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A pen name or nom de plume is a pseudonym adopted by an author. Nom de plume is a French-language expression.
Different authors take their pen names for different reasons. The Brontë sisters adopted male names as they felt they would either not be published at all, or not taken seriously as women authors. Others do so for fear of violence or harassment, for example Ibn Warraq. Others do so to segregate different types of work: Lewis Carroll, used his real name, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, to write academic papers on logic; Agatha Christie wrote romantic novels as Mary Westmacott. Some writers, particularly in genre fiction, are so prolific that they are forced to take pen names in order to sell their books to different publishers: this is the case, for instance, with John Dickson Carr, who, in the 1930s, was publishing two detective stories a year under his own name and another two, through another publisher, under the pen name Carter Dickson. Pseudonyms are not always secret: Stendhal's real name was known by his contemporaries.
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In Persian and Urdu Poetry
Note: List of Urdu language poets provides pen names for a range of Urdu poets.
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.
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In Japan
Japanese poets who write haiku often use a haiga or penname. The famous haiku poet Matsuo Basho 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.
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Famous pen names
Martín Adán (Rafael de la Fuente Benavides), 1907 - 1985; Peruvian poet
Cecil Adams (author of The Straight Dope column), Ed Zotti
Ba Jin (Li Yaotang), 20th-century Chinese writer
Joseph Conrad (Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski), late-19th/early-20th century Polish-born British novelish
James Herriot ( James Alfred Wight), 20th century British writer.
Aapeli, (Simo Puupponen), 20th century Finnish writer and chatty articler
Petri Pykälä , (Ilkka Remes) 20th and 21th century Finnish writer
Maiju Lassila, Irmari Rantamala, Algoth Tietäväinen, Väinö Stenberg, J.I. Vatanen, Liisan-Antti ja Jussi Porilainen (Algot Untola), 20th century Finnish author.
Anatole France (Jacques Anatole François Thibault), 20th century French author
Gabriela Mistral (Lucila de María del Perpetuo Socorro Godoy Alcayaga) Chilean poet, educator, diplomat and feminist who was the first Latin American to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, in 1945
Robin Hobb (Margaret Astrid Lindholm Ogden), 20th-century fantasy author. Also uses pen-name Megan Lindholm.
Lu Xun (Zhou Shuren), 20th century Chinese writer and cultural critic
Natsume Sōseki (Natsume Kinnosuke), early 20th century Japanese novelist
Pablo Neruda (Ricardo Eliecer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto) 20th century Chilean poet. Nobel laureate.
George Orwell (Eric Arthur Blair), 20th century British author and essayist
Ouida (Marie Louise de la Ramée), 19th century English novelist
Robert O. Saber (Milton K. Ozaki), mid-20th Century journalist, author and detective novelist ("Dressed to Kill" 1954 and many others)
Saki (Hector Hugh Munro), early 20th century British satirist
Sapphire (Ramona Lofton), 20th century African-American poet and author
Sayeh (ه. ا. سایه) Hushang Ebtehaj, 20th century Iranian poet (هوشنگ ابتهاج)
Émile Ajar (Romain Gary), French Author, only Author to win the Prix Goncourt twice, once under his real name, and once under his pen name.
Sirin (and Vladimir Sirin) (Vladimir Nabokov), 20th century novelist, who used it early in his career
Lemony Snicket (author of A Series of Unfortunate Events—Daniel Handler)
Stendhal (Marie-Henri Beyle),19th century French writer
Marton Taiga (Martti Löfberg), 20th century Finnish pulp writer, who also used several other pseudonyms
Juhani Tervapää (Hella Wuolijoki) 20th-century Estonian-born Finnish writer
Lazlo Toth (Don Novello), using name taken from that of a deranged man who vandalized Michelangelo's Pieta in Rome, the pen name was used for the satiric "The Lazlo Letters" and other books
Trevanian (Dr. Rodney Whitaker), 20th century American spy novelist
Ibn Warraq is a pen name that has traditionally been adopted by dissident authors throughout the history of Islam, including a current writer from India.
Wonkette (Ana Marie Cox) *, political gossip weblog writer
Yulgok (Yi I), 16th century Korean Confucian scholar
Harlequin romance novels, as Katherine Kendall.
Girl Talk novels, as L.E. Blair
Ocean City series (republished as Making Waves)
Boyfriends/Girlfriends series (republished as Making Out)
Barf-O-Rama series, as Pat Pollari
The Story of Two American Generals: Benjamin O. Davis Jr. and Colin L. Powell
Disney's Christmas with all the Trimmings: Original Stories and Crafts from Mickey Mouse and Friends
Disney's Enter if you Dare: Scary Tales from the Haunted Mansion, as Nicholas Stephens
(Some of these books that weren't meant for a male audience were actually written under her real name, (the female name) Katherine Applegate.)
E. L. Konigsburg (Elaine Lobl Konigsburg)is an American author of children's books, and two time winner of the Newbery Medal for children's literature.
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"House" names
Book and magazine publishers have sometimes used a penname or pseudonym as the author of a series of stories that would be shared by any number of authors. Often these works are done as a "work for hire" with the writers receiving a flat fee and no royalties. Examples include:
The Stratemeyer Syndicate used a number of house names. The Syndicate was quite secretive; ghostwriters were contractually obliged never to reveal their authorship, and many ghostwriters remain unknown. Some of Stratemeyer's most famous house names include:
John Blaine for the Rick Brant (more realistic science/adventure) series
Bruce Campbell for the Ken Holt (newspaper reporter/adventure) series
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See also
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