Prudence Penny was a pen name used by women home economics writers and editors in various Hearst newspapers in America, starting in the 1920s.
[1] 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.
Mabelle Burbridge, one of the first to write under the "Prudence Penny" byline, replied to 70,000 letters from readers in her first year.
Some of the women who used the "Prudence Penny" nom de plume were: 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,[6][8] publishing recipes that often contrasted with the principles of prudence and frugality, and which Time Magazine called "intent on turning dinner into a binge".
[9] 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.