Why Authors Use Of False Names

There are many reasons why people use fake names when they are writing books and poems. One of the main reasons is that they wont get published under their real name so they have to use a fake one. So in this essay I will be telling you why and how people changed their real name into a fake name. One main reason why authors will change their name is because that’s the only way that they would get published. For example in the article What’s in a name it says “ When a local newspaper refused him publication sixteen year-old Benjamin Franklin started writing letters to the editor under the persona of the middle-aged widow Silence Dogood. This shows how he had to change his name to get published and no one new it was him. This even happens today J.K. Rowling did the same to get published she didn’t think she would get published under her real name so she used a fake one, or her initials.
Women couldn’t wright under there real names because they wouldn’t get published. There were lots of expectations on them and writing wasn’t one of the expectations. Another example is Introducing Jane Eyre: An Unlikely Victorian Heronie it states Works such as Charles Dickens’ Hard Times, George Eliot’s [another woman using a male pen name].” This shows how great women authors had to have a fake name in order for people to read their work. (Source 1) My other reason is why people had to use pen names were because the way people were treated under their real name. Some of the publishers would send letters to the authors and those letters weren’t so nice. Take the Letter from Robert Southey to Charlotte Brontë as an example, “ Many volumes of poems are now published every year without attracting public attention.” This is telling us that he doesn’t think that her poem will ever get any attention so she would have to change her name if she wanted anyone to read