FAMOUS NOMS DE PLUME

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 137, 7 December 1938, Page 18

FAMOUS NOMS DE PLUME

In the nineteenth century it was considered slightly indelicate for a woman to take up novel-writing, states an overseas writer. 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, woman's sense of independence has advanced so far that the percentages of male and female names among modern writers are practically level.

Charlotte, Emily, and Ann 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 novelist, George Sand.

Harriet Beecher-Stowe published 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 times, 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 make her real name public.