Egmont Arens

Egmont Arens (December 15, 1889 – October 2, 1966) was an American publisher of literature and art, and an industrial designer and commercial artist specializing in marketing and product packaging.

Egmont Arens purchased the Washington Square Book Shop at 27 West Eighth Street in Greenwich Village, New York City from Frank Shay, and operated the store from 1917 to 1923. "[T]he Washington Square Book Shop, presided over by Egmont Arens and Josephine Bell, was during the Twenties the Greenwich Villagers’ favorite shop . . . In what a high-pitched anticipatory mood we ducked into this book shop once or twice a week to see what was new on its magazine rack. Here were the publications of the new movements in American art and thought and literature. Here were the reviews that were stimulating the young." A photograph of Arens in the bookshop circa 1918 by Jessie Tarbox Beals is on the Greenwich Village History Digital Archive. View photograph.

Arens began his fine press printing and publishing career at the Washington Square Book Shop. A hand operated printing press was located in the back room, where writers and artists would sit and exchange ideas. Arens published nine issues of Playboy: a portfolio of art and satire between 1919 and 1924. Among the writers published in Playboy were Djuna Barnes, E. E. Cummings, Lola Ridge, Max Weber, Ben Hecht, and D.H. Lawrence. Artists included Georgia O'Keeffe, Rockwell Kent, Hunt Diedrich, and photographer Alfred Stieglitz.George Bellows and Alexander Brook were among the other artists he published.

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