PSEUDONYMS

   Reasons for using pseudonyms are very various, but almost always involve concealment. So obvious is this that it might seem to go without saying; but in fact many reference books altogether disregard the factor of concealment in their use of the term, and often designate as pseudonyms variations upon real names made to heighten impact (C.J. Cherry, for instance, writes as C.J. CHERRYH), or to shorten or simplify a spelling (Francis A. Jaworski writes as Frank JAVOR), or to select part of a fullor married name for public use (Piers Anthony Jacob writes as Piers ANTHONY, and Kate Wilhelm Knight writes under her maiden name, KateWILHELM). For this encyclopedia we have chosen to designate as "working names" all such variations; and we restrict the term "pseudonym" to names which, whether or not the author's legal name is known, have no clear lexical relationship to that name (we do not treat acronyms or mirror spellings as conveying a clear lexical relationship). Thus Christopher ANVIL is a pseudonym for Harry Crosby, as are Bron Fane (a partialacronym) and Trebor Thorpe (the given name here being a mirror spelling) for Robert Lionel FANTHORPE, and Frederick R. Ewing for Theodore STURGEON. In almost all cases the main entry for individuals covered in this volume,whether authors, editors, illustrators, critics or film-makers, appears under the name by which they are best known, whether that be the legal name (Isaac ASIMOV), the working name (Algis BUDRYS) or the pseudonym (James TIPTREE Jr).All the author's names that have been used for an sfbook - real, working or pseudonymous - appear in this encyclopedia, either as the headword for an entry or as a cross-reference headword directing the reader to the entry under which they are treated. Many (but not all) names that have been used only for sf non-book stories are likewise cross-referred, but with the additional notation see. Cross-reference entries which designate real figures (who may be collaborators, etc., and who on occasion may themselves be pseudonymous) are identified with the notation see. Collaborative pseudonyms, floating pseudonyms and house names are given entries. A collaborative-pseudonym entry will usually give details of books written together under that name by the authors concerned. A floating-pseudonym entry covers a name which is, in a sense, freely available for anyone who cares to use it. (Ivar JORGENSEN is an example of a floating pseudonym.) A house name - which is a kind of floating pseudonym - is an imaginary name invented by a publishing company, and such were very frequently used in magazines to conceal the fact that an author had more than one story in a given issue; e.g., had Robert SILVERBERG sold 2 stories to a particular issue of a ZIFF-DAVISmagazine (e.g., AMAZING STORIES), one of the stories might be published under a Ziff-Davis house name such as Alexander BLADE or E.K. JARVIS - usually, though not necessarily, the story of which he had less reason to be proud. House names might also be used in a case where an author did not want it known that he was selling stories to a certain magazine; and (especially in the UK 1950-65) house names were very frequently used bymass-production houses like CURTIS WARREN or BADGER BOOKS to conceal the fact that a small team of writers was producing huge numbers of books in whatever genre the firm required.Pseudonyms - as we said - are forms of concealment. We might add the observation that, in the sf world, pseudonyms were, for many years, very common. The reasons for their popularity were various and (generally) obvious. They have always flourished in PULP-MAGAZINE environments, where writers, being paid pittances for most of the early decades of GENRE SF, were forced to write voluminously, and often needed to use several names during their years of high production before burn-out; the low prestige of sf also undoubtedly inspired their use; and (perhaps mysteriously) many sf writers have clearly enjoyed the creation and maintenance of pseudonymous identities. The most recent guide to sf pseudonyms - Roger ROBINSON's Who's Hugh?(1987) - contains about 3000 ascriptions, and is already seriously out of date, having been compiled too early to take properly into account the remarkable 1980s revival in the use of every kind of pseudonym, usually by authors of TIES and adventure series. The flood of concealment is, once again, rising.

   JC/PN