Dies; ‘Prudence Penny’ of Food Pages |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1970/09/20/archives/hyman-goldberg-writer-dies-prudence-penny-of-food-pages.html |access-date=2022-10-22 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> publishing recipes that often contrasted with the principles of prudence and frugality, and which Time Magazine called "intent on turning dinner into a binge".<ref>{{Cite news |date=1963-10-04 |title=Columnists: My Son the Cook |language=en-US |work=Time |url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,875271-1,00.html |access-date=2022-10-22 |issn=0040-781X}}</ref>
According to Goldberg, at the time there were only three other "Prudence Penny" still published under the byline, although there had once been 30 of them.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Goldberg |first=Hyman |date=1964 |title=Prudence Penny: the lady columnist who really isn't |pages=40–46 |work=The Saturday Evening Post |url=https://www.foodtimeline.org/prudencepenny.pdf |access-date=October 22, 2022}}</ref>
== References ==
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Category:20th-century pseudonymous women writers Category:20th-century pseudonymous writers Category:Hearst Communications people