Pseudonyms of Russian writers of the 19th century. Pseudonyms of famous writers, which many consider their real names and surnames
A) pseudo-andronym(from the Greek pseudos - false and aner, Andros - man) - male name and surname adopted by the female author.
Often the writers were afraid that the publisher would not accept the manuscript, having learned that it was written by a woman, the reader would put the book away for the same reason, and the critic would scold. It was not easy to overcome the long-established prejudice to the creative work of women. Therefore, women writers often signed their works with male names.
AND I. Panaeva under the pseudonym I. Stanitsky published (together with N.A. Nekrasov) the novels “Three Countries of the World” and “Dead Lake”. Under the same name, she performed independently (the novels "Women's Lot", "Little Things in Life", etc.)
B) Pseudogynim (from the Greek gyne - woman) - a female name and surname adopted by a male author.
The propensity for similar hoaxes was also fed by the authors - men, who, on the contrary, signed with female names.
L.N. Tolstoy in 1858, he mystified the editor of the newspaper Den, I.S. Aksakov: having written the story “Dream”, he put N.O. under it. - the initials of N. Okhotnitskaya, who lived with Tolstoy's aunt T. Ergolskaya. The story was not published, it was first published only in 1928.
comic aliases
Paizonim (from the Greek raizein - to joke) is a comic pseudonym intended to produce a comic effect.
Comedians have always tried to sign in such a way as to achieve comic effect. This was the main purpose of their pseudonyms; the desire to hide one's name faded into the background here.
The tradition of funny pseudonyms in Russian literature dates back to the magazines of Catherine's time ("Very different things", "Neither this nor that", "Drone", "Mail of Spirits").
ON THE. Nekrasov often signed with comic pseudonyms: Bob Feklist, Ivan Borodavkin, Naum Perepelsky, broker Nazar Vymochkin of the Literary Exchange.
I.S. Turgenev feuilleton "Six-year-old accuser" signed: Retired teacher of Russian literature Platon Nedobobov.
Collective aliases
A) Koinonym (from Greek koinos - common) - a common pseudonym adopted by several authors writing together.
There are many cases when it was not the names of the co-authors that were masked, but the very fact of collective creativity: the work was signed with one surname, but two authors and even more stood behind it. One of the most striking examples is the famous Kozma Prutkov - a pseudonym L.N. Tolstoy and brothers Alexey, Alexander, Vladimir Zhemchuzhnikov. Calling the name Kozma Prutkov, we can say that this is a collective pseudonym and a parodic personality (mask) of a writer - an official, created by writers. For him, the authors also composed a biography with the exact dates of birth and death: “He was born on April 11, 1803; died January 13, 1863. Satirical poems, aphorisms of Kozma Prutkov ridiculed mental stagnation, political "good intentions", parodied the stupidity of officials. For the first time, the name appeared in print in 1854 on the pages of Literary Jumble, a humorous supplement to the Sovremennik magazine. But few people know that Kozma Prutkov had a real prototype in life - the valet of the Zhemchuzhnikovs, who bore this name and surname. ( Allonym (or heteronym) - the surname or name of a real person accepted as a pseudonym).
The play "Happy Day" written by A.N. Ostrovsky together with N.Ya. Solovyov in the estate of the first, Shchelykovo, was published in Otechestvennye zapiski (Notes of the Fatherland) (1877) signed Shch..., i.e. Shchelykovsky. ( Toponym - alias associated with a particular location)
So in the magazine "Pantheon", in three issues, an extensive poetic feuilleton "Provincial clerk in St. Petersburg" is published ON THE. Nekrasov under a pseudonym - Feoklist Bob, and after a few issues the continuation of “Provincial clerk again in St. Petersburg. The trouble is imminent and the joy is mighty ”already under the pseudonym Ivan Gribovnikov. Later I. A. Pruzhinin, K. Pupin, Alexander Bukhalov and others will appear; almost nothing is printed under his own name.
They didn't come up with it themselves
It happened that the pseudonym was not chosen by the author himself, but in the editorial office of a magazine or newspaper, where he brought his first work, or friends, or the person who helped publish the book.
This is, for example, one of the signatures ON THE. Nekrasov, concealing a hint of censorship harassment. The poet was not allowed to publish the second edition of the poems for a long time. Finally, in 1860, one of the courtiers, Count Adlerberg, who enjoyed great influence, obtained the necessary visa from the censorship department, but subject to the introduction of numerous banknotes. “Still, they cut you off, put a muzzle on you! he said to the poet. “Now you can sign under comic verses like this: Muzzles.” Nekrasov followed this advice, signing his satirical poems Savva Namordnikov.
Neutronim - an alias that does not cause any associations
In addition to the reasons for the emergence of pseudonyms, which are discussed in the abstract, there are many more that cannot be classified. In addition, it is not always possible to accurately determine the motives for which certain pseudonyms are taken. There may be several options for explaining a single case of using a pseudonym instead of a real name, unless, of course, there is evidence of the owner of the pseudonym or his contemporary.
Sirin and Alkonost. Bird of Joy and Bird of Sorrow. Painting by Viktor Vasnetsov. 1896 Wikimedia CommonsI. Alias "with meaning"
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Perhaps the most important pseudonym for Russia of the XX century - Maksim Gorky. It belonged to Alexei Maksimovich Peshkov (1868-1936), a writer and playwright who came from the very bottom of society. The Soviet government loved Gorky not so much for his talent, but for his origin and life experience: the gifted self-taught from Nizhny Novgorod spent his youth wandering around Russia and participated in several underground Marxist circles. In 1892, the 24-year-old Peshkov published his first story "Makar Chudra" in the Tiflis newspaper "Kavkaz" and signed it "M. Bitter". Subsequently, the letter "M." became the name "Maxim", probably in honor of the writer's father.
