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Pen name
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A pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a pseudonym adopted by an author. A pen name may be used to make the author's name more distinctive, to disguise his or her gender, to distance an author from some or all of his or her works, to protect the author from retribution for his or her writings, or for any of a number of reasons related to the marketing of the work. The author's name may be known only to the publisher, or may come to be common knowledge.
Western literature
A writer may use a pen name if his or her real name is likely to be confused with that of another writer or notable individual.
Some authors who regularly write in several genres use different pen names for each genre.
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Encyclopedia
A pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a pseudonym adopted by an author. A pen name may be used to make the author's name more distinctive, to disguise his or her gender, to distance an author from some or all of his or her works, to protect the author from retribution for his or her writings, or for any of a number of reasons related to the marketing of the work. The author's name may be known only to the publisher, or may come to be common knowledge.
Western literature
A writer may use a pen name if his or her real name is likely to be confused with that of another writer or notable individual.
Some authors who regularly write in several genres use different pen names for each genre. Romance writer Nora Roberts writes erotic thrillers under the pen name J.D. Robb, and Samuel Langhorne Clemens used the aliases "Mark Twain" and "Sieur Louis de Conte" for different works. Similarly, an author who writes both fiction and non-fiction (such as the mathematician and fantasy writer Charles Dodgson, who wrote as Lewis Carroll, or the American television commentator Bill O'Reilly, who wrote a thriller under a pen name) may use a pseudonym for fiction writing.
Occasionally a pen name is employed to avoid overexposure. Prolific authors for pulp magazines often had two and sometimes three short stories appearing in one issue of a magazine; the editor would create several fictitious author names to hide this from readers. Robert A. Heinlein wrote stories under pseudonyms so that more of his works could be published in a single magazine. Stephen King wrote four novels under the name Richard Bachman because he feared that his books were being sold for his name rather than for his actual writing. Eventually, after critics found a large number of style similarities, publishers revealed Bachman's true identity.
Sometimes a pen name is used because an author believes that his name does not suit the genre he is writing in. Western novelist Pearl Gray dropped his first name and changed the spelling of his last name to become Zane Grey, because he believed that his real name did not suit the Western genre. Romance novelist Angela Knight writes under that name instead of her actual name (Julie Woodcock) because she felt that her real name was a little too fitting for the genre.
Edward Gorey had dozens of pseudonyms, apparently for his own amusement, each one an anagram of his real name.
C. S. Lewis used two different pseudonyms for different reasons. Before his conversion to Christianity, he published a collection of poems (Spirits in Bondage) and a narrative poem (Dymer) under the pen name "Clive Hamilton", to avoid harming his reputation as a don at Oxford University. His book entitled A Grief Observed, which describes his experience of bereavement, was originally released under the pseudonym "N. W. Clerk".
Female authors
Some female authors have used masculine pen names to ensure that their works were accepted by publishers or taken seriously by the public. This was common in the 19th century, when women were beginning to make inroads into literature but were not taken as seriously by readers. Mary Ann Evans wrote under the pen name George Eliot, and Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë published under the names Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell respectively. Karen Blixen wrote the very successful Out of Africa under the pen name Isak Dinesen. Victoria Benedictsson, one of the most famous Swedish authors of the 19th century, wrote under the name Ernst Ahlgren. More recently, women who write in genres normally written by men sometimes choose to use initials or a neutral pen name, such as D. C. Fontana, J. K. Rowling, K. A. Applegate, and S. E. Hinton. Author Robin Hobb chose that androgynous pen name when she set out to write a fantasy trilogy featuring a male leading character.
Collective names
In some forms of fiction, the pen name adopted is the name of the lead character, to suggest to the reader that the book is a (fictional) autobiography. Daniel Handler used the pseudonym Lemony Snicket to present his A Series of Unfortunate Events books as memoirs by an acquaintance of the main characters. Some series fiction is published under one pen name even though more than one author may have contributed to the series. In some cases the first books in the series were written by one writer, but subsequent books were written by ghost writers. For instance, many of the later books in the The Saint adventure series were not written by Leslie Charteris, the originator of the series. Similarly, Nancy Drew mystery books are published as though they were written by Carolyn Keene, The Hardy Boys books are published as the work of Franklin W. Dixon, and The Bobbsey Twins series are credited to Laura Lee Hope, although several authors have been involved in each series.
