Topic 144: On Seeing One's Name in Print

Carol:

The Name Game

Living in a small community for so long, everyone in my family has been named in the local newspaper more than once. Our son made the front page when he was about four years old and happened to take a big taste of salsa at a food contest on the Courthouse Square at exactly the moment the photographer came by. I suspect that today’s topic deals more specifically with those people seeking fame or recognition of their life’s work, say in the theater section of the NY Times or the best seller stack at Barnes and Noble. There are, however, a lot of famous people who decide NOT to use their birth name in print, choosing instead the glamor or simplicity of a stage name or the anonymity of a pseudonym.
 

Cary Grant & Audrey Hepburn

In the entertainment industry, the position of an actor’s name on the marquee or the screen credits is important. Imagine the marquee of  your local theater if the stars of the 1963 romantic thriller Charade had used their real names “Edda van Heemstra Hepburn-Ruston” and “Archibald Alexander Leach.”  Not much space left for their co-star “Walter Matuschanskatasky.”  Sometimes the birth names are maybe a little too ethnic or just too complicated, like “Natasha Nikolaevna Zacharenko-Gurdin.”             
 

Ellis, Acton & Currer Bell

Authors use pseudonyms-- “noms de plumes”-- for more complex reasons.  Historically, it was not only more difficult for women to get their work published, but also to be taken seriously once their work was in print. When Ellis, Acton and Currer Bell published their 1846 collection of poems, there were questions about who the “brothers” were, if there were actually three of them, but never speculation about their gender. When Currer Bell published Jane Eyre the following year, contemporary reviewers began to consider whether or not a man or woman had penned the book, about which “…though relating to a woman, we do not believe to have been written by a woman” (source: Fonblanque qtd in Evans 364). The true identity of the Bell brothers as the Bronte sisters was not revealed until Charlotte visited her London publisher in 1848.
 

Sometimes authors use pseudonyms to keep a safe distance between professional and literary careers. An Anglican deacon and mathematician wrote professionally under his own name in the early 1850’s but his best-known work was published under the name Lewis Carroll. James Tiptree Jr. had been writing popular science fiction for over 15 years before “his” identity was revealed as the psychologist Alice Sheldon.  Over 13 mystery novels were published under the authorship of Amanda Cross, all set at Ivy League universities and featuring the English professor cum sleuth Kate Fansler. Determined not to jeopardize her tenure or her substantial academic reputation,  " Amanda Cross" protected her true identity until a zealous fan tracked down the copyright information which led to Carolyn Heilbrun,  a full professor at Columbia University, author of some of the most important feminist literary studies of the 20th century, including Writing a Woman’s Life (1988).
 

I just found out one of my retired college colleagues has published a kind of memoir, a recollection of the people and events of his time at the college. It’s on sale at our College bookstore. I understand my name is in the book. If I can get this essay finished early, I’ll just have time to drop by and take a peek. I don’t mind seeing my name in print. Not vain, just curious.

 Sources:
Evans, Barbara and Gareth Lloyd. Companion to The Brontes. Everyman: 1985.
Want to know the real names of the actors mentioned in this essay: go to
Trivia: Pseudonyms 

Megan: 

No essay from me today. 

I think I'm sick. 

 

Puppy sick...

 Introducing Bella.