Europe and the United States An author may use a pen name if their real name is likely to be confused with that of another author or other significant individual. For instance, in 1899 the British politician
Winston Churchill wrote under the name
Winston S. Churchill to distinguish his writings from those of the
American novelist of the same name. An author may use a pen name implying a rank or title which they have never actually held.
William Earl Johns wrote under the name "Capt. W. E. Johns" although the highest army rank he held was acting
lieutenant and his highest air force rank was
flying officer. Authors who regularly write in more than one genre may use different pen names for each, either in an attempt to conceal their true identity or even after their identity is known.
Romance writer
Nora Roberts writes
erotic thrillers under the pen name J. D. Robb (such books were originally listed as by "J. D. Robb" and are now titled "Nora Roberts writing as J. D. Robb"); Scots writer
Iain Banks wrote mainstream or literary fiction under his own name and
science fiction under Iain M. Banks;
Samuel Langhorne Clemens used the aliases Mark Twain and Sieur Louis de Conte for different works. Similarly, an author who writes both fiction and non-fiction (such as the mathematician and fantasy writer Charles Dodgson, who wrote as
Lewis Carroll) may use a pseudonym for fiction writing. Science fiction author
Harry Turtledove has used the name H. N. Turtletaub for some historical novels he has written because he and his publisher felt that the presumed lower sales of those novels might hurt bookstore orders for the novels he writes under his name. Even within the same genre, authors may use a pen name if their better-known name may lead potential readers to misunderstand the nature of the book. In children's
picture books,
Dr. Seuss — itself a whimsical pen name for Theodor Geisel originating when he was banned from illustrating for
his college humor magazine due to illegal drinking — used the name "Theo. LeSieg," "LeSieg" being "Geisel" spelled backward, on books he wrote but did not illustrate. Geisel's bestselling books had become associated with a very recognizable art style, which the LeSieg books lacked. Later in his career, Geisel did publish two books illustrated by others under his primary pen name, and following his death the LeSieg books have been reissued as by Dr. Seuss, "writing as Theo. LeSieg." Occasionally, a pen name is employed to avoid overexposure. Prolific authors for
pulp magazines often had two and sometimes three short stories appearing in one issue of a magazine; the editor would create several fictitious author names to hide this from readers.
Robert A. Heinlein wrote stories under the pseudonyms of Anson MacDonald (a combination of his middle name and his then-wife's maiden name) and Caleb Strong so that more of his works could be published in a single magazine.
Stephen King published four novels under the name
Richard Bachman because publishers did not feel the public would buy more than one novel per year from a single author. Eventually, after critics found a large number of style similarities, publishers revealed Bachman's true identity. Sometimes a pen name is used because an author believes that their name does not suit the genre they are writing in. Western novelist Pearl Gray dropped his first name and changed the spelling of his last name to
Zane Grey because he believed that his real name did not suit the Western genre. Romance novelist
Angela Knight writes under that name instead of her actual name (Julie Woodcock) because of the
double entendre of her surname in the context of that genre.
Romain Gary, who was a well-known French writer, decided in 1973 to write novels in a different style under the name
Émile Ajar and even asked his cousin's son to impersonate Ajar; thus he received the
most prestigious French literary prize twice, which is forbidden by the prize rules. He revealed the affair in a book he sent his editor just before committing suicide in 1980. A pen name may be shared by different writers to suggest continuity of authorship. Thus the
Bessie Bunter series of English boarding school stories, initially written by the prolific
Charles Hamilton under the name Hilda Richards, was taken on by other authors who continued to use the same pen name. In some forms of fiction, the pen name adopted is the name of the lead character, to suggest to the reader that the book is an autobiography of a real person.
Daniel Handler used the pseudonym
Lemony Snicket to present his
A Series of Unfortunate Events books as memoirs by an acquaintance of the main characters. Some, however, do this to fit a certain theme. One example,
Pseudonymous Bosch, used his pen name just to expand the theme of secrecy in
The Secret Series. Authors may occasionally choose pen names to appear in more favorable positions in
bookshops or
libraries, to maximize visibility when placed on shelves that are conventionally arranged alphabetically moving horizontally, then upwards vertically.
Female authors Some female authors have used pen names to ensure that their works were accepted by publishers and/or the public. Such is the case of Peru's
Clarinda, whose work was published in the early 17th century. More often, women have adopted masculine pen names. This was common in the 19th century when women were beginning to make inroads into literature but it was felt they would not be taken as seriously by readers as male authors. For example, Mary Ann Evans wrote under the pen name
George Eliot; and Amandine Aurore Lucile Dupin, and Baronne Dudevant, used the pseudonym
George Sand.
