Perhaps it’s human nature: I’m always intrigued when an author chooses to write under a name other than their own, or opts to remain completely anonymous. What are the reasons an author might make such a choice, and why was it done in this specific instance?
Let’s survey the options. A pen name, sometimes called a pseudonym or nom de plume, is an assumed name used by an author instead of their real name. Some authors go this route for anonymity’s sake, whether that’s motivated by a desire for privacy or a preference to let the work stand on its own. Some authors carefully choose names in order to distinguish between the types of writing they do, such as using one name for genre fiction and another for middle grade. Some may wish to draw a clear line between their professional work as an academic and their fiction, or, more broadly, between their public and personal lives. (It’s a safe bet some of the bloggers you follow do exactly that.) Authors with common names or who share a name with a celebrity or known figure may choose another name for clarity’s sake. (Or perhaps not: the poet Maggie Smith cheekily calls herself the “other” Maggie Smith. Ha!)
There are other reasons for choosing a “new” name. Say an author’s first book(s) didn’t perform as well as hoped. In publishing, past performance is very much taken to be a predictor of future results, and a lackluster publication history could deter agents or publishers from acquiring such an author’s new works. A new name can serve as their ticket back in—assuming the unknown moniker can stand out in the slush pile. Pen names can help authors avoid discrimination due to their race, sexuality, or gender, giving them a chance to get published at all. A pen name could also result from publisher pressure, if the author’s real name is deemed to be “too ethnic” or difficult to spell or pronounce. (My own maiden name is quite long and incredibly tricky for most in the U.S. to pronounce or spell; I considered using it to publish for about two minutes before abandoning the idea.)
There are pros and cons to this practice and plentiful interesting examples from publishing we could examine. But for our purposes today, I want to pull back the curtain on ten specific works written by authors with pen names. I expect you’re familiar with some of them, but hopefully there’s a surprise or two waiting for you on this book list.
10 books by authors with a pen name or pseudonym
Some links (including all Amazon links) are affiliate links. More details here.
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
My Brilliant Friend (Neapolitan Novels Book 1)
My Not So Perfect Life
Into the Drowning Deep
While Justice Sleeps
Becoming Duchess Goldblatt
All About Love
All Creatures Great and Small
Middlemarch
Jane Eyre
Did you learn anything new today? Do you have a favorite author who uses a pen name or pseudonym? Please tell us in the comments section!
P.S. Discover a new author to follow with these 15 fabulous debut novels and 8 novels that are delightfully self-aware about the writing process.
49 comments
Maya Angelou— who knew??!? I once had the wonderful opportunity to hear her speak. It was about 25 years ago and I still remember how she totally mesmerized her audience.
How incredible to get to hear her in person!
I might be wrong, but I think Penny Reid is a pen name. I think I read that in an interview with her.
I didn’t know!
I love Elly Griffiths who writes the Ruth Galloway series. Her real name is Domenica de Rosa!
I’ve enjoyed her mysteries and didn’t know about the pen name!
No way. I had no idea she wrote under a pen name.
We’ll known now, but I was surprised when I learned that Robert Galbraith is none other than J.K. Rowling! While I may be one of the last people on the planet who has not read any of the Harry Potter series, I can’t get enough of Cormoran Strike!
Absolutely LOVE those books and Robin and Strike!
My favorite read every summer:
Mary Kay Andrews; pen name since 2002
Her real name is Kathy Hogan Trocheck
I didn’t know that! All her friends call her Mary Kay!
She has a great story about choosing her pen name!
Huge fan of Nora Robert’s nom de plume, J.D. Robb and have read all of her In Death series, yet, rarely read Nora Robert’s books. Although I’ve heard they’re really good.
I’m making my way through that series now and loving it!
The cozy mystery author Vicki Delany writes another series under the name Eva Gates. I heard in an interview this is because of the specific project. The idea for the Eva Gates stories were presented to her, and she was asked if she would like to write them. So she did not create that series herself. The Vicki Delany series are her own invention, so they are under her name.
I’m a fan of Viola Shipmann Aka Wade Rouse. A lovely author who writes heartfelt women’s literature under his Grandmother’s name as an homage to her. He captures issues of the human heart exceptionally well, especially those with to do with grieving, loss, and love. Bonus all of his novels take place in locations around Michigan that he extensively researches prior to writing. Under his actual name, Wade wrote several memoirs.
I had no idea!
I, too, am a fan of Wade Rouse (Viola Shipman). I am a librarian and have introduced his books to my patrons!
I wrote an Appalachian historical novel under my own name. My wife and I co-wrote a bibliomystery (the beginning of a series) with one pen name, rather than both of our real name. She had published an Elizabethan period historical novel. Our publicist advised a pen name since the mysteries are another “brand.”
So interesting!
I just listened to Becoming Duchess Goldblatt … superb on audio!!!
Surprised by Maya Angelou and Sophie kinsella.
My favorite and of course well known is Mark Twain.
Slightly off topic, but in reading Spare, I noticed on the spine of the book it is marked “B” for biography and “Harry.” Simply Harry. No first letters of a last name. He is referred to throughout the book as Wales.
Making me wonder if he is no longer allowed use of Wales or Windsor.
Interesting! I just finished listening so didn’t see the spine.
Mountbatten-Windsor is their official last name. Queen Elizabeth II added the Mountbatten to honor her husband. So, while the titles (Duke of Sussex) can be taken away, a last name cannot. Harry’s children are sans titles, simply Archie Mountbatten-Windsor and Lillibet Mountbatten-Windsor. I think Wales was almost like a code name? I didn’t realize that all the princes are “of Wales” though now officially only William as the heir apparent is “The Prince of Wales.”
