Subscribe
Great writers under covers.
Nom de Plume: A (Secret) History of Pseudonyms
By Carmela Ciuraru
Ciuraru takes readers on a comprehensive and engaging journey through the minds and careers of more than a dozen famous authors--including George Sand, Mark Twain, and George Orwell--who wrote under assumed names. Along the way, we discover not only their reasons, both practical and deeply personal, for obscuring their true identities, but also the peculiar effects that using a pseudonym had on their lives.
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
By B. Traven
About the only thing anyone knows for certain about the mysterious author who called himself B. Traven is that he lived for many years in Mexico, which is where The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is set. In this rollicking tale of adventure, three Americans pan for gold and battle bandits in remote regions. John Huston eventually made the book into a 1948 Oscar-winning film starring Humphrey Bogart.
By James Tiptree, Jr.
Science fiction author Alice Sheldon wrote under the name James Tiptree, Jr. until her death in 1987 at the age of 71. Adopting a masculine pseudonym allowed Sheldon access to a male-dominated genre, echoing the experiences of literary pioneers such as the Brontë sisters and Mary Ann Evans (George Eliot). This collection of the Chicago native's work showcases her unpredictable imagination and electric prose style, in such works as the milestone "Love Is the Plan, the Plan Is Death."
Down and out in Paris and London
By George Orwell
Orwell, the nom de plume of Eric Blair, penned a classic of both reportage and recollection in this semi-autobiographical account of living hand to mouth in the streets of two great cities in the 1930s. While Orwell handles his situation with humor and aplomb, he also provides a fascinating window onto the world of the disenfranchised, unflinchingly and unsentimentally mapping the toll that poverty takes on human dignity.
By Richard Bachman
It was once believed that authors shouldn't publish more than one novel a year. But in the 1970s, Stephen King's prolific output gave the bestselling novelist reason to circumvent this axiom by inventing an alter ego, under whose name additional work could appear. Richard Bachman was born (the name was derived, in part, from Richard Stark, the pseudonym under which Donald E. Westlake wrote his popular Parker capers). This work of suspense is one of Bachman's most frightening narratives, centering around a reality television show in 2025 in which contestants put their lives on the line.
Email
Print
Share
Emma Brockes' mother Paula escaped from South Africa with a smuggled pistol and a dark secret. A daughter unravels her family's covert past -- and a suspenseful legal drama -- in this hard-boiled memoir of survival.
Expand your memory, puzzle-solving skills, and sense of metaphysical wonder with philosopher Daniel C. Dennett's tasting menu of user-friendly neuroscience and poetic lingual pursuits.
Thespian-turned-P.I. Jasmine Sharp searches for a missing actress and veteran detective Catherine MacLeod tries to solve the case of a murdered one. Their paths intertwine amid the Scottish theater community with uproarious and gory results.
Please sign in to add a comment on this article.