LITERARY PEN-NAMES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3102, 27 August 1913, Page 76

LITERARY PEN-NAMES.

Two professions only are addicted to the use of pseudonyms, the literary and theatrical. Painters, sculptors, and musicians do not care about them; although, by the by, one graceful song-writer elects to call herself Guy D'Hardelot. On the stage, to act under one’s own name is, of course, the exception. It is interesting to learn how authors came to choose their pen-names. Frequently one that has a wide reputation was taken at haphazard. Charles Dickens called himself “Boz” ; this was an abbreviation of Boses, which came, facetiously, from Moses, the nickname of a younger brother. Charles Lamb began his literary career as “Elia,” the name of a clerk he knew as a boy. It was short and simple, and. lo! “Elia” became famous! That well-known pseudonym “Ouida” was suggested, we are told, by the writer’s infantile efforts to pronounce her rightful name. To the ordinary mind it does not seem as if ‘Louise de la Ramee” could ever be metamorphosed into “Ouida’’; but baby-talk is proverbially remarkable, and we must take the author’s word for it. Mark Twain is such a distinctive personality that it seems strange to us that the real name of the great humourist was Samuel Langhorne Clemens. His penname came in this wise. In 1851 he served as a pilot on a Mississippi steamboat, where, in Bounding a depth of two fathoms, the leadsman calls out “mark twain.” A few years later young Clemens, having quitted piloting, began to report law cases for a newspaper He needed a pseudonym, and, bethinking himself of his river life, signed his articles “Mark Twain.’’

George Eliot started the fashion of masculine pen-names for feminine writers. In her day, and that of the Brontes, an authoress —to coin a word—was regarded with mixed feelings of astonishment and distrust. To write for publication was a man’s business, not a womam’s. Even in our day the clever author of ‘‘Bootle’s Baby” adopted the name of John- Strange Winter by the advice of her publishers, who believed the critics would treat her soldier-stories bettor if it was thought they were written by a man. It is curious what a fascination the name of George has for women writers. Besides George- Eliot, we have George Sand, George Paston, the playwright; George Egerton, George Fleming, George Frost, The famous French author, George Sand (Madame Lhidevant), took for her pseudonym the first half of her friend Jules Bandeau's surname, and prefixed it with George, because it was on St. George’s day that she first started to write on her own account. Other masculine pen-names adopted by women writers are John Oliver Hobbes, John Ironside, Lucas Malet, Lucas Cleave, Frank Danby, Frank Hamel, ‘‘A Son of the Marshes,” Michael Fairless, Richard Dehan (Miss Clo _ Graves), Alan St. Aubyn, Allen Raine, Maxwell Gray, Vernon Lee, Holme Lee, Christopher Hare Comte Paul Vasili (Madame Ed mono Adam), Curtis Yorke, etc. On the other hand, hardly any men have sheltered themselves under feminine aliases. Benjamin. Shillaber was the once celebrated ‘‘Mrs Partington,” the poet Swinburne became "Mrs Horace Manners’’ upon one occasion; while Grant Alien

wrote a novel as Olive Pratt Rayner. The strange, sweet singer, Fiona Macleod, proved to be William Sharp; and the “Love Letters of an Englishwoman’’ were the work of an Englishman, Laurence Honsman.

Some authors have a fancy for very short pen names—e’.g., Rita, Gyp, lota, Alien. Tasma. Pansy. .Brenda. “Gyp,” the Countess de Martel de Janville, when <ieked how she came by her quaint little nom de plume, replied : “Jip is the name of a dog in ‘David Copperfield,’ and of an agent in Sardou's ‘L'oncle Sam.’ From these two I took my pseudonym, merely altering the spelling.” That a daughter of Charles Kingsley chose to hide her identity under the fictitious name of Lucas Malet caused her first novel. “Mrs Lorimer,” to be judged on its merits. Both names were “in the family’’ already, as they belonged .to two female ancestors of the future author of “Sir Richard Calmady.” The writer declined to shelter herself behind the greatness of her father’s name, being, in sporting parlance, desirous of winning fame “off her own bat.” Th eauthor of “Alice in Wonderland.” Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, sent four pseudonyms to Edmund Yates to select from, when the publication “The Train” was started, of which Yates was the editor. The latter chose Lewis and Carroll, put them together, and made a penname that was to be known far and wide. We talk of a nom do plume, and think we are speaking French. But the French say nom de guerre, because in the days of chivalry everyone who entered the French army assumed a war-name.