A to Z Writing: Noms de Plume Need No Introduction

Writers have adopted noms de plume, or pen names, throughout literary history.

A novelist, poet, or journalist may employ a pseudonym for privacy purposes. Others might use noms de plume to conceal a nationality, mask gender or hide shared authorship.

Still more may write under pen names to separate genres under which they write. For example, a financial writer might use a nom de plume to pen romance novels. A best-selling horror writer could adopt a pseudonym to write children’s books.

Consider these 15 examples of famous authors’ noms de plume:

• Anatole France – Jacques Anatole François Thibault
• Ann Landers – Esther Pauline Friedman
• Ayn Rand – Alisa Zinov'yevna Rosenbaum
• Dr. Seuss – Theodor Seuss Geisel
• Ellery Queen – Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee
• George Eliot – Mary Ann Evans
• George Orwell – Eric Arthur Blair
• James Herriot – James Alfred Wight
• Joseph Conrad - Jozef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski
• Lemony Snicket – Daniel Handler
• Lewis Carroll – Charles Lutwidge Dodgson
• Mark Twain – Samuel Langhorne Clemens
• O. Henry – William Sydney Porter
• Saki – Hector Hugh Munro
• Sapphire – Ramona Lofton

Personally, I use a pen name.

It started when I branched out from a professional corporate communications career into creative writing. Of course, my nom de plume made even more sense when I began blogging and writing for multiple online news sites.

Have you seen some of the comments readers stick on political and sports articles?

 I prefer the privacy of a pen name. My real name reaps very little on a Google, Bing, or Yahoo search. But my pseudonym turns up enough.

And nope, I’m not telling.

Sometimes, using a pseudonym allows a writer to be extra candid and truthful.

More than a few writing colleagues have confessed that they find more freedom in sharing personal anecdotes under the protection of their pen names. Like the famous opening line from the 1950s-1960s Dragnet television series, “The names have been changed to protect the innocent.”

That is, if you can call the writers innocent. But that’s another blog post altogether.

Image:  

Writing Hands by Sandro Botticelli

Circa 1485

Public Domain/Wikipedia Commons

2012 A to Z Blogging Challenge logo

Fair Use

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