Dear Prudence (advice column)
Encyclopedia
Dear Prudence is an advice column appearing weekly in the online magazine Slate
and syndicated to over 200 newspapers.
The column was initiated on 20 December 1997. "Prudence" was a pseudonym, and the author's true identity was not revealed at the time. Slates archive currently indicates that the author of those first columns was Herbert Stein
.
Stein ceased writing the column after three months and the column went on hiatus. In mid-March of 1998, the column returned, with the explanation that "Prudence" had not come back from her "needlework," as per the explanation offered in Stein's last column, but rather had convinced her daughter and namesake to continue her work. While similarly anonymous at first, the new author of the column was eventually revealed to be Margo Howard, the daughter of Esther Lederer, aka Ann Landers.
Howard maintained the column for nearly eight years. Her last Dear Prudence column appeared in Slate on 2 February 2006. Howard now has a Creators Syndicate advice column called "Dear Margo," while "Dear Prudence" has been taken over by Slate staffer Emily Yoffe
. Since the summer of 2007, when Slate video magazine Slate V was launched, Yoffe also appears in short, videorecorded Dear Prudence clips, illustrated with animations.
The title of the column is a reference to the Beatles song, "Dear Prudence
."
Slate (magazine)
Slate is a US-based English language online current affairs and culture magazine created in 1996 by former New Republic editor Michael Kinsley, initially under the ownership of Microsoft as part of MSN. On 21 December 2004 it was purchased by the Washington Post Company...
and syndicated to over 200 newspapers.
The column was initiated on 20 December 1997. "Prudence" was a pseudonym, and the author's true identity was not revealed at the time. Slates archive currently indicates that the author of those first columns was Herbert Stein
Herbert Stein
Herbert Stein was a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and was on the board of contributors of The Wall Street Journal. He was chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Nixon and President Ford. From 1974 until 1984, he was the A...
.
Stein ceased writing the column after three months and the column went on hiatus. In mid-March of 1998, the column returned, with the explanation that "Prudence" had not come back from her "needlework," as per the explanation offered in Stein's last column, but rather had convinced her daughter and namesake to continue her work. While similarly anonymous at first, the new author of the column was eventually revealed to be Margo Howard, the daughter of Esther Lederer, aka Ann Landers.
Howard maintained the column for nearly eight years. Her last Dear Prudence column appeared in Slate on 2 February 2006. Howard now has a Creators Syndicate advice column called "Dear Margo," while "Dear Prudence" has been taken over by Slate staffer Emily Yoffe
Emily Yoffe
Emily Yoffe is a journalist, a regular contributor to Slate magazine and the NPR radio show Day to Day. She has also written for The New York Times, O, The Oprah Magazine, The Washington Post, and many other publications...
. Since the summer of 2007, when Slate video magazine Slate V was launched, Yoffe also appears in short, videorecorded Dear Prudence clips, illustrated with animations.
The title of the column is a reference to the Beatles song, "Dear Prudence
Dear Prudence
"Dear Prudence" is a song written by John Lennon, and credited to Lennon–McCartney. It was released by The Beatles as the second track on their 1968 double-disc album entitled The Beatles, commonly known as The White Album.-Composition:...
."