Celebrities Pen names

Alberto Pinchele

Daniel Defoe

WHAT’S IN A NAME

Pen Names

Source: Speak Up

Language level: Lower intermediate

Speaker: Justin Ratcliffe

Standard: British accent

Many of the most famous writers in history have used pen names. Why?

SIMPLICITY AND STYLE

Eric Blair thought George Orwell was “a good round English name.” Daniel Foe, author of Robson Crusoe, decided Defoe sounded more aristocratic.  Vampire novelist, Anne Rice, changed her name early in life: her mother bizarrely named her after her father, Howard O’Brien. The famous Japanese haiku poet tried 15 pen names before settling on Basho, which means banana plant. Some choose simplicity. Georges Remi reversed his initials (French pronunciation) to become Hergé, author of Tintin. Joseph Conrad sounds reassuringly English, compared to Jozef Konrad Korzeniowki. Wilhelm Albert Vlademir Apollinaris de Kostrowitzky is less memorable than Guillaume Apollinaire, Ettore Schmitz became Italo Svevo because he “felt sorry for the one little vowel surrounded by all those fierce consonants;” it also sounds less foreign.

Not only are these pen names clear and memorable, they also look great on book covers. (Like pen names, authors often use their initials – from T.S. Eliot and D.H. Lawrence to J.R.R. Tolkien and J.K. Rowling – to create a memorable brand). Some pen names are a kind of homage. Neftali Bosoalto put together Paul Verlaine and Czech writer Jan Neruda to become Nobel poet Pablo Neruda. Samuel Langhorne Clemens chose Mark Twain because it reminded him of his beloved Mississippi River.

GENRE AND GENDER

Writers may use pseudonyms for different for different genres. Math professor Charles Lutwidge Dodgson invented the playful name Lewis Carroll for Children’s books such as Alice in Wonderland. (Lewis is the French versionof Lutwidge; Caroll come from the Latin for Charles, Carolus.)

Pen names also disguise who you are for example, a woman. Mary Ann Evans did not want readers to assume her novels were romances, so she wrote as George Eliot. Amantine Aurore Dupin became George Sand, while the Brontë sisters (Anne, Charlotte and Emily) initially published as Actor Bell, Currer Bell and Ellis Bell.

CONCEALMENT AND DISGUISE

There are other reasons to hide one’s identity. Isak Dinesen was the pen name used for Out of Africa, the disguised autobiography of Baroness Karen Blixen. Because Irish civil servants were not allowed to publish books, Brian O’Nolan wrote novels as Flann O’Brien and articles as Myles na gCopalleen. Respected critic Anne Desclos wrote erotic best-seller, the Story of 0, as Pauline Réage. Stephen King published four novels under the name Richard Bachman to find out whether people bought his books for his name, rather than his writing.  Crime queen Agatha Christie used the pen name Mary Westmacott to write romances, exploring her own psychology n a way the Poirot and Miss Marpie novels could not.

Molliére hid his name (Jean-Baptiste Poquelin) because the theater was shameful. Most touching, when he was just 16, future American politician Benjamin Franklin invented middle-aged widow Silence Dogood to get his satirical letters published in the newspaper printed by his brother.

Would you write books under your own name? Use your initials? Or would you prefer a pen name, to hide your identify or to be more memorable?

PEN NAME	REAL NAME
Alberto Moravia	Alberto Pinocherle
Anne Rice	Howard Allen O’Brien
Anthony Burgess	John Burgess Wilson
Boz	Charles Dickens
Daniel Defoe	Daniel Foe
Eltery Queen	Freeric Dannay and Manfred B. Lee
Flann O’Brien	Brian O’Nolan
George Elliot	Mary Ann Evans
George Orwell	Eric Arthur Blair
George Sand	Amandine Dupin
Guillaume Apokinaire	Vilhelm Albert Vladimir Apollinaris de Kostrowitzky
Hergé	Georges Remi
Karen Blixen	Isak Dinosen
Italo Stevo	Ettore Schmitz
John Le Careré	David John Moore Cornwell
Joseph Conrad	Józel Teodor
Lemony Snicket	Daniel Handler
Lewi Carroll	Charles Lutwidge Dodgson
Mark Twain	Samuel Langhorne Clemens
Molière	Jean-Baptiste Poquelin
Pablo Neruda	Neftali Ricardo Reyes Basoalto
Richard Bachman	Stephen King
Pauline Réage	Anne Desclos
Saki	Hector Hugo Munro
Stendhal	Marie-Henri Beyle
Voltaire	François-Marie Arguet