HIDING THE IDENTITY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23671, 1 December 1938, Page 20

HIDING THE IDENTITY

In the nineteenth century it was considered slightly indelicate for a woman to take up novel writing. For this reason those who were inclined towards literature usually concealed their identities behind a male pseudonym. A remnant of this attitude still survives in the present day, but on the whole women's sense of independence has advanced so far that the percentage of male and female names among modern writers are practically level. Charlotte, Emily, and .>. .n Bronte adopted the names Currer Bell, Ellis Bell, and Acton Bell when they produced their novels, and it was only when fame had come to them that they allowed their true names to be revealed. A quiet little woman, Marion Evans, preferred to be known to the reading public as George Eliot, and it is thus that she is remembered. Similarly, Madame Dudevant was the correct name of the prominent French novel ist, George Sand. Harriet Beecher-Stowe pubi. ;hed a quantity of work under the pseudonym of Christopher Crowfield, and the words "by Ralph Iron " appeared for many years on the title page of Olive Schreiner's "Story of an African Farm." In more modern cimes the identity behind Michael Fairless is Margaret Barber; and George Preedy is equally well known by her real name, Marjorie Bowen. The popular writer of Irish tales, Michael Farrell, is known to her friends and relatives as Molly Skrine. Few people realise that the best selling author of thrillers, Max Saltmarsh, is in private life a woman who refuses to ..lake her real name publia.