Pen Names of Writers in English Literature

Pen Names of Writers in English Literature : If you have ever read a book and found yourself thinking that the style and way of writing seemed very familiar, it is possible that the book you are reading was actually written by your favorite author —only under a pen name.

Pen Names of Writers in English Literature

A pen name, also known as a nom de plume or a pseudonym, is an assumed name used by an author, in place of their own name.

Some authors write exclusively under their pen name, while others write under both their actual name and their pen name (or multiple pen names, in some cases).

But, why do authors use pen names? And how do they come up with the pen names they use?

While the answer for that varies from author to author, we have come up with a list of 8 famous authors who have used pen names, and the reasons behind their decision to forgo their real names on their books.

Mark Twain (real name Samuel Clemens):

It is a well-known fact that Mark Twain’s real name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens. It is said that Clemens got the name “Mark Twain” from his former job as a riverboat captain. The term, “Mark Twain”, is a river term that means “two fathoms,” or 12 feet. The sounding of “Mark Twain” on a riverboat meant that it was safe to navigate the water.

What is not so well known is the fact that Clemens also wrote under the names Thomas Jefferson Snodgrass, Sergeant Fathom, and W. Epaminondas Adrastus Blab.

It is said that Samuel Clemens chose to write under pen names as a way to have literary freedom.

It was also a way to protect his family from repercussions due to the content and opinions of the characters in his books.

Dr. Seuss (real name Theodor Seuss Geisel):

Theodor Seuss Geisel is famous worldwide for his children’s books, penned under the name “Dr. Seuss.”

Geisel first started using this pen name in college, after he was caught drinking by the Dean of the school, stripped of his position as editor of the Dartmouth college’s humor magazine, “Jack-o-Lantern,” and banned from writing for the magazine.

In order to trick the administration and continue writing for the magazine, Geisel adopted the name Dr. Theophrastus Seuss, which he later shortened to Dr. Seuss.

Geisel was not actually a doctor of any sort, having dropped out of the PhD program at Oxford.

The “Dr.” in his pen name was in honor of his father, who had hoped that Geisel would someday get his PhD. The “Seuss” came from Geisel’s middle name, which was also his mother’s maiden name.

While not nearly as famous as his “Dr. Seuss” pen name, Geisel also famously wrote under the names Theo LeSieg (Geisel spelled backwards) and Rosetta Stone.

George Orwell (real name Eric Arthur Blair):

When author Eric Arthur Blair was ready to publish his first book, Down and Out in Paris and London, he was concerned that his family would be embarrassed by the stories of their time in poverty.

In order to protect them, he decided to adopt a pen name.

He chose the name George Orwell to reflect his deep love of England.

George is the patron saint of England, and Orwell was the name of a river where he loved to go sailing.

Lemony Snicket (real name Daniel Handler):

It is likely that most people cannot identify any books written by Daniel Handler.

However, one would be hard-pressed to find someone who has never heard of Lemony Snicket and his popular children’s series’ A Series of Unfortunate Events and All the Wrong Questions.

It is said that Handler first adopted the pen name of Lemony Snicket when he was doing research for his first novel, Basic Eight. He needed to contact various right-wing organizations, but did not want them to have his real name. Thus, Lemony Snicket was born.

Stan Lee (real name Stanley Martin Lieber):

Debatably one of the most famous comic book writers in the world, Lieber originally made the decision to write under the name Stan Lee because he hoped to one day graduate to writing more serious literary work, and planned to save his real name for that.

Once it became apparent that he was destined to be known for his comic books, Lieber made the decision to legally change his name to Stan Lee.

Richard Bachman (real name Stephen King):

When King first started his writing career, it was a common belief in the publishing world that an author could only successfully release one book per year. In order to bypass this belief, King created the pseudonym “Richard Bachman,” so that he could release multiple books per year.

King ended up publishing seven novels under the name of Bachman, before the connection between his pen name and his real identity were discovered.

While King claims that he created his pen name in order to get away with releasing more books per year, it is said that he also wanted to see if “lightening could strike twice.”

He wondered if his writing talent alone could launch his Richard Bachman personality into as much fame as he had achieved under his own name.