The meaning of the fictitious surname "Gorky" is clear to any reader of the first collection of stories and essays by the young author (1898): he wrote about thieves and drunkards, sailors and workers, about what he later called "wild music of labor" and "lead abominations of wild Russian life ". The success of Gorky's stories was stunning: according to the Russian Writers biographical dictionary, more than 1860 materials were published about the writer in just eight years - from 1896 to 1904. And ahead of him was a long life and colossal fame. In particular, his native Nizhny Novgorod was renamed Gorky in 1932, that is, during the life of the author. And the huge city bore the name of the writer, or rather, his pseudonym until 1990.
It should be noted that Alexei Maksimovich in his youth did not use the pseudonym for long. Yehudiel Chlamys. Under this name, he wrote several satirical feuilletons on local topics in Samarskaya Gazeta in 1895.
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The first novels of Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977) were published under the pseudonym V. Sirin. In 1920, the future writer came with his parents to Berlin. Vladimir Dmitrievich Nabokov (1869-1922) was a major political figure, one of the founders of the Constitutional Democratic Party, and continued to engage in politics in post-revolutionary emigration, in particular, he published the Rul newspaper in Berlin. It is not surprising that Nabokov Jr. began to publish under an assumed name, otherwise the reading public would have been completely bewildered by the abundance of V. Nabokov in periodicals. Under the pseudonym Sirin, Mashenka, Luzhin's Defense, King, Queen, Jack, the magazine version of The Gift, and several other works were published. The meaning of the word "Sirin" did not cause doubts among readers: a sad, beautiful-voiced bird of paradise.
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Boris Nikolaevich Bugaev (1880-1934) refused his own name and surname, entering the annals of Russian poetry, prose (and versification) as Andrei Bely. The symbolist pseudonym for the young Bugaev was invented by Mikhail Sergeevich Solovyov, brother of the famous philosopher Vladimir Solovyov. It is believed that the name Andrei was supposed to remind of the first of the called apostles of Christ, and Bely - of the white color, in which all the colors of the spectrum are dissolved.
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In the 1910s, a native of the Kherson province, Efim Pridvorov (1883-1945), began to publish poems under the name Demyan Poor. The success of his writings was so great that in honor of this “Bolshevik of a poetic kind of weapon” (as Leon Trotsky spoke of him), the old town of Spassk in the Penza province was renamed Bednodemyanovsk in 1925, and under this name, which for a long time survived the glory of the proletarian poet, the city lasted until 2005.
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The writer Nikolai Kochkurov (1899-1938) chose a speaking pseudonym for himself with a sarcastic tinge: under the name Artem Vesely in the late 1920s and early 1930s, he published several books about the revolution and the Civil War that were popular in those decades (the novel Russia Washed with Blood, the story Rivers of Fire, the play We).
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A student of Maxim Gorky, Alexei Silych Novikov (1877-1944), who served in the Russo-Japanese War as a sailor, added one thematic word to his own surname and became known as a seascape writer Novikov-Priboy. He wrote the novel "Tsushima" (1932), one of the most popular military-historical novels in the USSR, and a number of short stories and novellas. It is noteworthy that Novikov-Priboy made his debut as the author of two essays on the Battle of Tsushima, published under the pseudonym A. Worn out.
II. Exotic pseudonyms and hoaxes
Elizaveta Ivanovna Dmitrieva. 1912 Wikimedia Commons One of the most famous literary hoaxes of the early 20th century was Cherubina de Gabriac. Under this name, in 1909, Elizaveta Ivanovna (Lilya) Dmitrieva (married Vasilyeva, 1887-1928) published her poems in the symbolist magazine Apollon. She was patronized by Maximilian Voloshin (whose, by the way, real name is Kireenko-Voloshin). Together they managed to create a charming and mysterious literary mask, and Apollo, headed by Sergei Makovsky, published two cycles of poems by the young and noble Spanish recluse Cherubina. Soon the hoax was revealed, one of the unexpected consequences of this revelation was the duel between Nikolai Gumilyov, who had previously courted Vasilyeva, and Maximilian Voloshin on the Black River (of all places in St. Petersburg!). Fortunately for Russian poetry, this duel ended without bloodshed. It is interesting that Vyacheslav Ivanov, who visited Dmitrieva herself in the Tower, according to Voloshin's memoirs, said: “I really appreciate Cherubina's poems. They are talented. But if it's a hoax, then it's genius."
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In the mid-1910s, Moscow publications regularly published poems, feuilletons, and parodies of the caustic Don Aminado. This exotic name was chosen by Aminad Petrovich Shpolyansky (1888-1957), lawyer and writer, memoirist. His parodies of famous poets of the beginning of the century, including Balmont and Akhmatova, enjoyed great success. After the revolution, Shpolyansky emigrated. His aphorisms, popular with readers of emigre Russian-language periodicals, were included in the collection Neskuchny Sad as a single cycle entitled The New Kozma Prutkov.
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The pseudonym of Alexander Stepanovich Grinevsky (1880-1932) should go under the exotic category: the author of the timeless romantic novels "Scarlet Sails" and "Running on the Waves", the creator of the sonorous fictional cities of Zurbagan and Liss signed his books with a short foreign surname Green.
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The name of Nadezhda Alexandrovna Buchinskaya, nee Lokhvitskaya (1872-1952) says little to the modern reader, but her pseudonym is taffy is much better known. Teffi is one of the most caustic authors in Russian literature, the author of the inimitable "Demonic Woman" and a long-term contributor to "Satyricon", the main humorous magazine of pre-revolutionary Russia. In the story "Pseudonym" Taffy explained the origin of this name from "one fool", because "fools are always happy." In addition, by choosing a strange, meaningless, but sonorous and memorable word, the writer bypassed the traditional situation when women writers hide behind male pseudonyms.
