The word snoop - Ursula Dubosarsky 2009

Pen names
Is that a real person?

Have you ever read a book by Theodor Geisel? No? I bet you have. I’ll give you a hint, there’s this story about a cat with a hat . . .

Aha! Of course—Dr. Seuss. But Dr. Seuss wasn’t the name he was born with. It was his pen name, a name a person uses when he publishes a book. This is also known as a pseudonym, Greek for “false name,” or a nom de plume,which is French for “name of pen.” In Theodor Geisel’s case, Seuss was his middle name. He began using it when he was a young man, drawing and writing for a university magazine. Later, he added the “Dr.” for fun, in honor of the doctoral degree he never managed to get at the university.

So why didn’t he just use his own name in the first place? Well, sometimes writers want to use a different name for different kinds of writing. The mathematics professor Charles Lutwidge Dodgson used the pen name Lewis Carroll when he wrote Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, because he wanted to keep his real name for his books about mathematics and philosophy. It was the same for Daniel Handler, a writer for adults, when he decided to use a pen name for his series of unfortunately eventful children’s books. You know who I mean . . . Lemony Snicket.

There can be all sorts of other reasons for using a pen name. The French novelist Albert Camus, who won the Nobel Prize for literature, wrote under the pen name Bauchard during World War II to trick his enemies. The Irish writer Oscar Wilde used the name Sebastian Melmoth after he came out of prison, because he thought that people might be prejudiced against him. And the playwright Molière took on this one-word name so his family wouldn’t be embarrassed (in those days people didn’t think the theater was a respectable place to work). His real name was Jean-Baptiste Poquelin.

Some female writers have written under pen names too, either because they wanted to keep their privacy, or because they were afraid that people didn’t think women should write books. This happened a lot in the nineteenth century. Jane Austen, the author of Pride and Prejudice, wrote all her novels anonymously, without any name on them at all. (Now that’s shy!) And one of the greatest writers of the nineteenth century, George Eliot, was actually a woman named Mary Ann Evans. The wonderful Australian novelist Henry Handel Richardson was really named Ethel Richardson, just as fellow writer Miles Franklin’s real first name was Stella.

It can work the other way as well—a man might choose to write under a woman’s name. The author of The Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum, also used the names Laura Bandcroft and Edith Van Dyne. He must have wondered exactly who he was sometimes . . .

It’s not surprising, when you think about it, that authors like to use pen names. After all, it comes naturally to a writer to make up characters. It’s fun and exciting to become another person for a while—like being an undercover agent! The Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard sometimes signed his books John of Silence. Hmm, that gets me thinking. How about Elspeth of Imagination or Ali the Ambidextrous or . . .

What pen name would you use, snoops? You could try using an anagram of your own name. That’s what the inventor of the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell, did—he wrote articles under the name H. A. Largelamb, a pen name he made up for himself as a child. Or you could just let your imagination go wild! Here are a few nutty pen names of some very respectable authors, just to give you some ideas.

Michael Angelo Titmarsh

C. J. Yellowplush, Esq.

Miss Tickletoby

(Real name: William Makepeace Thackeray,

author of Vanity Fair)

Malachi Malagrowther

Captain Clutterbuck

Crystal Croftangry

(Real name: Sir Walter Scott, author of Ivanhoe)

Isaac Bickerstaff

A. Dissenter

M. B. Drapier

(Real name: Jonathan Swift,

author of Gulliver’s Travels)

Hmm, the Word Snoop. Do you think that could possibly be a pen name . . . ?

Uh-oh, Word Snoops, we’re up to the second to the last code! (Will you miss them when they’re gone?) See how quickly you can figure this one out. (Hint: How well can you count?)

WHO AM I?

MY FIRST IS IN WALRUS

MY SECOND IS IN DOLPHIN

MY THIRD IS IN PORCUPINE

MY FOURTH IS IN GANDER

MY FIFTH IS IN GOATS

MY SIXTH IS IN PIT-PONY

MY SEVENTH AND EIGHTH ARE IN COCKATOO

MY NINTH IS IN RED SHRIMP

Answers

SPOONERISMS

1. It’s pouring rain outside.

2. That’s a pack of lies!

3. Would you like a bowl of salad?

4. I don’t have time to do my chores.

5. Do you live on this block of houses?

6. Bye all!

MALAPROPISMS

1. An ambidextrous person can write with both hands.

2. Stop being such an idiot!

3. She was rushed to the hospital with a bad case of pneumonia.

4. The old man with gray hair looked very distinguished.