Pseudonyms

are contrived substitutions for the names normally employed by people in everyday life. The synonym “pen name” captures the meaning perfectly: an instrument used for writing. The history of crime and mystery literature abounds in pseudonyms.

The motive for adopting a pseudonym may be commercial, as when the prolific author of fiction about Dr. Gideon Fell and other sleuths substituted Carter Dickson for John Dickson Carr to identify his authorship of a distinct series of novels featuring Sir Henry Merrivale. Disguise was hardly the point for Carr, just as it was not for Erle Stanley Gardner when he wrote as A. A. Fair. A book in the series about Bertha Cool and Donald Lam was sometimes advertised by the publisher as “An A. A. Fair novel by Erle Stanley Gardner.” John Creasey may be the record holder for pseudonyms, since his industrial output required him to devise at least seventeen pen names.

Other authors have also adopted pen names to sort out their series novels when there is unlikely to have been any commercial demand for it from their publishers. Dennis Lynds, who writes non-criminal works, gained fame as Michael Collins, author of the Dan Fortune stories. Lynds, however, has also been William Arden, Mark Sadler, and John Crowe, each substitution allowing Lynds to establish authorial continuity for different series figures. The fact that Lynds has also written novels about The Shadow as Maxwell Grant and about Nick Carter as, of course, Nick Carter reflects another purpose of pseudonyms related to publishing practices. Immensely popular long-running characters require many more writers than one over their life span, so publishers use writers for hire under “house names.” The champion in this category must be Frederic Merrill Van Rensselaer Dey, who claimed to have written 1,000 Nick Carters. J. Randolph Cox says it was only 437, although it probably seemed like many more.

Sometimes a pseudonym is a means of disguise. Carolyn Gold Heilbrun became Amanda Cross for her stories about the accidental detective Kate Fansler in order to protect herself from possible charges by other academics that she was not a serious writer. Disguise can extend to questions of gender, as with the famous Anthony Gilbert who was Lucy Beatrice Malleson away from her writing desk.

Take away the wish for concealment and plenty of reasons for using pseudonyms remain. J. I. M. Stewart, a noted literary historian, signed Michael Innes to his detective works. Cecil Day-Lewis, the poet, became Nicholas Blake the detective author. Both cases indicate a wish to pursue distinct careers without the chance of confusion. This was also probably why the historical and satiric novelist Gore Vidal chose to be Edgar Box when he wrote three detective novels. Fulton Oursler, known for inspirational works, naturally enough needed a pseudonym when he wrote mysteries, but he showed special ingenuity, or so it is reported, when he decided to be Anthony Abbot so that his books would be at the top of alphabetical listings.

Given the literary bent of the authors of detective fiction, it is not surprising to find subtle cross-references present in their use of pseudonyms. Robert Bruce Montgomery took the name Edmund Crispin from a character created by J. I. M. Stewart when he was Michael Innes. Doris Bell Collier Ball took for her detective writing the feminized version of Arthur Conan Doyle's model for Sherlock Holmes and became Josephine Bell.

The wish for simplification has led some authors to create substitute signatures out of their given names. Anthony Berkely left off the family name Cox when he wrote detective fiction. Ernest Bramah Smith chose to write as Ernest Bramah. On the other hand collaborations also create special variations on given names. Emma Lathen, who is also R. B. Dominic, in real life is the writing partnership Mary J. Latis and Martha Henissart. The twin brothers Peter Shaffer and Anthony Shaffer write together as Peter Anthony. Kenneth Millar also had a family reason for using a pseudonym. His wife Margaret Millar had already achieved note as a writer, so he became Ross Macdonald.

The motives for adopting pseudonyms are many, but their prevalence among authors of detective fiction says as much about the repute of the genre as it does about its practitioners. Herman Melville did not alter the name on his title pages when he undertook different literary forms, nor did Charles Dickens, because they were determined to make their (real) names as writers of the consensually approved kinds of literature. Writers of popular detective fiction, however, contend with the knowledge that their work maybe classed in the second tier of literature because it is believed to be less profound. Fame and repute may therefore be fleeting. As a result the proprietary sense is less, the author more detached from his or her product and more likely, then, to entertain one of the many reasons for using a pseudonym.

See also Allusion, Literary.

—John M. Reilly