Nom de plume : a (secret) history of pseudonyms

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Title:

Nom de plume : a (secret) history of pseudonyms

Author:

Ciuraru, Carmela.

ISBN:

9780061735264

Edition:

1st ed.

Publication Information:

New York : Harper, c2011.

Physical Description:

xxiv, 343 p. ; 22 cm.

Contents:

Anne, Charlotte, and Emily Brontë & Acton, Currer, and Ellis Bell (1816-1855) -- George Sand & Aurore Dupin (1804-1876) -- George Eliot & Marian Evans (1819-1880) -- Lewis Carroll &d Charles Dodgson (1832-1898) -- Mark Twain & Samuel Clemens (1835-1910) -- O. Henry & William Sydney Porter (1862-1910) -- Fernando Pessoa & his heteronyms (1888-1935) -- George Orwell & Eric Blair (1903-1950) -- Isak Dinesen & Karen Blixen (1885-1962) -- Sylvia Plath & Victoria Lucas (1932-1963) -- Henry Green & Henry Yorke (1905-1973) -- Romain Gary & Émile Ajar (1914-1980) -- James Tiptree, Jr. & Alice Sheldon (1915-1987) -- Georges Simenon & Christian Brulls, et al. (1903-1989) -- Patricia Highsmith & Claire Morgan (1921-1995) -- Pauline Réage & Dominique Aury (1907-1998).

Subject Term:

Anonyms and pseudonyms -- History.

Summary:

Discusses writers throughout history who hoarded secret identities-- sometimes playfully, and sometimes with tragic consequences--including Mark Twain, George Eliot, and Lewis Carroll.

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury)	929.4 CIU	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

MaryAnne Evans. Charles Dodgson. Eric Blair. William Sydney Porter. Or, as they aremore commonly remembered, George Eliot, Lewis Carroll, George Orwell, and O.Henry. For these writers and many others, from Mark Twain to Stan Lee to RobertJordan, the invocation of a nom de plume has been an essential part inthe creation of an authorial identity. Now, in a captivating series ofbiographical snapshots exploring the lives of famous authors and their pennames, author Carmela Ciuraru delivers a unique literaryhistory and a penetrating examination of identity, creativity, andself-creation, revisiting the enduring question--what's in a name?

Author Notes

Carmela Ciuraru is a graduate of Columbia University's School of Journalism, she lives in New York City.

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Ciuraru (Solitude Poems) includes 18 writers-from George Sand to George Orwell-in her lively literati masquerade party, recounting events that led to their pen names along with intriguing peeks behind their masks. In 1899, William Sydney Porter began writing as O. Henry: "Because he used an intermediary in New Orleans to submit his stories to editors, no one knew they were by a convicted felon." Eric Blair became George Orwell with his first book, Down and Out in Paris and London, telling his publisher, "I am not proud of it." An outstanding chapter details how Alice Sheldon spotted "Tiptree" on a marmalade jar and then fooled the science fiction community for years as James Tiptree Jr. When the ruse was revealed, "She was crushed to find that some of the male writers she'd considered friends... turned their backs on her." Patricia Highsmith used another name on her lesbian novel and wrote for comic books, but since she gave her credits to The Who's Who of American Comic Books, it's quite a stretch to call that a "secret life." Otherwise, this survey of authors who sought anonymity and privacy is well researched. Amid informative, illuminating profiles, Ciuraru successfully ferrets out curious literary charades. (June 14) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Kirkus Review