Charlotte,
Emily, and
Anne Brontë published under the names Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell, respectively. French-Savoyard writer and poet
Amélie Gex published as Dian de Jeânna ("John, son of Jane") during the first half of her career.
Karen Blixen's very successful
Out of Africa (1937) was originally published under the pen name Isak Dinesen.
Victoria Benedictsson, a Swedish author of the 19th century, wrote under the name Ernst Ahlgren. The
science fiction author Alice B. Sheldon for many years published under the masculine name of
James Tiptree, Jr., the discovery of which led to a deep discussion of gender in the genre. More recently, women who write in genres commonly written by men sometimes use initials, such as
K. A. Applegate,
C. J. Cherryh,
P. N. Elrod,
D. C. Fontana,
S. E. Hinton,
G. A. Riplinger,
J. D. Robb, and
J. K. Rowling, who also writes the
Cormoran Strike series of crime fiction novels under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. Alternatively, they may use a unisex pen name, such as
Robin Hobb (the second pen name of novelist
Margaret Astrid Lindholm Ogden).
Collective names A
collective name, also known as a
house name, is one pen name for works published by the same publishing house even though more than one author may have contributed to the series. Novellas and paperback books credited to
Maxwell Grant, featuring the adventures of
The Shadow, were written largely by
Walter B. Gibson but other writers contributed to the series. The erotic-adventures
Slocum series of westerns were all credited to Jake Logan, but many different authors wrote the books. In some cases, the first books in a series were written by one writer but subsequent books were written by
ghostwriters. For instance,
Leslie Charteris wrote the early volumes of
The Saint adventure series, but he supervised and edited the works of ghostwriters for the remainder of the series. Similarly,
Nancy Drew mystery books are published as though they were written by
Carolyn Keene,
The Hardy Boys books are published as the work of
Franklin W. Dixon, and
The Bobbsey Twins series are credited to
Laura Lee Hope, although numerous authors have been involved in each series.
Erin Hunter, the author of the
Warriors novel series, is a collective pen name used by authors
Kate Cary,
Cherith Baldry,
Tui T. Sutherland, and the editor
Victoria Holmes. Collaborative authors may also have their works published under a single pen name. Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee published their mystery novels and stories under the pen name
Ellery Queen, which was also used to publish the work of several ghostwriters they commissioned. The writers of
Atlanta Nights, a deliberately bad book intended to embarrass the publishing firm
PublishAmerica, used the pen name Travis Tea. Additionally, the credited author of
The Expanse,
James S. A. Corey, is an amalgam of the middle names of collaborating writers
Daniel Abraham and
Ty Franck respectively, while S. A. is the initials of Abraham's daughter. Sometimes multiple authors will write related books under the same pseudonym; examples include
T. H. Lain in fiction. The Australian fiction collaborators who write under the pen name
Alice Campion are a group of women who have so far written
The Painted Sky (2015) and
The Shifting Light (2017). In the 1780s,
The Federalist Papers were written under the pseudonym "Publius" by
Alexander Hamilton,
James Madison, and
John Jay. The three men chose the name "Publius" because it recalled the founder of the Roman Republic and using it implied a positive intention. In
pure mathematics,
Nicolas Bourbaki is the pseudonym of a group of mostly French-connected mathematicians attempting to expose the field in an axiomatic and self-contained, encyclopedic form.
Concealment of identity A pseudonym may be used to protect the writer of exposé books about espionage or crime. Former SAS soldier Steven Billy Mitchell used the pseudonym
Andy McNab for his book about a failed
SAS mission titled
Bravo Two Zero. The name
Ibn Warraq ("son of a papermaker") has been used by dissident Muslim authors. Author
Brian O'Nolan used the pen names Flann O'Brien and Myles na gCopaleen for his novels and journalistic writing from the 1940s to the 1960s because Irish
civil servants were not permitted at that time to publish political writings. The identity of the enigmatic twentieth-century novelist
B. Traven has never been conclusively revealed, despite thorough research. A
multiple-use name or
anonymity pseudonym is a pseudonym open for anyone to use and these have been adopted by various groups, often as a protest against the cult of individual creators. In Italy, two anonymous groups of writers have gained some popularity with the collective names of
Luther Blissett and
Wu Ming. ==Eastern literature==