Opposite Gender Pseudonyms Trivia Quiz

Answer: Amantine Lucile Aurore Dudevant

Amantine Dudevant (nee Dupin; 1804-1876) was a prolific French author whose works were very popular in her own lifetime. Not only did she adopt the male pseudonym, George Sand, but she also chose to wear male clothing, smoked tobacco and had intimate relationships with at least one woman, as well as men.

Although this was not unheard-of behaviour for the times, many of her contemporaries did not approve. For example, Victor Hugo stated "George Sand cannot determine whether she is male or female. I entertain a high regard for all my colleagues, but it is not my place to decide whether she is my sister or my brother."

Answer: Benjamin Franklin

When Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) was a teenager, he worked as an apprentice in his brother's print shop. His brother, James, published a newspaper called "The Courant". James refused to publish anything written by his brother, so Benjamin employed a pseudonym, "Mrs Silence Dogood", who was ostensibly a middle-aged widow. "Her" letters were extremely popular with the readers of "The Courant". James published 14 letters from Mrs Silence Dogood before he found out the true identity of the author. He was allegedly very angry at being deceived.

Benjamin Franklin appeared to like writing under pseudonyms. At various times, he wrote under the names Anthony Afterwit, Alice Addertongue, Timothy Turnstone, and Harry Meanwell. Perhaps his most famous pseudonym was Richard Saunders, whose name lives on in "Poor Richard's Almanac".

Answer: Joanne K. Rowling

JK Rowling (1965-) has two official websites, one for her works as JK Rowling and the other for her works as Robert Galbraith. On the JK Rowling website, she explained why she adopted the pseudonym of Robert Galbraith. She stated her original intention was "for the books to be judged on their own merit, and to establish Galbraith as a well-regarded name in crime in its own right". On her Robert Galbraith website, she said that " I really wanted to go back to the beginning of a writing career in this new genre, to work without hype or expectation and to receive totally unvarnished feedback. I wanted it to be just about the writing."

Answer: Karen Blixen

The author Karen Blixen (1885-1962) was born as Karen Christenze Dinesen. By virtue of her marriage, she became Baroness Karen von Blixen-Finecke. Her writings are best known under her pseudonym, Isak Dinesen, but she also wrote under the names Tania Blixen, Osceola, and Pierre Andrézel. She was nominated twice for a Nobel Prize for Literature.

Her second novel, and most well known work, "Out of Africa", was based on her life on a coffee plantation in Kenya. The book was made into a movie (released 1985) with Karen Blixen being portrayed by Meryl Streep.

Answer: L. Frank Baum

Lyman Frank Baum (1856-1919) was a prolific author of children's books which were written under a variety of pseudonyms, such as Edith Van Dyne, George Brooks, Louis F. Baum, Laura Bancroft, Suzanne Metcalf, Captain Hugh Fitzgerald, Schuyler Staunton, Floyd Akers and John Estes Cooke.

He is most famous for his book, "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz", the first in a series of 14 "Oz" books, which provided the inspiration for the award-winning movie, "The Wizard of Oz" (1939). As Edith Van Dyne, he wrote three series - the "Aunt Jane's Nieces" series, two "Flying Girl" books and the "Bluebird Books".

Answer: Mary Ann Evans

Mary Ann Evans (1819-1880) wrote under the pen-name of George Eliot, partly to protect her private life (she was having a relationship with a married man) and partly to evade the stereotype that women authors were limited to writing romantic and frivolous fiction, rather than serious works.

She felt that her works would be taken more seriously if they were thought to have been written by a man.

Answer: Tom E. Huff

Thomas Elmer Huff (1938-1990) wrote gothic and historical romance novels under his own name (T. E. Huff and Tom E. Huff), as well as under the female pseudonyms Jennifer Wilde, Katherine St Clair, Edwina Marlow, and Beatrice Parker (his mother's maiden name). He mostly wrote "stand-alone" novels but, under the name Jennifer Wilde, he wrote the "Marietta Danver" trilogy.

Huff mostly used female pseudonyms because, as he stated, "These books are read mainly by women, and when I first started writing them...we were afraid that women would only buy this kind of book if it were written by a woman".

Answer: Dean Koontz

Dean Ray Koontz (1945-) is an American author whose novels fall into a number of overlapping genres such as suspense, thrillers, horror, fantasy, science fiction, and mystery. He wrote under a number of pen-names, including Deanna Dwyer, Aaron Wolfe, Brian Coffey, David Axton, John Hill, K.R. Dwyer, Leigh Nichols, Anthony North, Owen West, and Richard Paige.

There are a number of published items which are alleged to have been written by Koontz, or Koontz and his wife, but he denies writing them. There is a considerable amount of information on Dean Koontz's official website regarding his pseudonyms and his works under those various names, as well as information regarding unauthorised works attributed to him. Koontz states that the ten pseudonyms listed above are the only ones he has ever used and that there are no other or secret pen-names.

Answer: Charles Leslie McFarlane

Carolyn Keene was the pseudonym under which the "Nancy Drew" book series were written. The books were commissioned by Edward Stratemeyer, the founder of the Stratemeyer Syndicate which originally produced the books. As well as Charles Leslie McFarlane, there were quite a number of male and female "ghost writers" who wrote under the name Carolyn Keene.

Charles Leslie McFarlane (1902-1977) also produced the first four volumes of the "Dana Girls" series as Carolyn Keene and a number of the early Hardy Boys books under the pseudonym Franklin W. Dixon.

Answer: Anne Bronte

The Bronte sisters, Anne, Charlotte and Emily, wrote under the pseudonyms Acton, Currer and Ellis Bell respectively, in order to avoid what they perceived as prejudice against female authors.

In the preface to the 1910 edition of Emily's "Wuthering Heights", Charlotte wrote the following:

"Averse to personal publicity, we veiled our own names under those of Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell; the ambiguous choice being dictated by a sort of conscientious scruple at assuming Christian names positively masculine, while we did not like to declare ourselves women, because - without at that time suspecting that our mode of writing and thinking was not what is called "feminine" - we had a vague impression that authoresses are liable to be looked on with prejudice; we had noticed how critics sometimes use for their chastisement the weapon of personality, and for their reward, a flattery, which is not true praise."