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Daniil Ivanovich Yuvachev (1905-1942) used dozens of pseudonyms, but the most famous of them is Kharms. A questionnaire filled out in 1925 by the poet has been preserved. He called Yuvachev-Kharms his last name, and when asked if he had a pseudonym, he answered: “No, I write Kharms.” Researchers have linked this short, catchy word to English harm("harm"), French charme("charm"), Sanskrit dharma(“religious duty, cosmic law and order”) and even with Sherlock Holmes.
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You just have to get into the exotic aliases section Grivady Gorpozhaks. Alas, only one work belongs to Peru of this author - a parody of a spy novel called "Jean Green - Untouchable" (1972). Three authors were hiding behind the impossible Grivadiy at once: the poet and screenwriter Grigory Pozhenyan (1922-2005), the military intelligence officer and writer Ovid Gorchakov (1924-2000) and none other than Vasily Aksenov himself (1932-2009). Perhaps, after Kozma Prutkov, this is the brightest collective literary pseudonym.
III. Turned surnames, or anagrams
I. Repin and K. Chukovsky. Caricature of Mayakovsky from the album "Chukokkala". 1915 web-web.ru Almost certainly the most massive author of the 20th century who wrote in Russian is Korney Chukovsky: in Russia it is difficult to grow up without Aibolit and Telephone, Mukha-Tsokotukha and Moidodyr. The author of these immortal children's tales at birth was called Nikolai Vasilyevich Korneichukov (1882-1969). Even in his youth, he created a fictitious name and surname from his surname, and a few years later added the patronymic Ivanovich to them. The children of this remarkable poet, translator, critic and memoirist received patronymics Korneevichi and surnames Chukovsky: such a “deep” use of a pseudonym is not often found.
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Composing pseudonyms by rearranging the letters of your own name is an old literary game. For example, the famous fabulist Ivan Andreevich Krylov (1769-1844) used the wild but pretty signature Navi Volyrk several times. In the 20th century, Mark Alexandrovich Landau (1886-1957), better known as Mark Aldanov, author of the tetralogy "The Thinker" about the French Revolution, the trilogy about the Russian Revolution ("Key", "Escape", "Cave") and several other large and small works.
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Alias value Gaidar, taken by Arkady Petrovich Golikov (1904-1941), a classic of Soviet children's literature, still raises questions. According to Timur Arkadyevich, the writer's son, the answer is as follows: “G” is the first letter of the name Golikov; "ay" - the first and last letters of the name; "d" - in French "from"; "ar" - the first letters of the name of the native city. G-AY-D-AR: Arkady Golikov from Arzamas.
IV. Pseudonyms for journalism
Illustration from the book Key to the upper Devonian of southern New York: designed for teachers and students in secondary schools. 1899 A chisel is a tool for working metal or stone. Internet Archive Digital Library Being published under a pseudonym as a literary critic is a long-standing journalism tradition, even by modest (chronologically, not qualitatively) Russian standards. And the sun of Russian poetry did not disdain to sign with a fictitious name (Feofilakt Kosichkin). So by the beginning of the 20th century, the pseudonyms of publicists had just become an optional phenomenon. For example, Nikolai Stepanovich Gumilyov (1886-1921), publishing in his own journal Sirius, used the pseudonym Anatoly Grant. And Yuri Karlovich Olesha (1899-1960), collaborating in the famous satirical department of the Gudok newspaper, signed as Chisel.
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The journalistic pseudonym had to be catchy, otherwise readers might not pay attention to it. Thus, the poetess and writer Zinaida Gippius (1869-1945) signed critical articles in the journals Libra and Russian Thought as Anton Krainy. Among the faces of Valery Bryusov (1873-1924) were Aurelius, And Harmodius, And Pentaur. And the author of popular stories for youth at the beginning of the 20th century, book historian and memoirist Sigismund Feliksovich Librovich (1855-1918) was published in the Bulletin of Literature, signing Lucian the Strong.
V. Pseudonyms "as appropriate"
Ivan III breaks the khan's charter. Painting by Alexei Kivshenko. 1879 Wikimedia Commons Seventeen-year-old Anna Andreevna Gorenko (1889-1966) did not dare to publish the first poems under her own name and took her great-grandmother's surname as a pseudonym - Akhmatova. Under the Tatar name, she remained in literature. In her autobiographical essay “The Booth”, written in 1964, she dwelled on the importance of this name for history: “My ancestor Khan Akhmat was killed at night in his tent by a bribed Russian assassin, and this, as Karamzin narrates, ended the Mongol yoke in Rus'.”
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Both authors of The Twelve Chairs and The Golden Calf wrote under pseudonyms. Evgenia Petrova(1902-1942) was actually called Yevgeny Petrovich Kataev, he was the younger brother of Valentin Kataev (1897-1986) and preferred to become famous under a fictitious (semi-fictional in his case) name. Ilya Ilf(1897-1937) at birth received the name Ilya Arnoldovich Fainzilberg, but shortened it almost to the initials - Il-f.
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A separate chapter in the story about pseudonyms should be written by writers who changed their German, Polish, Jewish surnames to Russian ones. So, the author of "The Naked Year" and "The Tale of the Unextinguished Moon" Boris Pilnyak(1894-1938) at birth bore the surname Vogau, but changed it for the publication of his first youthful writings and later published only under a fictitious surname, meaning a resident of a village where a forest is sawn.
