MESSY WOMAN

This project is inspired by the loosely formed collective of Edna Beilenson, Evelyn Harter and Beatrice Ward who came together in 1937 to produce what Book Historian Kathleen Walkup describes as ‘pot-luck’ bookworks. The three women collaborated to make books ‘on the Distaff Side’. Their original content was ‘by and for women on the subject of women in print’ (Natural Enemies of Books, p26). 
Edna Beilenson was an American typographer, fine press printer, typesetter, book designer, cook book author, publisher, and co-proprietor of the Peter Pauper Press. 
Evelyn Harter was was primarily a typographer and book designer and worked for publishers such as Cape and Smith and Random House. She published her first novel, Rd. Katherine Bell in 1950 and along with Beatrice Warde, contributed the to the 1951 publication ‘Treasury for Typophiles’.
Beatrice Warde was typographer, writer, and art historian. She worked as a marketing manager for the British Monotype Corporation. Her essay, The Crystal Goblet was influential on tastes in printing and variations of her ‘This is a Printing Office’ broadside adorn many a print workshop to this day. She did not actually contribute to the original Pot-Luck book but her involvement gave it gravitas and credence.
We, as the team behind Bristol Editions, have produced the first, of what will be a new series of Pot Luck books with a contemporary focus on the same theme.