Interestingly, though, the books he released under the name Richard Bachman did not gain success until it was publicly known that the books were King’s.

JK Rowling and Robert Galbraith (real name Joanne Rowling):

Now famous worldwide for her Harry Potter series, Rowling’s publishers were at first unsure if her target audience of pre-teen boys would accept stories about wizards that were written by a woman. For that reason, they encouraged her to use initials on the books instead of her first name.

Having no middle name, Rowling adopted the “K” from her grandmother’s name, Kathleen, and became known as J.K. Rowling.

What may surprise some, though, is that Rowling has been writing crime novels under yet another pen name: Robert Galbraith.

Rowling has said that she made the decision to write her crime novels under another pseudonym, so that she could freely write without having the pressure from being the author of the wildly successful Harry Potter books.

She liked the appeal of being able to create something completely different, and wanted her crime novels to stand (or fall) on their own merits.

Mary Westmacott (real name Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie):

Known as the Queen of Crime, Agatha Christie created 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections during her impressive writing career.

However, what is unknown to many is the fact that she also wrote six romance novels under a pen name, Mary Westmacott, which she managed to keep secret for 20 years.

It is said that Christie adopted her pen name, so that she could more easily switch genres from mystery and crime to romance.

Pen Names of Writers in English Literature

There have been many major writers, critics, painters, illustrators, and engravers who have employed pen names for their literary works in English literature. Many English writers have used pen names in order to hide their real identity so that,  they could produce their literary works under pseudonyms or a pen names. A few writers adapted pen names on purpose. Here is a list of pen names and real names of writers and literary artists which would be useful for the student for the competitive exams and the reader who will find these pen names interesting and entertaining.