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Vikenty Vikentievich Veresaev(1867-1945), the author of the timeless "Doctor's Notes", came from an old gentry family Smidovich; a major figure in the Bolshevik movement and a party leader in Soviet times, Pyotr Smidovich is the second cousin of the writer.
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Traveler Vasily Yanchevetsky (1874-1954), having taken up historical fiction and succeeded in this field, shortened his surname to Jan. Under this name, readers of "Fires on the Mounds", "Genghis Khan" and "Batu" know him.
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Author of "Two Captains" Veniamin Aleksandrovich Kaverin(1902-1989) was born into the Zilber family, but, having entered the literary field, he borrowed the surname from a friend of A. S. Pushkin, a daring hussar and rake Pyotr Kaverin. It is remarkable that Zilber defended his dissertation at Leningrad University on Osip Senkovsky, the most popular writer in the middle of the 19th century, who became famous under the pseudonym Baron Brambeus. And Osip Ivanovich was the master of the pseudonym: he signed, among other things, "Ivan Ivanov, the son of Khokhotenko-Khlopotunov-Pustyakovsky, a retired lieutenant, a landowner of various provinces and a gentleman of purity" and "Dr. Karl von Bitterwasser."
Writers, especially beginners, often take literary pseudonyms for themselves, the reasons for this can be very different. And it often happens that these pseudonyms of theirs “grow together” with the authors so much that they replace real names and surnames for many in life.
A.P. Chekhov and his pseudonyms
Chekhov was the greatest master of inventing pseudonyms. He had over forty of them.
And the most famous, which everyone knows from the school bench, of course, was Antosha Chekhonte. It was under this pseudonym that, while still a medical student, Chekhov sent his first humorous stories to magazines. Antosha Chekhonte was jokingly called the young student Chekhov by one of the teachers of the gymnasium.
And it is all the more surprising that out of so many pseudonyms, none of them “got accustomed”. For all Chekhov, as he was, and remained Chekhov.
Grin Alexander - Grinevsky Alexander Stefanovich
At school, the guys addressed Alexander briefly - “Green!”, And one of his childhood nicknames was “Green-pancake”. Therefore, it was precisely such a pseudonym that he chose for himself, without much hesitation. " I feel like only Green, and it seems strange to me when someone says: Grinevsky. It's someone I don't know". Even his third wife, when changing her surname, received a passport in the name of Nina Green.
Chukovsky Korney Ivanovich - Korneychukov Nikolai Vasilyevich
The fact that he was illegitimate, in his youth, was very burdensome for Chukovsky. And having taken up literary activity, he began to use a pseudonym, which was his last name, divided into two parts: Korneichukov = Korney + Chukov + sky.
Subsequently, without further ado, he also came up with a middle name for him - "Ivanovich". After the revolution, changing his real name, patronymic and surname to a pseudonym, he became Korney Ivanovich Chukovsky also according to his passport.
Anna Akhmatova - according to the passport Anna Gorenko
After her divorce from Gumilyov, Anna took the name Akhmatova as a pseudonym. The female branch of her mother was descended from the Tatar Khan Akhmat. She later recalled: Only a seventeen-year-old crazy girl could choose a Tatar surname for a Russian poetess ... That's why it occurred to me to take a pseudonym for myself, because dad, having learned about my poems, said: "Do not shame my name." “And I don’t need your name!” - I said…»
Ilya Ilf - Ilya Arnoldovich Fainzilberg
There are several versions about the origin of this pseudonym, and one of them is as follows:
In his youth, Ilya Fainzilberg worked as a journalist, wrote articles for newspapers. But his last name was not very well suited for the signature - it was too long and difficult to pronounce. Therefore, Ilya often abbreviated it - either “Ilya F”, then “IF”, then “Falberg”. And, in the end, it turned out - "Ilf".
Evgeny Petrov - Evgeny Petrovich Kataev
Eugene was the younger brother of the then-famous writer Valentin Kataev. Not wanting to use the fruits of his fame, he came up with a literary pseudonym for himself, forming it on behalf of his father, that is, from his patronymic. So Evgeny Kataev became Evgeny Petrov.
Arkady Gaidar - Golikov Arkady Petrovich
Arkady Golikov, under his real name, wrote only the first book - "In the days of defeats and victories." All the rest were published under the pseudonym Gaidar, under which he became a well-known writer.
As for the origin of this pseudonym, one can only guess about it.
It may have originated from the Mongolian "gaidar" - "a rider galloping in front."
According to another version, while on duty in Khakassia, Gaidar often had to ask the locals - “haidar”? ("where to go"?). Perhaps that's how this word - "haydar" stuck to him.
Daniil Kharms - Daniil Ivanovich Yuvachev
The writer Daniil Yuvachev also invented many pseudonyms for himself (Khharms, Khaarms, Dandan, Charms, Karl Ivanovich Shusterling, etc.), signing one of them, then another. Until he finally settled on one thing - Daniil Kharms. However, its meaning is interpreted ambiguously. “Sharm” in French means “charm”, while “charm” in English means “harm”, “suffering”. But based on what Kharms once wrote in his diary: “ Yesterday dad told me that while I was Kharms, I would be haunted by needs.”, then the English version is still preferable. The writer adored this pseudonym to such an extent that he even manually attributed it to his surname in the passport.
There are also many examples in Western literature when pseudonyms replaced the real names of the authors:
O. Henry - William Sydney Porter
Lewis Carroll - Charles Lutwidge Dodgson
Voltaire - Francois-Marie Arouet
Stendhal - Marie-Henri Beyle
Mark Twain - Samuel Langhorne Clemens
Pseudonyms are also widely used in Eastern literature. So, everyone heard the name of the Japanese poet who lived in the 17th century - Basho.
