When I launched Zeroth Position in January 2016, I wrote an article explaining the name of the site. What I have not done until now is to write an article explaining the pen name I use here. The practice of writing under a pseudonym has a long history, and has been done by various authors for a wide variety of reasons. The particular name or names that one chooses for this purpose frequently have a degree of significance, either to the personality of the author or the nature of one's literary works. Let us explore these reasons and contemplate them in relation to my own pseudonym as I explain the meaning and significance of it.
Motivations for Pseudonymity
A pen name is a name other than one's legal name that an author adopts for use in the by-line of their publications. One reason for doing this is to protect an author from retribution. In many societies, authors of dissident materials could face severe punishments that could deprive not only oneself, but one's family of life, liberty, and property. For example, this is the motivation for a critic of Islam using the pen name Ibn Warraq. Although states in the modern West usually refrain from such measures, having instead some degree of freedom of speech, the reality is that they have outsourced censorship to the soft power of establishment journalists and the leftist mobs at their command. Whoever wishes to be free from harassment by these types and remain employable while presenting a worldview at odds with the progressive consensus is therefore strongly incentivized to use a pseudonym. In other cases, an author may need a pen name because the terms of one's other employment disallow publishing under one's real name. Irish author Brian O'Nolan's use of the pen names Flann O'Brien and Myles na gCopaleen is explained by laws forbidding Irish civil servants from publicly expressing political views.[1]
Those who are safe from harm may wish to use a pen name in an effort to distinguish themselves or gain more readership. If one's real name is shared with someone who is already famous, then a pen name may be necessary to avoid confusion. This was necessary for a young Winston Churchill, as the British statesman was once overshadowed by an American novelist of the same name; the former therefore wrote as Winston S. Churchill.[2] Some authors write in several genres and wish to have a separate name for each; the mathematician Charles Dodgson wrote under his own name for non-fiction and as Lewis Carroll for fiction.[3] Highly prolific authors may use multiple names to get more of their content into a given medium, as novelist Stephen King did with the pen name Richard Bachman.[4] Those wishing to experiment with a different writing style or genre may do so under a different name out of concern that failure may impact sales of their other works, as science fiction author Harry Turtledove did with some historical novels under the name H. N. Turteltaub. In cultures that disadvantage female authors, or in genres usually written by men, women may either choose a masculine pen name or use their initials instead of their full name. Famous examples of the former from the 19th century include Mary Ann Evans (as George Eliot)[5] and the Brontë sisters (as Acton, Currer, and Ellis Bell). J. K. Rowling is a more recent example of the latter.
Some pen names are used collectively by multiple authors. One use of this is to suggest continuity of authorship over long time periods, much as a corporation suggests continuity of ownership beyond the span of an individual's involvement in a business. This is also known as a house name. An example is The Saint series; the first books were written by Leslie Charteris, but later books were written by ghost writers under the same name. Collaborative authors may also share a pen name, as Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay did when they wrote the Federalist Papers under the pseudonym Publius.[6] One's ideology may disallow taking credit for one's work as an individual, so pseudonyms for public use exist for this reason, such as Luther Blissett.[7] The historical practice of pseudepigraphy involved the false attribution of a work, usually to put one's own ideas into broader circulation that could be achieved under one's real name by using the name of an established intellectual.[8] Of course, there may be multiple motivations for a pen name, as is the case with the pen name N. B. Pettibone once used by Brittany and Nicole Pettibone. It is both a collaborative name and an initial name by female authors in a male-dominated genre.
Other concerns are purely aesthetic or personal. An author may feel that one's name does not fit with the genre of one's writing. Whereas Julie Woodcock's real name has certain implications in the romance genre, she writes as Angela Knight instead. As a person's knowledge and experiences alter one's beliefs over time, one can come to reject some of one's previous works so strongly as to feel a need to use a different name. The tradition of using a pen name after one's real name, known as takhallus, has long been practiced by poets and other writers in Persian, Urdu, and some other Indian languages.[9] Japanese poets and artists also use art-names, which they may change several times during their careers. This usually marks significant changes in the artist's life.[10]
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References:
- Curran, Steven (2001). “'Could Paddy Leave off from Copying
Just for Five Minutes': Brian O'Nolan and Eire's Beveridge Plan”.
Irish University Review. 31 (2): 353–375. - Dockter, Warren (Oct. 2011). “The Tale of Two Winstons”.
The Historian. 11: 10–12. - Thomas, Donald (1996). Lewis Carroll / A Biography.
Barnes and Noble, Inc. p. 129. - “StephenKing.com -
Frequently Asked Questions”. - Cross, J. W. (ed.), (1885). _George Eliot's life as related
in her letters and journals, _3
vols. London: William Blackwood and Sons. Vol. 1, p. 431. - Furtwangler, Albert (1984).
The Authority of Publius: A Reading of the Federalist Papers.
Cornell Univ Press. p. 51. - Deseriis, Marco (2010).
“'Lots of Money Because I am Many:' The Luther Blissett Project
and the Multiple-Use Name Strategy”. In Cultural Activism:
Practices, Dilemmas and Possibilities, edited by Begum O. Firat
and Aylin Kuryel. Rodopi, Amsterdam. p. 65–94. - Bauckham, Richard (Sept.
1988). “Pseudo-Apostolic Letters”. Journal of Biblical
Literature, Vol. 107, No. 3, p. 469–94. - A Brief History of Persian Literature, by the Iran Chamber
Society. - Weston, Mark (1999). Giants of Japan: The Lives of Japan's
Most Influential Men and Women. New York: Kodansha
International. p. 116. - Durant, Will (1950). The Story of Civilization,
Vol. 4, The Age of Faith: Constantine to Dante – A.D. 325–1300.
Simon & Schuster. p. 241.
The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew series were written by many authors under a collective pseudonym from the beginning. I'm beginning to think James Patterson's volume of work indicates something approaching that level, too. The romance genre seems to be rife with pseudonyms. Nora Roberts is the same author as J.D. Robb. Amusingly enough, even though Jayne Ann Krentz is Jayne Castle is Amanda Quick, I have had readers emphatically state preference for her various pseudonyms, perhaps due to the different subgenres they represent.