Edna Beilenson

• Name — Edna Rudolph Beilenson • Birth Name — Edna Rudolph • Born — 16 June 1909 • Birthplace — New York, New York • Died — 28 February 1981 • Place of death — New York, New York • Known for — Typography, fine printing, typesetting • Notable Works — Book Making on the Distaff Side • Spouse — * Peter Beilenson (m. 1930; his death 1962) • Joseph E. Barmack (m. 1966; div. 1975) • Awards — * Woman of the Year in Business (Marquis's Who's Who), 1968 • Goudy Award (RIT), 1980 • Elected — * President, American Institute of Graphic Arts, 1958–60 • Fellow, Royal Society of Arts • Hunter College Alumnae Hall of Fame, 1973

Edna Rudolph was born June 16, 1909, in New York City, the daughter of the artist John and Anna (Beilenson) Rudolph. She graduated cum laude with a degree in journalism from Hunter College in 1928. In 1930, Rudolph married her cousin, Peter Beilenson, who had founded the Peter Pauper Press in 1928.

In 1932, Edna Beilenson joined in the business of press work at the Peter Pauper Press, learning bookkeeping and typesetting. She is credited with bringing a strong sense of graphic design and color to the press's productions, which became the hallmarks of Peter Pauper publications. The Press aimed "to print books as beautifully as a craftsman might, and sell them as cheaply as only a pauper could". Beilenson developed a keen business sense, introducing the concept of pocket-sized gift books, and edited a series of small cookbooks that sold extremely well.

Beilenson led a group of women active in the production of fine press books, from various forms of illustration to bookbinding, punch cutting, typesetting, and graphic design, possibly as a women's response to the typophiles organization, which did not admit women. Their first formal production was a feminist work entitled Bookmaking on the Distaff Side, published in 1937. They were joined by two male luminaries of the private press world, Bruce Rogers, who wrote the introduction, and Frederic W. Goudy, who wrote a remembrance of his wife, Bertha M. Goudy, who had died in 1936. Beilenson, Jane Grabhorn, Gertrude Stein, Wanda Gág, and others contributed essays, histories, images, and other works of satire and commentary about women's overlooked roles in the production of books; each signature of the book was printed by a different woman printer. For example, Beilenson's essay, "Men in Printing", was printed at the Peter Pauper Press, while Anne Lyon Haight's satire, "Are Women the Natural Enemies of Books?" was printed at the Powgen Press. Beilenson's introduction to a 1950 Distaff Side publication, A Children's Sampler, clearly illuminates the group's mission: • "The Distaff Side is a loosely-knit organization... of women; and its membership has been enlisted from printing-offices, publishing houses, studios and other hiding-places where may be found devotees of the graphic arts.... [It] was born out of a righteous indignation that sufficient recognition had never been accorded to woman's place in the history of printing. To amend this deficiency, The Distaff Side published its first book, titled Bookmaking on the Distaff Side, which disclosed the monumental contributions which spinsters, wives, and widows have made to the graphic arts." Under Beilenson's leadership, members of the same group later formed the Distaff Press which published several other titles on the subject of women's printing history.

• Illustration — Edna Beilenson.Simple French Cookery (Mount Vernon, New York: Peter Pauper Press, 1958). Cover design by Ruth McCrea. • Book Making on the Distaff Side. New York: Distaff Side, 1937. • Beilenson, Edna, "Big Chief Type-Face". In A Garland for Goudy: Being Verses, Old and New, Gathered for his Eightieth Birthday, March Eighth, 1945. Mount Vernon, NY: Peter Pauper Press, 1945. • Beilenson, Edna, "Experimentation and the Individual—A Psychological Approach". In Graphic Forms: The Arts As Related to the Book. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1949. • Beilenson, Edna, ed. A Children's Sampler: Selections from Famous Children's Books, Printed with Care & Solicitude. New York: Distaff Side, 1950. • Simple Cookery series. Peter Pauper Press. • ABCs of... Cookery series. Peter Pauper Press. • Beilenson, Edna, and Herb Roth. Cooking to Kill!: The Poison Cook-Book, Comic Recipes for the Ghoul, Cannibal, Witch & Murderer. Mount Vernon, N.Y: Peter Pauper Press, 1951. • Beilenson, Edna. Abalone to Zabaglione: Unusual and Exotic Recipes. Mt. Vernon, N.Y: Peter Pauper Press, 1957

Edna Beilenson is recorded as having received Frederic W. Edna Beilenson is recorded as typographer, designer and publisher. Recorded at birth as Edna Rudolph.