But this is also a pseudonym, and it means " banana tree O". At his house, the poet planted a banana tree, which he looked after. Neighbors began to call him that - "basenoo" - an old man living near a banana. His real name - Matsuo Munzfusa - few people know.
And in continuation of the literary theme.
Representatives of creative professions often use pseudonyms, the reasons for this can be very different, I have always wondered why people take a different name for themselves, and in general it is surprising to find out that the name of the writer you are used to is not real. I decided to compile a selection of famous writers who used a pseudonym.
1. Boris Akunin, aka Anatoly Brusnikin and Anna Borisova - pseudonyms of Grigory Chkhartishvili
Initially, he published his works as B. Akunin. The Japanese word "akunin" (jap. 悪人), according to one of the heroes of the novel "Diamond Chariot", is translated as "scoundrel, villain", but of gigantic proportions, in other words, an outstanding personality standing on the side of evil. And it was precisely such villains that Erast Fandorin met throughout his career. Deciphering "B" as "Boris" appeared a few years later, when the writer began to be interviewed frequently.
He publishes critical and documentary works under his real name.
2. George Sand - real name Amandine Aurora Lucile Dupin, married - Baroness Dudevant.
At the beginning of her writing career, Aurora wrote with Jules Sando (French novelist): the novels "The Commissioner" (1830), "Rose and Blanche" (1831), which had great success with readers, came out for his signature, since Casimir Dudevant's stepmother ( husband of Aurora) did not want to see her name on the covers of books. Already on her own, Aurora began a new work on the novel "Indiana", the theme of which was the opposition of a woman looking for ideal love, a sensual and conceited man. Sando approved the novel, but refused to sign someone else's text. Aurora chose a male pseudonym: it became for her a symbol of deliverance from the slave position to which modern society doomed a woman. Keeping the surname Sand, she added the name Georges.
3. Richard Bachman is the pseudonym under which Stephen King published The Fury, The Long Walk, Roadworks, The Running Man, and Losing Weight.
There are two versions of the reasons that prompted King to take a pseudonym. The first is to see if his alter ego can achieve the same success as himself. The second explanation is that the publishing standards of the time allowed only one book per year. The surname Bachman was not taken by chance, he is a fan of the Bachman-Turner Overdrive musical group.
4. Joe Hill Real name - Joseph Hillstrom King, son of Stephen King.
Wanting to achieve literary success on his own, without using the fame of his father's name, he adopted the pseudonym "Joe Hill". It was both short for his real name Joseph and his middle name Hillstrom, and alluded to the man after whom, in fact, he received the name Joseph Hillstrom - a famous American labor activist of the early XX century and songwriter Joe Hill, who was unjustly accused of murdered and executed in an American prison in 1915.
5. Robert Galbraith is the pseudonym of JK Rowling, used for the Cormoran Strike detective cycle.
According to Rowling herself, the publication of the book under a pseudonym relieved her of the pressure to meet the expectations of readers and meet the fixed level of quality, and, on the contrary, made it possible to hear criticism of a work that does not contain her name. She told the Sunday Times magazine that she hoped that her involvement in writing the novel would not be revealed soon.
The publisher's website claimed that Robert Galbraith is the pseudonym of a former member of the Royal Military Police's Special Investigations Department, who quit in 2003 and moved into the private security business.
6. George Elliot real name Mary Ann Evans
Like many other writers of the 19th century (George Sand, Marco Vovchok, the Bronte sisters - “Carrer, Ellis and Acton Bell”, Krestovsky-Khvoshchinskaya) - Mary Evans used a male pseudonym in order to arouse a serious attitude towards her writings in the public and taking care of the inviolability his personal life. (In the 19th century, her writings were translated into Russian without disclosing a pseudonym, which was inclined like a male name and surname: "George Eliot's novel").
7. Kir Bulychev real name Igor Vsevolodovich Mozheiko
Published fantastic works exclusively under a pseudonym. The first fantasy work, the story "The Debt of Hospitality", was published as a "translation of the story of the Burmese writer Maun Sein Ji". Subsequently, Bulychev used this name several more times, but most of the fantastic works were published under the pseudonym "Kirill Bulychev" - the pseudonym was composed of the name of his wife - Kira and the maiden name of the writer's mother. Subsequently, the name "Kirill" on the covers of books began to be written in abbreviated form - "Kir." There was also a combination of Kirill Vsevolodovich Bulychev. The writer kept his real name secret until 1982, because he believed that the leadership of the Institute of Oriental Studies would not consider science fiction a serious occupation, and was afraid that after the disclosure of the pseudonym he would be fired.
8. Arkady Gaidar, real name Golikov
Vladimir Soloukhin in the artistic and publicistic book "Salt Lake" cites a story according to which the pseudonym "Gaidar" is associated with the activities of A.P. Golikov in the position of head of the 2nd combat region of the CHON of the Achinsk district of the Yenisei province (now the Republic of Khakassia) in 1922-1924 years:
“Gaidar,” Misha said slowly, as usual, “the word is purely Khakassian. Only correctly it sounds not "Gaidar", but "Khaidar"; and it means not “going forward” and not “forward-looking”, but simply “where”. And this word stuck to him because he asked everyone: “Haydar?” That is, where to go? He did not know any other Khakas words.
The name "Gaidar" reminded the writer of his school years, meaning that "G" in this name meant "Golikov", "ay" - "Arkady", and "dar", as if echoing the hero of Alexander Dumas D'Artagnan, "in the French manner" meant "from Arzamas". Thus, the name "Gaidar" stands for "Golikov Arkady from Arzamas".