In her nonfiction debut, anthologist Ciuraru (editor: Poems About Horses, 2009, etc.) presents brief biographies of a handful of pseudonymous authors from George Sand to the late 20th century.What motivates a writer to publish under another name? Ciuraru offers quite a few reasons in these biographical sketches of writers whose works of fiction appearedunder a pseudonym and one, Portugal's Fernando Pessoa, who wrote under more than 70 heteronyms, separate personalities each with its own style and extensive imaginary biography.Most of the Ciuraru's choices are familiar figuresMark Twain, George Orwell, Lewis Carroll, Sylvia Plathand each section begins with a single introductory sentence that may be intended as intriguing but often serves instead to suggest an unsettling contempt for her subjects. If there is a consistent lesson to be taken from these lives, it is that a successful author will find it nearly impossible to hide behind a pseudonym for long. Otherwise, these authors have little in common; their reasons for publishing pseudonymously and their attitudes toward their alter egos are as varied as their life stories. Ciuraru does not attempt to find a pattern among them or impose one upon them, nor does she explain how her subjects' struggles with identity issues might differ from those of other authors. Written in a breezy style that occasionally lapses into the vernacular, the biographies are lively and entertaining, but they provide no real secrets or startling revelations. The omission of endnotes will disappoint readers attempting to determine whether an assertion is the author's own or reflects a scholarly consensus, or those seeking the sources of delicious factual tidbits like the width of Emily Bront's coffin (17 inches).A collection of original literary biographies connected by a single circumstance that does not by itself suffice to pull them together.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Introduction	p. xiii
Chapter 1 Anne, Charlotte, and Emily Brontë & Acton, Currer Ellis Bell (1816-1855)	p. 1
"Once there were five sisters...."
Chapter 2 George Sand & Aurore Dupin (1804-1876)	p. 25
"it began with an ankle-length gray military coat, matching trousers, a cravat, and a waistcoat...."
Chapter 3 George Eliot & Marian Evans (1819-1880)	p. 43
"Charles Dickens was suspicious. ..."
Chapter 4 Lewis Carroll & Charles Dodgson (1832-1898)	p. 63
"A show of hands if you've never heard of Alice in Wonderland...."
Chapter 5 Mark Twain & Samuel Clemens (1835-1910)	p. 85
"How the protean Samuel Clemens became the world's most famous literary alias will never be known for sure. ..."
Chapter 6 O. Henry & William Sydney Porter (1862-1910)	p. 101
"If you are now reading or have recently read a short story by O. Henry, you are most likely a middle-school student. ..."
Chapter 7 Fernando Pessoa & His Heteronyms (1888-1935)	p. 119
"You will never get to the bottom of Fernando Pessoa. ..."
Chapter 8 George Orwell & Eric Blair (1903-1950)	p. 137
"Had Eric Arthur Blair been a working-class bloke from Birmingham instead of an Old Etonian..."
Chapter 9 Isak Dinesen & Karen Blixen (1885-1962)	p. 157
"She was descended from Danish royalty, but her childhood was filled with the traditional privileges of an aristocratic upbringing. ..."
Chapter 10 Sylvia Plath & Victoria Lucas (1932-1963)	p. 179
"She was a good girl who loved her mother. ..."
Chapter 11 Henry Green & Henry Yorke (1905-1973)	p. 195
"He's the best writer you've never heard of. ..."
Chapter 12 Romain Gary & Émile Ajar (1914-1980)	p. 215
"He was a war hero, a Ping-Pong champion, a film director, a diplomat, and an author who wrote the best-selling French novel of the twentieth century. ..."
Chapter 13 James Tiptree, JR.& Alice Sheldon (1915-1987)	p. 237
"On May 19, 1987, a seventy-one-year-old woman and her eighty-four-year-old husband were found lying in bed together, hand in hand, dead of gunshot wounds. ..."
Chapter 14 Georges Simenon & Christian Brulls Et Al. (1903-1989)	p. 267
"He claimed to have had sex with ten thousand women. ..."
Chapter 15 Patricia Highsmith & Claire Morgan (1921-1995)	p. 291
"She was one of the most wretched people you could ever meet, with mood shifts that swung as wildly as the stock market. ..."
Chapter 16 Pauline Réage & Dominique Aury (1907-1998)	p. 307
"Not many authors can boast of having written a best-selling pornographic novel. ..."
Acknowledgments	p. 333
Time Line	p. 335
Bibliography	p. 337

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Author Notes

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Kirkus Review

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