WELL-KNOWN WRITERS AND THEIR PEN NAMES

Is Stephen King a pseudonym? Discover 10 famous authors’ real names

Image: Aaron Burden

What do Lewis Carroll, George Sand, Mark Twain, and Dr. Seuss have in common? They are all pseudonyms for some of the most celebrated writers in history. Whether for reasons of gender discrimination, insecurity, shyness, fear of social repercussions, or simply to have more freedom to write, many authors have chosen to sign their work under different names. Read on to discover 10 writers who, by hiding their identity, changed the course of literature.

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British sisters Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Brontë hold a privileged place in the 19th-century literary canon thanks to great books such as Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. However, their literary careers were marked by the male names of Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell.

Throughout their lives, the authors insisted on anonymity, and the only people who knew their true identities were their publishers. They made this decision because their writing style and ideas were not considered "feminine," and they didn't want to be subjected to the prejudice of the time. After Emily and Anne's deaths, Charlotte revealed the identity of the Bell siblings to the public. However, she continued to publish under the Currer Bell name until her last book, Villette, in 1853.

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Samuel Langhorne Clemens worked as a prospector, journalist, typographer, and river steamboat pilot before publishing the often-called "Great American Novel" The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn under the pseudonym Mark Twain.

Although the satirist used several pen names throughout his career, the one that went down in history was Mark Twain. The origin of this name is not entirely clear, since the author made sure to spread different stories that only contributed to feed the legend. The most widely accepted theory is that it is an expression used by river workers: mark twain, meaning "mark two", in reference to two fathoms, the minimum draft necessary for ships to navigate and maneuver safely.

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Few Victorian-era personalities had a more fascinating life than Mary Anne Evans. Born into a religious and aristocratic family, she opposed all conventions, writing numerous significant works. Under the male pseudonym George Eliot, Mary Anne fought for equal opportunities and marked an unprecedented turning point in Anglo-Saxon literature.

The chosen pen name derived from the first name of her then-partner, George Lewes. Regarding the name Eliot, the author said it was "a good mouth-filling, easily pronounced word." Although by that time women were signing their works, she wanted the freedom to write about subjects other than those typically considered feminine, such as lighthearted romances.

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Stephen King, the great American horror author, was already well known when he began writing under a pseudonym in the late 1970s. At that time, his publishers only allowed him to publish one book a year; moreover, King wanted to test whether his success was due to the quality of his work or to the fame of his name.

Therefore, in 1977 he published the novel Rage under the pen name Richard Bachman. He went on to publish four other novels: The Long Walk (1979), Roadwork (1981), The Running Man (1982), and Thinner (1984). He planned to release Misery (1985) under the same pseudonym, but a bookseller found similarities with his previous work and uncovered his identity. After his true identity was revealed, the writer issued a press release stating that Bachman had died of "cancer of the pseudonym, a rare form of schizonomia."

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Amantine Aurore Lucile Dupin, better known as George Sand, was one of the most popular writers of the 19th century and a prominent figure in European Romanticism. She was also a very controversial figure: she criticized the institution of marriage, smoked, and dressed in men's clothing.

An advocate of women's rights, Sand used a male pseudonym to generate confusion regarding her identity and thus be able to insert herself into the predominantly male literary circle. The origin of the chosen pen name is quite simple: George is a feminization of the classic name Georges, and Sand is a diminutive of "Sandeau," the surname of her lover at the time.

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Lewis Carroll, best known for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, is the pseudonym used by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, a 19th-century British Anglican priest, mathematician, photographer, and writer. The reason for choosing a pen name to publish his works was that Dodgson, as an instructor at Oxford, was a very modest gentleman who wanted to preserve his privacy.

He presented several options to his publisher who ultimately chose the one that would make him famous. This name was created by Latinizing his first name and his mother's surname: Lutwidge was Latinized as "Ludovicus," and Charles as "Carolus." The resulting "Ludovicus Carolus" was translated back into English as Lewis Carroll.

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Theodor Seuss Geisel was an American writer and cartoonist, mostly known for his children's books written under his pen name, Dr. Seuss. Even as early as his time contributing to his college newspaper, the Dartmouth Jack-O-Lantern, Theodor used his mother's surname, Seuss, as a pseudonym.

The "Dr." came a few years later and is a tribute to his father's wishes, who wanted him to earn a Ph.D. at Oxford. The first time he signed his work as Dr. Seuss was for the humor magazine Judge, where he had begun working in 1927. Over the years, Dr. Seuss published more than 60 children's books, which were translated into more than 20 languages.

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Eric Arthur Blair, better known by the pseudonym George Orwell, was a British writer, novelist, essayist, and journalist. His work, fundamental to 20th-century literature, includes masterpieces such as the allegorical novel Animal Farm and the dystopian novel 1984.

In 1933, when he was about to publish Down and Out in Paris and London, Blair decided to use a pen name to spare potential embarrassment to his parents. Among several options, he finally decided on "George" —inspired by the patron saint of England—, and "Orwell" —in homage to the Orwell River in Suffolk, one of his favorite places.