The third version of the origin of the pseudonym and surname: from the Ukrainian "gaidar" is a shepherd of sheep. Arkady Golikov's childhood is connected with the Gaidars, as he spent several summer months with them for several years in a row. He liked these places and childhood memories so much that he chose the pseudonym Arkady Gaidar.
9. Teffi Real name Nadezhda Aleksandrovna Lokhvitskaya
For the first time, the name Teffi (still without initials) appears in the 51st issue of the Theater and Art magazine, in December 1901 (this is the second publication of the writer). Perhaps Teffi took a pseudonym because, long before the start of her literary activity, her older sister, the poetess Mirra Lokhvitskaya, whom critics called the "Russian Sappho", gained fame. (By the beginning of her literary career, Teffi had already divorced her first husband, by whom she bore the surname Buchinskaya). According to the researchers of Teffi's work, E. M. Trubilova and D. D. Nikolaev, the pseudonym for Nadezhda Alexandrovna, who loved hoaxes and jokes, and was also the author of literary parodies, feuilletons, became part of a literary game aimed at creating an appropriate image of the author.
The version of the origin of the pseudonym is stated by the writer herself in the story "Pseudonym". She did not want to sign her texts with a male name, as contemporary writers often did: “I didn’t want to hide behind a male pseudonym. Cowardly and cowardly. It is better to choose something incomprehensible, neither this nor that. But what? You need a name that would bring happiness. Best of all is the name of some fool - fools are always happy. She “remembered one fool, really excellent and, in addition, one who was lucky, which means that fate itself recognized him as an ideal fool. His name was Stepan, and his family called him Steffi. Having discarded the first letter out of delicacy (so that the fool would not become arrogant), "the writer "decided to sign her play" Teffi "". After the successful premiere of this play, in an interview with a journalist, when asked about her pseudonym, Teffi replied that "this is ... the name of one fool ... that is, such a surname." The journalist remarked that he was "told it was from Kipling." Taffy, who remembered such a name from Kipling, as well as the song "Taffy was a walesman / Taffy was a thief ..." from Trilby, agreed with this version.
10. Mark Twain Real name Samuel Langhorne Clemens
Clemens claimed that the pseudonym Mark Twain was taken by him in his youth from the terms of river navigation. Then he was a pilot's assistant on the Mississippi, and the cry "mark twain" (English mark twain, literally - "mark deuce") meant that, according to the mark on the lotlin, the minimum depth suitable for the passage of river vessels was reached - 2 fathoms (≈ 3 .7 m).
However, there is a version about the literary origin of this pseudonym: in 1861, Vanity Fair published a humorous story by Artemus Ward (Artemus Ward) (real name Charles Brown) "Northern Star" about three sailors, one of whom was named Mark Twain. Samuel was very fond of the comic section of this magazine and read Ward's works in his first speeches.
In addition to "Mark Twain", Clemens signed once in 1896 as "Sir Louis de Comte" (fr. Sieur Louis de Conte) - under this name he published his novel "Personal Memories of Joan of Arc by Sir Louis de Comte, her page and secretary.
11. Max Frei is a literary pseudonym of two authors - Svetlana Martynchik and Igor Styopin
The book cycle was written by Svetlana Martynchik in collaboration with Igor Stepin and published under the pseudonym "Max Fry". The authors maintained some anonymity by not revealing a pseudonym and not appearing in public precisely as the authors of the novels (while they were known as artists). On the site "Physiognomy of the Russian Internet" under the name of Max Fry, there was a portrait of an unknown black man. Together with the jokes of the Azbuka publishing house that Max Fry is a blue-eyed black man, this served as food for rumors that “literary blacks” write under a pseudonym.
My pseudonym was chosen precisely because of my hero. I wanted the name of the author and the name of the character from whom the story is being told to match. Svetlana Martynchik
Maria Zakharova notes that the language game characteristic of Max Frei's texts also manifests itself in the choice of a pseudonym: "for example, Max Frei - max frei (German) -" maximally free "" and "it is important to note that both Max Frei and Holm Van Zaichik - fictitious, “game”, pseudonyms of Russian-speaking authors"""
12. O. Henry real name William Sidney Porter
In prison, Porter worked in the infirmary as a pharmacist (a rare profession in prison came in handy) and wrote stories, looking for a pseudonym for himself. In the end, he settled on the O. Henry variant (often spelled incorrectly like the Irish surname O'Henry - O'Henry). Its origin is not entirely clear. The writer himself claimed in an interview that the name Henry was taken from the secular news column in the newspaper, and the initial O. was chosen as the simplest letter. He told one of the newspapers that O. stands for Olivier (the French name for Olivier), and indeed, he published several stories there under the name Olivier Henry.
According to others, this is the name of the famous French pharmacist Etienne Ocean Henry, whose medical reference book was popular at that time.
Another hypothesis was put forward by the writer and scientist Guy Davenport: “Oh. Henry" is nothing more than an abbreviation of the name of the prison where the author was imprisoned - Ohio Penitentiary (Ohio State Penitentiary). Also known as the Arena District, which burned to the ground on April 21, 1930.
Al Jennings, who was in prison with Porter and became famous as the author of the book Through the Darkness with O. Henry , where there are such lines: "The beloved returned at 12 o'clock. Tell me, about Henry, what is the sentence?" .
There is an opinion that “The famous American writer W. Porter took the pseudonym O. Henry in honor of the physicist J. Henry, whose name was constantly pronounced with admiration by the school teacher: “Oh! Henry! It was he who discovered that the discharge of a capacitor through a coil is oscillatory! "" His first story under this pseudonym - "Dick the Whistler's Christmas Present", published in 1899 in McClure's Magazine - he wrote in prison.