LIST OF 135 PEN NAMES OF GREAT WRITERS

Sr. no	Real Name	Pen Name
1	Anne Winchilsea	Ardelia
2	Elizabeth Rowe	Philomela
3	Anne Steele	Theodosia
4	Elizabeth Penrose	Mrs. Markham
5	Hannah Cowley	Anna Matilda
6	Mary Ann Evans	George Eliot
7	Anne Bronte	Acton Bell
8	Emily Bronte	Ellis Bell
9	Charlotte Bronte	Currer Bell
10	Mary Louisa Molesworth	Ennis Graham
11	Katharine Bradley and Edith Cooper	Michael Field
12	Katharine Bradley	Arran Leigh
13	Eleanor Fenn	Anna Matilda and Mrs. Teachwell
14	Emily Eden	‘E.E.’
15	Caroline Clive	‘V’
16	Agatha Christi	Mary Westmacott
17	Gwyneth Jones	Ann Halam
18	Molly Keane	M.J. Farrell
19	Doris Lessing	Jane Sommers
20	Mary Challans	Mary Renault
21	Hilda Doolittle	‘H.D.’
22	Ruth Rendel	Barbara Vine
23	Ethel Richardson	Henry Handel Richardson
24	Aurore Dupin	George Sand
25	Sarah Smith	Hesba Stretton
26	Alice Sheldon	Tiptree
27	Cherry Grimm	Cherry Wilder
28	Jane Wilde	Speranza
29	Edith Harper	Anna Wicham
30	Anna Gorenko	Anna Akhmatova
31	Cecily Fairfield	Dame Rebecca West
32	Katharine Burdekin	Murray Constantine
33	Agatha Webster	Cecil Home
34	Winifred Ellerman	Bryher
35	William Makepeace Thackeray	Michael Angelo Titmarsh
36	Christopher Smart	Mrs. Midnight
37	James Thomson	Bysshe Vanolis
38	Jacques-Anatole Francois Thibault	Anatole France
39	John Galsworthy	John Sinjohn
40	Peter Fleming	Strix
41	Arthur Quiller-Couch	‘Q’
42	Cecil Day Lewis	Nicholas Blake
43	Charles Dickens	Boz
44	Robertson Davies	Samuel Marchbanks
45	Douglas W. Jerrold	“Q”
46	Jack Yeats	‘W’
47	John Wolcot	Peter Pindar
48	Edward William	Iolo Marganwg
49	Ali Ahmad Said	Adonis
50	Henry Brooks Adams	Frances Snow Compton
51	William Hale White	Mark Rutherford
52	Conrad Potter Aiken	Samuel Jeake, Jr.
53	Anthony Burgess	Joseph Kell
54	Robert William Buchanan	Thomas Maitland
55	Hablot Knight Brown	Phiz
56	George Douglas Brown	Kennedy King
57	Osborne Henry Mavor	James Bridie
58	Edward Bradley	Cuthbert Bede
59	Charles Dodgson	Lewis Carroll
60	Charles Bradlaugh	Iconoclast
61	W. E. Aytoun and Theodore Martin	Bon Gaultier
62	John Banville	Benjamin Black
63	Kingsley Amis	Robert Markham
64	Thomas Guthrie	F. Anstey
65	John Middleton Murray, Jr.	Richard Cowper and Collin Murray
66	Brian Procter	Barry Cornwall
67	Cyril Connolly	Palinurus
68	Paul Auster	Paul Benjamin
69	Cecil Mercer	Dornford Yates
70	Eric Arthur Blair	George Orwell
71	Jeremy Prynne	Pu-Ling-en
72	Daniel Nathan and Manford Lepofsky	Ellery Queen
73	Johan Paul Richter	Jean Paul
74	Hector Hugh Munroe	Saki
75	Herman McNeile	Sapper
76	Ricardo Eliecer Neftali Reyes Bosoalto	Pablo Neruda
77	Sean O’Casey	Sean O’Cathasaigh
78	Michael O’Donovan	Frank O’Connor
79	Francois-Marie Arouet	Voltaire
80	Philip Klass	William Tenn
81	Edward Thomas	Edward Eastway
82	Peter Paterson	Peter Terson
83	Samuel Langhorne Clemens	Mark Twain
84	James Kenneth Stephen	J.K.S
85	Kenneth Millar	Ross MacDonald
86	Christopher Grieve	Hugh MacDiarmid
87	Francis Mahony	Father Prout
88	William Maginn	Morgan O’Doherty
89	Louis MacNeice	Louis Malone
90	William Sharp	Fiona Macleod
91	Robert Merry	Della Crusca
92	Edward Robert Bulwer Lytton	Owen Meredith
93	Andre Maurois	Emile Herzog
94	Theodore Martin	Bon Gaultier
95	John Marston	Kinsayder
96	Alberto Moravia	Alberto Pincherie
97	Thomas Moore	Thomas Little
98	David Moir	∆: ‘Delta’
99	Harry Frank	Pat Frank
100	Theophilo Folengo	Merlin Coccai
101	Jean Poquelin	Moliere
102	James Mitchell	Lewis Gibbon
103	Henry Yorke	Henry Green
104	George Griffith-Jones	George Griffith
105	Paul Barnett	John Grant
106	Joan Marshall Kelsey	John Grant
107	Sidney Luska	Henry Harland
108	Friedrich Hardenberg	Novalis
109	James Oliver Rigney, Jr.	Robert Jordan
110	Anthony Hawkins	Anthony Hope
111	Walter de la Mare	Walter Ramal
112	Patrick Delany	J.R.
113	Leonard Knapp	Lester Del Rey
114	John Innes Mackintosh Stewart	Michael Innes
115	Bruce Frederick Cummings	W.N.P. Barbellion
116	Allen Curnow	Whim Wham
117	Gary Armstrong	Robert Edric
118	Derek Lindsay	A.E. Ellis
119	Howard Melvin Fast	E.V. Cunningham
120	John Campbell	Don Stuart
121	Edward Cave	Sylvanus Urban
122	Paul Anschel	Paul Celan
123	George William Russell	‘Æ’
124	Nathan Weinstein	Nathanael West
125	Gore Vidal	Edgar Box
126	John Warren	George Preston and William Lancaster
127	Charles Ferrar	Artemas Ward
128	Henry Beyle	Stendhal
129	Kenneth Bird	Fougasse
130	Washington Irving	Jonathan Oldstyle, Diedrich
131	Charles Maturin	Dennis Jasper Murphy
132	Robert Weidmann	Penini, or Pen
133	James Boswell	The Hypochondrick
134	Dion Baucicault	Lee Morton
135	Charles Stuart Calverley	C.S.C.

 

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