The British Royals don’t really have surnames the way most Brits or Americans do, but they sometimes use one in situations where a surname is useful. In library cataloging there are rules about how names are entered and tracked, and most famous people and traditionally published authors have official “authorized” names that are used to group all the books by or about that person in the catalog, and to some extent, on the shelves. If you look them up you’ll see other royals such as Queen Elizabeth, King Charles (feels odd to type that), and Prince William also do not have a last name. They are listed by first name and title, and biographies about them are probably shelved under their first name at your library, as well. As an aside, it’s also interesting that he’s listed as Harry rather than his given name of Henry. He’s so universally known as Prince Harry, people often don’t even realize his name is Henry. What people are known as and go by are taken into account for authorized names.
Thanks for that explanation!
Finding out James Herriot’s name is Alf feels like my entire childhood is a lie.
I love that comment! I’m glad you loved the series (obviously you did!) His name is officially James Alfred Wight, so James is really his name, but he always went by Alf. He named his son James, as well, and HE DOES use Jim.
Yes! The first one surprised me so much! I adore the books by James Harriet but had no idea it was a pen name!
Seannan McGuire/Mira Grant also writes under the name A. Deborah Harkness.
Really? The Discovery of Witches?
Another great pen name is J.K. Rowling writing under the pseudonym of Robert Galbraith. She doesn’t want children reading her mystery/suspense series. I love everything she writes!
Riley Sager’s real name is Todd Ritter. He also writes under Alan Finn. I love finding out about pen names!
Some of you older ladies might remember an author of Historical Romance by the name of Victoria Holt. I read a TON of her books back in the 60’s and 70’s. A few years ago, there was “Mistress of Mellyn” on a Kindle Deal, and I grabbed it. It turns out Victoria Holt was a pen name, and her real name was Eleanor Alice Burford and she wrote different genres under different pen names throughout her life! I was shocked that I had read so many books by her and I never knew (well, we didn’t have the internet back when I was reading the books)! You might recognize a couple of her other pen names:
Jean Plaidy, Philippa Carr, Eleanor Burford, Elbur Ford, Kathleen Kellow, Ellalice Tate, Anna Percival
If you look up her real name on Wikipedia, you’ll find a chart which shows how many books she wrote under each pen name per decade. She wrote several books per year!!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleanor_Alice_Burford
My mother-in-law suggested I try Victoria Holt books (back in the day). She was the one who first told me that VH was also Jean Plaidy and Philippa Carr. But I had no idea she also had even more pseudonyms. How fascinating. I can’t imagine how these authors keep track of all their different writing projects, and under which names they are writing them!
I just LOVED the Victoria Holt books, along with those by Mary Stewart! I must be close to you in age (I was born in 1959).
Wow, I read Victoria Holt and Jean Plaidy and Philippa Carr—I had no idea they were one and the same!!
This reminds me of Barbara Mertz who wrote cozy mysteries as Elizabeth Peters and gothic/suspense as Barbara Michaels (not to mention several scholarly works on ancient Egypt under her real name, she got a Ph.D. in Egyptology from the University of Chicago).
I remember asking my mom to share her favorite authors with me. She texted back, “Victoria Holt, Jean Plaidy, Philippa Carr, Eleanor Burford, Elbur Ford, Kathleen Kellow, Ellalice Tate, Anna Percival.” When I looked them up, I found the same information as above and shared it with her. I could hear the smile in her voice when she replied, “I know and now you know.” I sure miss sharing my reading life with my mom.
I’m enjoying my first Madeleine Wickham book and love all of her Sophie Kinsella books.
I’m left wondering what your “maiden” name was!
Ditto!! I wondered if Anne had a Wikipedia entry and I could find out, but no go. Dying to know, now.
James Herriot? I don’t know how I feel about this, though I understand why he would. My grandma has an annotated book of all his stories. It is a beautiful edition that I love so much.
You left out an obvious one for this blog: Jane Austen first published her books as being “By a Lady”. The secret of her authorship was only made public after her death.
Benjamin Black is the pen name for John Banville. He writes crime novels under the name Black. I was stunned to find they were same author
Jayne Ann krentz has used several pen names including her married name, her maiden name Jayne castle and also Amanda Quick.i love the books she has written under a couple of her pen names, others I have never heard of or tried!
My first foray into Victorian paranormal romance was with Amanda Quick, whose real name is Jayne Ann Krentz. She also writes fantasy fiction under the name Jane Castle. She is very popular in all her genres..
I got some book mail today & coincidentally the author was a more obscure pen name.
This was a book I read ages ago, but had not forgotten how much I loved it. A romance called Olivia & Jai by Rebecca Ryman whose real name was “Indian writer, Asha Bhanjdeo, who only wrote three books under this name: Olivia & Jai, The Veil of Illusions (the sequel of Olivia & Jai) and Shalimar. She died in Calcutta in 2003.” This per fantasticfiction.com.
I just remember being completely engrossed by the story set in British India.
More historical fiction and not a silly rom-com that seem to have become so popular these days.
I was lucky to find a very good used copy through ThriftBooks.com. I only paid around $6 for a hardback copy. It has a nice heft to it at 643 pages.
I am typically a library book reader, but this title copyrighted 1990 was no longer available for check out.
This is a book that stuck with me, to the extent I remember when I read it.
Interestingly there was a grocery receipt among the pages dated 1994, from a town in Washington state.
I love a good used book. So happy I found this copy.
Charles Todd is a pseudonym for a mother-son writing duo who also use pseudonyms. Love the Bees Crawford series!