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Throughout history, women have chosen to write under male names to get more publicity and to be taken seriously. As today is International Women’s Day, I think that some of these lovely ladies should be recognized.
I wonder if these’s any male writers who write under female names – such as if a guy is writing a romance book. Do you know any?
1. The Brontë Sisters
These ladies originally posted under the pseudonym names of Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell. As some of their books were pretty edgy for the time, like Wuthering Heights, it is completely understandable why the decision to take a male author name was chosen. Additionally, during this time, writing was not seen as something that a lady would do, so the decision to write under a males name was chosen.
2. Mary Ann Evans aka. George Eliot
The writings of George Eliot are up there with works by Charles Dickens! Dickens himself even believed that works under the name of Eliot were written by a female as he had never seen writing so beautiful!
3. Joanne Rowling aka. J.K. Rowling
This one is pretty commonly known now, but as it’s a modern book, you’d never think that writing under a males name was still needed. Part of the reasons was to help bring more males into the world. I guess men don’t want to read books written by women, or they may find the writing too girly. As Harry Potter is one of the most famous books out there, I guess she did pretty well for herself!
4. Pamela Lyndon Travers aka. P.L. Travers
Best known for her book Mary Poppins, it took two names before arriving on the better known P.L. Travers. She was born with the name Helen Lyndon Goff and later renamed herself Pamela Lyndon Travers. Fun fact: she hated children, really disliked the Mary Poppins film and was rumored to be quite a grouch!
5. Karen Blixen aka. Isac Dinesen
Best known for her book Out of Africa (which has a fantastic movie adaption by the way) she used her pen name, especially for her Gothic writings which were published in America. She used various pen names for various works.
6. Louisa May Alcott aka. A.M. Barnard
Best known for her work Little Women, which she published under her real name, she used her male pen-name to write her Gothic novels. This was because Gothic novels were seen as not being feminine but she wanted to write anyway!
7. Nelle Harper Lee aka. Harper Lee
Lee dropped her first name as she felt that it was too feminine and so opted for the second and third parts of her name. Best known for her novel To Kill a Mockingbird, she chose to write under a more gender-ambiguous name as all the popular authors during her time were men!
How many on this list were you familiar with?
