Passage III

Pen Names

[1]

In May 1846 , a newly published book of poems were delivered to the home of three siblings, but no casual observer would have known that the recipients were also the authors. (31) The names appearing on the book's cover—Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell, weren't actually the authors' names. But this false attribution was no mistake; instead, Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Bronte had published their first work using pen names—names assumed by authors to conceal their identities.

[2]

The list of writers who have chosen to use a pen name is lengthy. It includes Stephen King, who published novels under the name Richard Bachman, and Samuel Clemens, who adopted the riverboat term Mark Twain. Do you know what the term mark twain means? There are perhaps as many reasons for choosing to write under a pen name that there are pen names themselves. An author may seek to protect his or her privacy, or authors already known for a certain type of work may wish to avoid readers' preconceptions when writing in a different genre. Dean Koontz, famous for his suspense thrillers, uses a pen name when he wrote mysteries.

[3]

Sometimes, if the need for a pen name is more personal. In order to hide the fact that he was in prison, William Porter used the pen name O. Henry while publishing several stories prior to his release. In the nineteenth century, a pen name often was used to disguise its gender. Mary Ann Evans was a popular English novelist during the Victorian era. She was following the tradition of the Bronte sisters, who used pen names to avoid the prejudice then shown by critics, publishers, and readers toward female authors.

[4]

A pen name can come to overshadow a writers given name. Few readers would recognize the name Theodor Geisel, though many know his pen name: Dr. Seuss. (43) But time often erodes the disguise such names afford. Today many of us remember the classics of the Brontes , while Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell are mere literary footnotes.