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Louisa May Alcott is best known for her juvenile novels such as Little Women and Good Wives. However, the American author, who was an abolitionist and a feminist, also wrote sensation stories, gothic thrillers, and adult novels anonymously or under pen names, such as A. M. Barnard.

It is believed that Alcott published those texts under pseudonyms to preserve her reputation as a juvenile writer. These stories were less optimistic and followed more obscure themes, such as incest, murder, secret identities, sensuality, and suicide. Some historians even claim she wrote one of the first works of detective fiction in American literature —preceded only by Edgar Allan Poe's Dupin stories.

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This list would not be complete if we didn’t include Daniel Foe. The 18th-century English novelist, journalist, and spy is probably the writer who signed under the largest number of different pseudonyms during his literary career.

The creator of Robinson Crusoe used at least 198 different aliases to write 400 works. Although the most popular is Daniel Defoe —he added the "De" to sound more aristocratic—, the author of numerous political pamphlets also signed works with pen names such as Eye Witness, Merchant, and Heliostrapolis, secretary to the Emperor of the Moon.

A what?

What is the name for the tip of your shoelaces?

While we typically go about life describing the end of our shoelaces as ‘the end of the shoelace’ or the whites of the egg as ‘egg whites’, these things, and many more, have names of their own, even if they are not always widely known or used. Let’s have a look at 11 common things that have proper names, even if no one uses them.

The little plastic or metal tip at the end of shoelaces or drawstrings is there to prevent the fibres from fraying, and to make it easier to pass the lace or drawstring through a hole. Its proper name is ‘aglet’, from the French aguillette, meaning ‘needle’, a reference to its use in helping to thread the string through the hole.

Erasers at the end of wooden pencils are not usually glued together, but they are instead held together by a little metal band. This band is called a ‘ferrule’—from Medieval Latin viriola or ‘little bracelet’—and the term can be used for any metal band that strengthens or fastens a joint, such as those used in handles, to hold brush bristles, or to secure a connection between two cables.

The ‘little plastic table on the pizza’ is quite a long name for something aptly named ‘pizza saver’, but no one seems to really care. It was invented in 1974 by an Argentine pizza maker, who named it SEPI or separador de pizza (‘pizza separator’). In America, it was patented as a ‘package saver’ in 1985, though it was later renamed ‘pizza saver’.

Most mathematical symbols have proper names that are not regularly used, and the division sign is no exception. It was officially introduced into mathematics as a symbol of division in 1659 by the Swiss mathematician Johann Rahn in his influential work Teutsche Algebra. This sign is called an ‘obelus’, from the Greek obelos, meaning ‘sharpened stick’ or ‘skewer’, as it was initially used as a pointer for questionable passages in a text.

Paper cups and their corresponding cardboard sleeves to protect our hands from the heat or the cold are relatively new, but their proper names are not—at least, the name for the cardboard sleeve. This holder is called a ‘zarf’, an Arabic (zuruuf) and Turkish (zarflar) word used for ornamented cup holders, usually made from metal. The materials and the details of the zarf have changed, but the purpose still remains.

Do we need a more technical term than ‘armhole’ for a hole meant for an arm to go through? Maybe not, but the technical term still exists. An ‘armscye’ (pronounced arm-sigh) is the proper term used in sewing and patterns to describe the opening on a garment where the sleeve is attached. The word is a compound of ‘arm’ + scye, a Scots word meaning ‘opening’. So, in the end, ‘armscye’ just means ‘armhole’.

We often use the words ‘railing’ or ‘handrail’ when talking about a staircase, but these terms only describe the top portion of it, not the pillars that support the handrail. The pillars and the rail altogether are called a ‘banister’, a corruption of the word baluster, derived from the Italian balaustro. The term originally was used for the pillars, but eventually came to mean the entire structure.

Not all beverage foams are equal. The foam on top of alcoholic beverages, in particular, is called ‘barm’, a term derived from Old English beorma, meaning ‘yeast’ or ‘leaven’, and it's mainly used for the effervescence of fermented liquors such as beer, ale, or wine.

Did you know that the white (or clear) part of the egg is called the ‘albumen’? The term entered English as a loan from Latin, where _albumen_—from albus, ‘white’—was used in the same way. Though it is not widely used in everyday life, it’s still the correct term for that part of the egg.

As a rule of thumb, you should always assume that all marks, symbols, and strokes in calligraphy have a proper name, even if it's not often used. When it comes to the lowercase letters ‘j’ and ‘i ’, the little dot on top is not a dot, but a ‘tittle’. This name comes from the Latin _titulus_—meaning ‘title’, ‘inscription’, or ‘small mark’—and was initially used by scribes to distinguish these letters in their cramped writing.

If you ever got lost in the mall or the museum, you must have come across a map that marked your location using an arrow or a pointer, usually accompanied by the phrase ‘you are here’. Well, that pointer is called an ‘ideolocator’, a combination of the Greek idea, a ‘mental image, concept, or visual representation’ (in this case, the pointer), and the Latin locatus, meaning ‘to place’ (the specific location on the map). For the sake of convenience, we will keep calling it the ‘you are here’ sign.