# How long can a famous pseudonym last without revealing its author? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 31, 2016, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-can-a-famous-pseudonym-last-without-revealing-its-author/761355 "2016-07-31T03:59:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2016, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-can-a-famous-pseudonym-last-without-revealing-its-author/761355/21 "2016-07-31T19:44:20Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > Elena Ferrante is an internationally best selling author who has pulled it off so far. Near as I can tell she is HUGE globally and the U.S. Is late to the game. [Here’s an article](http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/07/16/banksy-daft-punk-elena-ferrante-the-new-cult-of-the-anonymous-artist.html) that agrees with you, and also names Banksy. I hate to pull out the true Scotsman card, but really. Neither of them are in the same hemisphere as a Rowling for popular fame. Neither are American, either, and I strongly suspect that’s a piece of the answer. > [@Sherrerd](#): > > I thought that was Harlan Ellison? (Or maybe they _both_ made comments to that effect.) I’m pretty sure it was Silverberg. I reviewed an anthology, _Aurora: Beyond Equality_, that had new stories by both Raccoona Sheldon and James Tiptree. I hated the Sheldon story, but loved the Tiptree. Fortunately for my reputation, the Sheldon story was “Your Faces, O My Sisters! Your Faces Filled of Light!” a dud that’s never been reprinted outside of a Tiptree collection, while the Tiptree story was “Houston, Houston, Do You Read?” which became an award winner and one of the most celebrated stories in the field. Whew! Dodged a bullet there. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2016, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-can-a-famous-pseudonym-last-without-revealing-its-author/761355/22 "2016-07-31T19:47:01Z")
Does Jack the Ripper count as a writer? He sent those letters to the cops. Zodiac too, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2016, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-can-a-famous-pseudonym-last-without-revealing-its-author/761355/23 "2016-07-31T20:15:37Z")
Harry Turtledove came up with the name H.N. Turteltaub when he began writing historical fiction. It wasn’t designed to hide his identity (turteltaub is the German word for turtledove). But Turtledove was an established writer in science fiction and fantasy and he was worried that if his historical fiction was published under his real name and didn’t sell, the lower sales would hurt his future book orders. So he invented a pen name so he could keep his historical fiction separate from his other work. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2016, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-can-a-famous-pseudonym-last-without-revealing-its-author/761355/24 "2016-07-31T20:47:24Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Looks like he kept it up for eight years before a bookstore clerk figured it out, which seems pretty solid – and King was apparently writing MISERY as Bachman at the time, which, compared to what he’d done before, could’ve been the blockbuster. Supposedly, “Dickie” had a pen name, also: George Stark. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2016, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-can-a-famous-pseudonym-last-without-revealing-its-author/761355/25 "2016-07-31T20:55:39Z")
How long was Lemony Snickett unknown? ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2016, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-can-a-famous-pseudonym-last-without-revealing-its-author/761355/26 "2016-07-31T21:01:16Z")
Your OP asks about literature but the title is more ambiguous, so I’ll cite a non-literature case. Satoshi Nakamoto is the pseudonym used by the author of the Bitcoin software. Despite tremendous effort and interest, no one knows who he (or she) is. He’s worth the better part of a billion dollars due to the software, so in terms of success he’s (in some sense) the equivalent of a Rowling or King, even if the name is not that widely known by the public. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2016, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-can-a-famous-pseudonym-last-without-revealing-its-author/761355/27 "2016-07-31T21:10:16Z")
Really, are there _any_ authors who are in the same hemisphere as Rowling, as far as success and popular fame go? ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2016, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-can-a-famous-pseudonym-last-without-revealing-its-author/761355/28 "2016-07-31T21:21:13Z")
How long can the identity behind a famous pen name remain unknown? [Pretty damn long.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeric_Question) 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2016, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-can-a-famous-pseudonym-last-without-revealing-its-author/761355/29 "2016-07-31T21:30:17Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > (Yes, J.K. is itself a pen name.) Only the K. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2016, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-can-a-famous-pseudonym-last-without-revealing-its-author/761355/30 "2016-07-31T22:27:12Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Harry Turtledove came up with the name H.N. Turteltaub when he began writing historical fiction. It wasn’t designed to hide his identity (turteltaub is the German word for turtledove). But Turtledove was an established writer in science fiction and fantasy and he was worried that if his historical fiction was published under his real name and didn’t sell, the lower sales would hurt his future book orders. So he invented a pen name so he could keep his historical fiction separate from his other work. He started writing as Eric G. Iverson, feeling that people would think his real name was a pseudonym. And he was right: there was a letter to _Analog_ complaining about a story and saying that “Turtledove” was an obvious pseudonym to make the point of the story. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-can-a-famous-pseudonym-last-without-revealing-its-author/761355.md?page=1)