William Edwin Rudge is the name of a grandfather, father and son, all of whom worked in the printing business. It's also the name of their business. The first William Edwin Rudge (1835–1910) operated a small commercial print shop in New York City. William Edwin Rudge II (1876–1931) was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. He went to work at age 13 at his father's print shop and in 1899 took it over due to his father's ill health. In 1920 he entered over a hundred works in the National Arts Club Exhibition of that year. Of the thirty-nine medals awarded, his firm won six, with designs commissioned from Frederic W. Goudy, Bruce Rogers, and Elmer Adler. In 1921 the plant was moved to Mount Vernon, N.Y. For the next ten years some of the finest printing being produced in America issued from its presses, dominated by Bruce Rogers, who designed eighty books for the firm up to 1931. Frederic Warde also worked for Rudge for two periods.

Remembrances of Rudge (1876–1931)

William Edwin Rudge III (1908–1989)

William Edwin Rudge III (who went by Edwin) learned about printing working for his father. After the father's death, he and his brother Fred Rudge ran the print shop as "William E. Rudge’s Sons, Inc." until 1945. He founded Print, A Quarterly Journal of the Graphic Arts in 1940. In 1942, he bought the Elm Tree Press (established since 1907) from Edward C. Dana and settled his business in Woodstock, Vermont. In 1946 he purchased the journal The Print Collector's Quarterly, restarting publication in 1948, then absorbed it into Print in 1951. In 1946, Robert L. Dothard and Frank H. Teagle joined Rudge in Woodstock and the fine printing work continued. In 1950 the Elm Tree Press filed for bankruptcy. During the 1950s, Rudge worked as an agent for the Lane Press. William Edwin Rudge III married Abigail Hazen in 1934. They had a daughter, Joanna Rudge, and a son, William Edwin Rudge IV. There are William Edwin Rudge papers in the libraries of the University of California, Santa Barbara and the University of Vermont.

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