A girl in my highschool once piped up in history class, “Mr. P., have you ever visited Uncle Tom’s cabin?”
::stunned silence::
“Um, no…you do realize that…”
“Because my boyfriend said he went there on a vacation trip with his parents.”
We all cried.
Which fake names? You haven’t answered any of my questions. Here’s an easy one: Do you believe that any work published under anything other than the author(s) full legal name(s) cannot Constitutionally be granted copyright within the US?
To answer your question, no. I do not believe that Theodore Giesel intended to decieve me into thinking that a university had granted a doctorate to the author of Green Eggs and Ham under the name of “Seuss.” I don’t believe Daniel Handler wants me to think his Social Security card really reads “Lemony Snicket.” While I consider it just plausable that Mike Lenahan, David Kerr, Ed Zotti, et alia want or at one time wanted us to believe that the Chicago Reader cuts a paycheck (or makes a secret night-time cash drop in an out-of-order phonebooth behind an abandoned book depository) for “Cecil Adams”, any such deception is playful, not malicious and “brazen.” And while Stephen King certainly did intend to decieve his readers at one point into thinking that the author of The Running Man was not also the author of Carrie, I am not offended by this deception, because the use of noms de plume is a well-known and age-old tradition, and I would no more assume that a writen work (especially one of fiction) appears under the author’s legal name than that Calvin Broadus’s parents are properly addressed as Mr. and Mrs. Dogg or that Marvin Lee Aday’s are Mr. and Mrs. Loaf. The point of your cartoon would seem to be the same–only a fool would make unjustified assumptions about the authorship or authorial process behind a given work without doing even the most basic research on it.
Perhaps I am imagining things, but I seem to recall that you are a lawyer, dougie_monty (if that is your real name!). Would you really make the claim you’ve made here in a court of law with no more evidence or argument than you’ve given us?
I vaguely recall that there may have been an actual slave who had some part inspiring Harriet Beecher Stowe. And if that slave lived in a cabin… well!
To answer your questions:
- I mean the fictitious names given as authors of the Hardy Boys, Tom Swift, and Nancy Drew books. And while we’re on the subject, Naked Came the Stranger.
- Do l believe that “ghost” authors have Constitutionally sanctioned copyright protection? Yes, in the case of Theodor Seuss Geisel; A. A. Fair (aka Earle Stanley Gardner); Ellery Queen; as long as it’s the author’s own pseudonym and not one concocted for him/her by someone like Stratemeyer.
- I can’t answer your question about Stephen King–I detest his books and will not read them. (someone once suggested I read them; I said I would rather be illiterate.)
- No, I am not a lawyer. Who told you I was? At best I’m a paralegal. And my real full legal name–you can check the record in Marion County, IN if you like–is Larry Douglal Montgomery.
That should be Douglas, not “Douglal.” :o
How about “Otto Titzling”, the supposed inventor of the brassiere? I still run into people who believe he’s real.
They deceived me as a child due to the fact that there was a bio for “Franklin W. Dixon” at the back of each Hardy Boys book. I did a school report on Dixon back then. I don’t know if my teacher even knew that Dixon was a fictional author, but if she did, I don’t know how I would have reacted had she pointed that out to me. I seem to remember being mildly amused when I discovered the truth years later. I was definitely not angry, though.
And let me reiterate that I do not believe a house name like “Franklin W. Dixon” (multiple writers using one pseudonym) is the same as one author using a pseudonym. A writer behind a pen name is a real person, whereas a house name writer doesn’t exist as an individual. That said, a writer who creates a fictional history for his pen name isn’t much different than the Hardy Boys publishers created a history for Dixon.
It should also be pointed out that I’ve come across many authors who use their real names, yet embellish the bios at the back of their books with exaggerations and outright fantasies. Some are obvious and often amusing, while others are believable. I believe the only time such fictional claims should matter is when someone writes a book purporting to be fact rather than fiction. (Or a fictional book purporting to be based on “facts” mentioned in an appendix or bibliography.)
Anyhoo…
What the…? Could you provide a citation for this? Or examples? Beginning with the 11th century especially, with the Crusades, more and more original sources from antiquity came into the west…and by the Renaissance there was practically great competition to see who could recover and discover ancient (non-Christian) texts long since thought lost, and they were eagerly received by scholars.
Perhaps you are thinking of the unfortunate trend in the 4th and 5th centuries as monks were put to work copying scrolls to books, and some classical and ancient texts were lost during this transition.
Unless I’m being whoosed?..
Apologies if this was already mentioned (I didn’t see it): Captain (acting Major) William Martin, The Man Who Never Was.
Incidentally, “see books” is my favorite cite ever. 
I did not say that MacPherson “invented” Ossian. I was well aware that Ossian was a name that had genuinely come down from antiquity, whoever the putative original owner of that name may have been. I said that MacPherson “hoaxed” Ossian, which is precisely what he did. He published his own poems claiming that they were translations from the ancient Ossian, whose lost manuscripts he and he alone had been able to find.
Another notable literary hoax, one that qualifies for this thread, was perpetrated by Washington Irving in 1809. At the time, there were no famous American authors, and Americans read books imported from England. Irving was determined to make his name as the first American author.
To work up some notoriety for himself, he began publishing notices in the newspaper that an old man named “Diedrich Knickerbocker” had left behind a manuscript in hotel room but was now missing and described the pretended search for him. Finally he printed an obituary that poor old Knickerbocker had died, alas. Knickerbocker’s manuscript was then published. This is how the History of New-York and Rip Van Winkle first came out. They sold well enough that Irving eventually revealed his own authorship, and by then he had demonstrated the ability of an American to establish himself on the literary scene.
Here’s an obscure one:
Lazlo Woodbine
Jomo Mojo, the thread is about ‘Famous People Who NEVER Existed’. Macpherson was making false claims about someone who did exist (or rather, whose possible non-existance was not then the issue).
“Possible nonexistence” is good enough for me.
Perhaps the boyfriend and his family had been to Dresden, Ontario.
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was created by Robert May, who worked for the advertising department of Montgomery Ward’s department stores.
You’ll see Robert May’s name in the credits of the Rankin-Bass animated special that’s on TV every Christmas.
This puts me in mind of Stan Freberg’s record “Green Chri$tma$.” According to Freberg’s autobiography, a New York area DJ who played that during the holiday season was fired by his station–on orders from the sales department. Mammon. :mad:
For ‘Famous People Who Never Existed’ there are sure a lot here who I have never heard of. Back to the dumb doper thread.
There is a baseball card rarer than that of Honus Wagner:
That of Joe Shlabotnik. That’s because he was so bad a player, every kid except one who had one ripped it up.
Kaspar Hauser?
Sherlock Holmes, even his street adress does not exist(I know I looked)
What about that guy in all the Clancy novels? Can’t think of his name.
The March sisters.