Collaborative authors may have their works published under a single pen name. Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee published their mystery novels and stories under the pen name Ellery Queen (as well as publishing the work of ghost-writers under the same name). The writers of Atlanta Nights, a deliberately bad book intended to embarrass the publishing firm PublishAmerica, used the pen name Travis Tea. Sometimes multiple authors will write related books under the same pseudonym; examples include Nicolas Bourbaki in non-fiction and T. H. Lain in fiction.
Pseudepigraphy
Pseudepigraphy is a particular form of pseudonym or pen name in which authors adopt the name of well-known figures as the publicly ascribed author to attain greater interest or credibility for the work. In some cases the pseudepigraphy is the result of pious tradition.
Concealment of identity
A pseudonym may also be used to protect the writer for exposé books about espionage or crime. Andy McNab, a former SAS soldier used a pseudonym for his book about a failed SAS mission titled Bravo Two Zero. Ibn Warraq has been used by dissident Muslim authors. Author Brian O'Nolan was used the pen names "Flann O'Brien" and "Myles na gCopaleen" because at the time Irish civil servants were not allowed to publish works under their own names.
The Histoire d'O (The Story of O), an erotic novel of sadomasochism and sexual slavery, was written by an editorial secretary with a reputation of near-prudery who used the pseudonym Pauline Réage.
Alice Bradley Sheldon had a multiplicity of reasons to write under the nom de plume of James Tiptree, Jr.: she was a woman writing in the heavily male-dominated genre of science fiction; she was a bisexual who may have wanted to avoid the inherent biases of her readers; and she was a career intelligence officer, first in the Army Air Corps and then in the early years of the CIA, for whom concealment was a way of life.
Non-western cultures
Persian and Urdu poetry
- Note: List of Urdu language poets provides pen names for a range of Urdu poets.
A shâ'er (a poet who writes she'rs in Urdu or Persian) almost always has a takhallus, a pen name, traditionally placed at the end of the name when referring to the poet by his full name. For example Hafez is a pen-name for Shams al-Din, and thus the usual way to refer to him would be Shams al-Din Hafez or just Hafez. Mirza Asadullah Beg Khan (his official name and title) is referred to as Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib, or just Mirza Ghalib.
India
In Indian Languages, writers put it at the end of their names, like Ramdhari Singh 'Dinkar'. Sometimes they also write under their pen name without their actual name like Firaq Gorakhpuri.
In early Indian literature, we find authors shying away from using any name considering it to be egotistical. Due to this notion, even today it is hard to trace the authorship of many earlier literary works from India. Later, we find that the writers adopted the practice of using the name of their deity of worship or Guru's name as their pen name. In this case, typically the pen name would be included at the end of the prose or poetry.
For instance, the famous Lady Saint of India, Meerabai used 'Giridhar' a name of her beloved Lord Krishna. Great Saint and Social reformer Basavanna used the pen name 'Kudalasangamadeva' addressing the Supreme Lord in the memory of the place where he attained his divine communion. It is interesting to see how these authors twain the name of the God in their works.
Japan
Japanese poets who write haiku often use a haiga or penname. The famous haiku poet Matsuo Basho had used fifteen different haiga before he became fond of a banana plant (basho) that had been given to him by a disciple and started using it as his penname at the age of 38.
Similar to a pen name, Japanese artists usually have a go or art-name, which might change a number of times during their career. In some cases, artists adopted different go at different stages of their career, usually to mark significant changes in their life. One of the most extreme examples of this is Hokusai, who in the period 1798 to 1806 alone used no fewer than six. Manga artist Ogure Ito uses the pen name 'Oh! great' because his real name Ogure Ito is roughly how the Japanese pronounce "oh great."
Etymology
Despite the use of French words in the name Nom de plume, the term did not originate in France. H. W. Fowler and F. G. Fowler, in The King's English state that the term nom de plume "evolved" in Britain, where people wanting a "literary" phrase, failed to understand the term nom de guerre, which already existed in French. Since guerre means war in French, nom de guerre did not make sense to the British, who did not understand the French metaphor. The term was later exported to France (H. W. Fowler's Modern English Usage). See French-language expression, although amongst French speakers pseudonyme is much more common.
See also
External links
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