13. George Orwell. Real name Eric Arthur Blair
Starting with the story based on autobiographical material "Pounds of dashing in Paris and London" (1933), he published under the pseudonym "George Orwell".
14. Ilya Ilf and Evgeny Petrov
Ilya Ilf - Ilya Arnoldovich Fainzilberg The pseudonym is formed from part of the name and the first letter of the surname: ILYA Fainzilberg. Evgeny Petrov - Evgeny Petrovich Kataev The younger brother of the writer Valentin Kataev did not want to use his literary fame, and therefore came up with a pseudonym formed from his father's name.
15. Alexander Grin real name Grinevsky
The writer's pseudonym was the childhood nickname Green - this is how the long surname Grinevsky was shortened at school.
16. Fannie Flagg Real name Patricia Neal
At the beginning of her acting career, she had to change her name, because despite the sonority, the Oscar winner was also called.
17. Lazar Lagin Real name Ginzburg
Pseudonym Lagin - short for Lazar Ginzburg - the name and surname of the writer.
18. Boris Polevoy Real name Kampov
The pseudonym Polevoy was obtained as a result of the proposal of one of the editors to “translate the Kampov surname from Latin” (campus - field) into Russian. One of the few pseudonyms invented not by the carrier, but by other persons.
19. Daniil Kharms Real name Yuvachev
Around 1921-1922, Daniil Yuvachev chose the pseudonym "Kharms" for himself. Researchers have put forward several versions of its origin, finding its origins in English, German, French, Hebrew, Sanskrit. It should be noted that in the writer's manuscripts there are about forty pseudonyms (Khharms, Khaarms, Dandan, Charms, Karl Ivanovich Shusterling and others). When applying for entry into the All-Russian Union of Poets on October 9, 1925, Kharms answers the questions of the questionnaire in the following way:
1. Surname, name, patronymic: "Daniil Ivanovich Yuvachev-Kharms"
2. Literary pseudonym: "No, I'm writing Kharms"
20. Maxim Gorky real name - Alexei Maksimovich Peshkov
The pseudonym M. Gorky first appeared on September 12, 1892 in the Tiflis newspaper "Kavkaz" in the caption to the story "Makar Chudra". Subsequently, the author said: “Don’t write to me in literature - Peshkov ...”
21. Lewis Carroll real name Charles Lutwidge Dodgson
This pseudonym was coined on the advice of the publisher and writer Yates. It is formed from the real names of the author "Charles Lutwidge", which are correspondences of the names "Karl" (lat. Carolus) and "Louis" (lat. Ludovicus). Dodgson chose other English equivalents of the same names and swapped them.
22. Veniamin Kaverin real name Zilber
The pseudonym "Kaverin" was taken by him in honor of the hussar P.P. Kaverin, a friend of the young Pushkin, bred by him under his own name in the first chapter of "Eugene Onegin"
23. Voltaire's real name is François-Marie Arouet
Voltaire - an anagram of "Arouet le j (eune)" - "Arue the younger" (Latin spelling - AROVETLI
24. Kozma Prutkov
The literary mask under which the poets Aleksey Tolstoy (the largest contribution in quantitative terms), the brothers Aleksey, Vladimir and Alexander Zhemchuzhnikovs (in fact, the collective pseudonym of all four)
25. Stendhal's real name is Marie-Henri Beyle
As a pseudonym, he took the name of Winckelmann's hometown, the laurels of which he claimed. Why Frederick is often added to the pseudonym Stendhal is a mystery.
26. Alberto Moravia
His real surname was Pinkerle, and his later pseudonym Moravia was the surname of his Jewish paternal grandmother.
27. Alexandra Marinina real name - Marina Anatolyevna Alekseeva
In 1991, Marina Alekseeva, together with her colleague Alexander Gorkin, wrote the detective story "Six-winged Seraphim", which was published in the magazine "Police" in the fall of 1992. The story was signed with the pseudonym "Alexandra Marinina", made up of the names of the authors.
28. Andrey Platonov - real name Andrey Platonovich Klimentov
In the 1920s, he changed his surname from Klimentov to Platonov (a pseudonym derived from the name of the writer's father).
29. Eduard Limonov real name Savenko
The pseudonym "Limonov" was invented by cartoonist Vagrich Bakhchanyan
30. Joseph Kell - under this pseudonym, the novel "Inside Mr. Enderby" by Anthony Burgess was released
Fun fact - the editor of the newspaper where Burgess worked didn't know that he was the author of Inside Mr. Enderby, so he assigned Burgess to write a review - thus the author wrote a review of his own book.
31. Toni Morrison Real name - Chloe Ardelia Wofford
While studying at Harvard, she acquired the pseudonym "Tony" - a derivative of her middle name Anthony, which, according to her, was given to her when she converted to Catholicism at the age of 12
32. Vernon Sullivan
The pseudonym of Boris Vian, who used 24 pseudonyms, Vernon Sullivan is the most famous of them.
33. André Maurois Real name - Emil Erzog
Subsequently, the pseudonym became his official name.
34. Mary Westmacott (Westmacott)- the pseudonym of the English writer, master of detectives, Agatha Christie, under which she released 6 psychological novels: "The Giants' Bread", "An Unfinished Portrait", "Separated in the Spring" ("Missing in the Spring"), "Rose and Yew", "Daughter is a daughter "," Burden "(" The burden of love ").
