A pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a pseudonym adopted by an author or their publishers to conceal their identity. A pen name may be used if a writer's real name is likely to be confused with the name of another writer or notable individual, or if their real name is deemed to be unsuitable. Authors who write in fiction and non-fiction, or in different genres, may use pen names to avoid confusing their readers, as in the case of mathematician Charles Dodgson, who wrote fantasy novels under the pen name Lewis Carroll. Some female authors use male pen names, particularly in the 19th century, when writing was a male-dominated profession. A pseudonym may also be used to hide the identity of the author, as in the case of exposé books about espionage or crime, or explicit erotic fiction.
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Authors who regularly write in several genres use different pen names for each genre. Romance writer Nora Roberts writes erotic thrillers under the pen name J.D. Robb, and 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, or the American television commentator Bill O'Reilly, who wrote a thriller under a pen name) may use a pseudonym for fiction writing.
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 pseudonyms so that more of his works in could be published in a single magazine. 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 become Zane Grey, because he believed that his real name did not suit the Western genre. An even more obvious example romance novelist Angela Knight who writes under that name instead of her actual name (Julie Woodcock) because she felt that her real name was a little too fitting for the genre. Stephen King wrote four novels under the name of Richard Bachman, because he feared that his books were being sold for his name rather than his actual writing. Eventually, after critics found a large number of similarities between their styles, publishers revealed Bachman's true identity.
C. S. Lewis used two different pseudonyms for different reasons. Before his conversion to Christianity, he published a collection of poems (Spirits in Bondage) and a narrative poem (Dymer) under the pen name "Clive Hamilton", to avoid harming his reputation as a don at Oxford University. His book entitled A Grief Observed, which describes his experience of bereavement, was originally released under the pseudonym "N.W. Clerk".
Some female authors have used male pen names to ensure that their works were accepted by publishers or taken seriously by the public. Mary Ann Evans wrote under the pen name George Eliot, and Charlotte Brontë published under the name Currer Bell. Karen Blixen wrote the very successful "Out of Africa" under the pen name "Isak Dinesen". More recently, women who write in genres normally written by men may choose to use a neutral pen name, such as D.C. Fontana, J.K. Rowling, K. A. Applegate and S. E. Hinton. Along the same lines, author Robin Hobb chose that androgynous pen name when she set out to write a fantasy trilogy featuring a male leading character.
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 a fictional autobiography. Daniel Handler used the pseudonym Lemony Snicket to make his books appear to be records of the lives of the Baudelaires. Some series fiction is published under one pen name even though more than one author may have contributed to the series. In some cases the first books in the series were written by one writer, but subsequent books were written by ghost writers. For instance, many of the later books in the The Saint adventure series were not written by Leslie Charteris, the originator of the series. Similarly, Nancy Drew mystery books are published as though they were written by "Carolyn Keene", although many authors have been involved.
Collaborative authors may choose to 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 (and, also under the Ellery Queen name, published the work of other authors who had been hired to ghost-write novels). The writers who wrote Atlanta Nights, a deliberately badly-written book meant to expose the publishing firm PublishAmerica, used the pen name Travis Tea. Sometimes multiple authors will write related books under the same pseudonym; examples include Nicolas Bourbaki in non-fiction and T. H. Lain in fiction. Edward Gorey had dozens of pseudonyms, each one an anagram of his real name.
Pseudepigraphy is a particular form of pseudonym or pen name in which authors adopt the name of well-known figures as the publicly ascribed author to attain greater interest or credibility for the work. In some cases the pseudepigraphy is the result of pious tradition. It was traditionally employed in the Western world from Hellenistic times all the way up to the Middle Ages, particularly in theology and scripture. Examples include Pseudo-Dionysius or, according to some academic scholars, the ascribed Solomonic authorship of the Song of Songs.
A pseudonym may also be used to protect the writer for exposé books about espionage or crime. Andy McNab, a former SAS soldier used a pseudonym for his book about a failed SAS mission titled Bravo Two Zero. Ibn Warraq has been used by dissident Muslim authors. Author Brian O'Nolan was forced to use the pen names "Flann O'Brien" and "Myles na gCopaleen" because at the time Irish civil servants were not allowed to publish works under their own names.
The Histoire d'O (The Story of O), an erotic novel of sadomasochism and sexual slavery, was written by an editorial secretary with a reputation of near-prudery who used the pseudonym Pauline Réage.
Alice Bradley Sheldon had a multiplicty of reasons to write under the nom de plume of James Tiptree, Jr.: she was a woman writing in the heavily male-dominated genre of science fiction; she was a lesbian who may have wanted to avoid the inherent biases of her readers; and she was a career intelligence officer, first in the Army Air Corps and then in the early years of the CIA, for whom concealment was a way of life.
Further reasons for concealment are obvious in several texts written on subjects such as political opinions or factual exposition style writings, that is to say to protect the writer from political targeting, whether this be by the general populace or a particularly volatile political party.
A shâ'er (a poet who writes she'rs in Urdu or Persian) almost always has a takhallus, a pen name, traditionally placed at the end of the name when referring to the poet by his full name. For example Hafez is a pen-name for Shams al-Din, and thus the usual way to refer to him would be Shams al-Din Hafez or just Hafez. Mirza Asadullah Beg Khan (his official name and title) is referred to as Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib, or just Mirza Ghalib.
In Indian Languages, writers put it at the end of their names, like Ramdhari Singh 'Dinkar'. Sometimes they also write under their pen name without their actual name like Firaq Gorakhpuri.
In early Indian literature, we find authors shying away from using any name considering it to be egotistical. Due to this notion, even today it is hard to trace the authorship of many earlier literary works from India. Later, we find that the writers adopted the practice of using the name of their deity of worship or Guru's name as their pen name. In this case, typically the pen name would be included at the end of the prose or poetry.
For instance, the famous Lady Saint of India, Meerabai used 'Giridhar' a name of her beloved Lord Krishna. Great Saint and Social reformer Basavanna used the pen name 'Kudalasangamadeva' addressing the Supreme Lord in the memory of the place where he attained his divine communion. It is interesting to see how these authors twain the name of the God in their works.
Japanese poets who write haiku often use a haiga or penname. The famous haiku poet Matsuo Bashō had used fifteen different haiga before he became fond of a banana plant (bashō) that had been given to him by a disciple and started using it as his penname at the age of 38.
Similar to a pen name, Japanese artists usually have a gō or art-name, which might change a number of times during their career. In some cases, artists adopted different gō at different stages of their career, usually to mark significant changes in their life. One of the most extreme examples of this is Hokusai, who in the period 1798 to 1806 alone used no fewer than six. Manga artist Ogure Ito uses the pen name 'Oh! great' because his real name Ogure Ito is roughly how the Japanese pronounce "oh great."
Despite the use of French words in the name Nom de plume, the term did not originate in France. H. W. Fowler and F. G. Fowler, in The King's English [1] state that the term nom de plume "evolved" in Britain, where people wanting a "literary" phrase, failed to understand the term nom de guerre, which already existed in French. Since guerre means war in French, nom de guerre did not make sense to the British, who did not understand the French metaphor. The term was later exported to France (H. W. Fowler's Modern English Usage). See French-language expression, although amongst French speakers pseudonyme is much more common.