35. Molière's real name is Jean-Baptiste Poquelin
36. Yuz Aleshkovsky real name Joseph Efimovich Aleshkovsky
37. Sirin V. - pseudonym of Vladimir Nabokov
38. Pamela Travers real name Helen Lyndon Goff
39. Daria Dontsova - real name - Agrippina
40. Knut Hamsun real name Knud Pedersen
41. Anatole France real name - Francois Anatole Thibault
42. Daniel Defoe - real name Fo
43. Ayn Rand, nee Alisa Zinovievna Rosenbaum
44. Irving Stone real name Tennenbaum
What is an alias? The word is of Greek origin, and literally means a false (fictitious) name. Most often, pseudonyms are used by famous personalities - artists, athletes, scientists, religious figures, etc.
One of the most famous pseudonyms of Russian writers is Maxim Gorky, under which Alexei Maksimovich Peshkov worked. The practice of using a literary name other than the real one is quite wide and dates back to time immemorial. Often we get so used to famous names that we don’t even suspect that a completely different person is hiding under them, and sometimes a whole creative team. What are the reasons for this? Let's consider this in more detail.
In ancient times, and even today in some nations, a person's name could change several times throughout life. This happened in connection with significant events, emerging character traits or external signs, career, place of residence or other changes in a person's life. At the same time, it was often difficult to distinguish a pseudonym from a nickname, that is, a name given by others. For example, given the fragmentary biographical data, mainly taken from legends, today it is difficult to say whether the term Valmiki was a nickname for the Indian religious poet Ratnakar or a classical pseudonym in today's sense.
English Literature
No less popular are pseudonyms among writers and poets in English-speaking countries. Samuel Langhorne Clemens is known as one of the founders of American literature under the name Mark Twain. The pseudonym was taken from the terminology of the pilots of the Mississippi River, with which the life and work of the great writer are closely connected - literally mark twain meant the minimum allowable depth for the passage of the vessel, two fathoms. However, already a well-known writer, Clemens published one of his novels under the ornate name of Sir Louis de Comte.
O. Henry is one of the most famous names in American short fiction, but not everyone knows that it appeared during a three-year prison sentence, which was served by bank clerk William Sidney Porter, accused of embezzlement. Although he wrote before, even published a literary magazine, it was at this moment that the story "Dick the Whistler's Christmas Present" was published with the name O. Henry, under which William Porter will go down in history.
Another reason for the appearance of a pseudonym for Lewis Carroll. The son of the parish priest, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, was very versatile, and if photography or chess were on a slightly different plane, then publishing works in the field of mathematics and works of art under the same name seemed inappropriate to him. Therefore, in the mathematical field, the works of Charles Dodgson are known, and as the author of the popular fairy tale "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and many other works, we know Lewis Carroll. The pseudonym is formed by interchanging the synonyms of the name and surname: Charles - Karl - Carroll and Lutwidge - Louis - Lewis.
Initially, many English writers published under pseudonyms or anonymously due to doubts about their talent, and only after success was the real name revealed. For almost his entire life, Walter Scott, originally known for his poetry, published novels incognito, signing himself "the author of Waverley" (his first published novel), and only a few years before his death, intrigued readers learned the real name of the writer. The first samples of Charles Dickens's pen were published under the playful nickname of Boz, who came from childhood, and only after checking the success of his work, the writer began to use his own name. The famous prose writer and playwright John Galsworthy signed his first stories and novels as John Sinjon.
Hungary
The role of Sandor Petofi in the development of Hungarian poetry can be compared with Pushkin for Russia or Shevchenko for Ukraine. In addition, he was an active participant in the Hungarian national liberation movement. But it turns out that the ethnic Serb Alexander Petrovich worked under this pseudonym.
The tradition continued among Soviet writers. For example, the editor suggested a pseudonym for the writer Boris Kampov, translating his last name from Latin (campus - field). As a result, we know him under the name Boris Polevoy.
One of the most famous pseudonyms of children's writers and poets is Korney Chukovsky, under whom Nikolai Korneichukov worked. A little later, Ivanovich also acquired a full-fledged patronymic name - Nikolai Korneichukov himself was illegitimate and did not have a patronymic. After the revolution, the pseudonym became his official full name, and his children bore the patronymic Korneevichi.
A similar situation happened to Arkady Golikov - his pseudonym Gaidar became a surname for him and his children.
Kirill Simonov had a problem with diction - he was not given the sounds "p" and a hard "l", so he changed his name to Konstantin and entered the history of Soviet literature with him. At the same time, his children wore a "real" patronymic - Kirillovichi.
Researcher Igor Mozheiko believed that his literary work would interfere with his main professional activity, so he used the name of his wife, Kira, and his mother's maiden name, becoming known as Kir Bulychev.
Grigory Shalvovich Chkhartishvili, according to him, took a pseudonym, since many editors and readers could not pronounce his last name. This is how the well-known author of detectives Boris Akunin appeared. Works that were not included in Akunin's "classical canvas" he signed as Anatoly Brusnikin and Anna Borisova.
In the same area, Marina Alekseeva, known as Alexandra Marinina, is published abundantly.
If at the beginning of the 20th century many carriers of foreign surnames aspired to become Russian in literature, then by the end of the century the situation changed - in order to somehow separate from the mass of one-day novels, some writers took foreign pseudonyms. One of the most famous examples is Dmitry Gromov and Oleg Ladyzhensky signing their joint works as Henry Lion Oldie. Initially, the surname was taken from the first two letters of each name (OLeg and DIma) with initials corresponding to the surnames of G.L. The "deciphering" of the initials was made later, at the request of one of the editorial offices with which the authors collaborated.
Conclusion
This article did not set the task of revealing the origin or at least listing all the pseudonyms used among prose writers and poets - special reference and encyclopedic resources are created for this. Therefore, you may not find many favorite and well-known names. The main task is to explain the main causes of this phenomenon and give the most typical examples.
