Title: Nom de Plume: A (Secret) History of Pseudonyms
Author: Carmela Ciuraru
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: HarperCollins
Pub Date: Jun 2011
Read: Jun 2011
Source: the author asked me to review it and sent me a copy
Why: see above (it sounded interesting, so I said yes)
Fulfills Challenge? Yes.
Review/Thoughts:
So I’ll admit that just based off the (sub)title alone I actually thought the book was going to cover the history of pseudonyms…in a more general way. Once I read the synopsis of course, I realized I was mistaken. Me and my silly misconceptions.
What I liked about it: each vignette covers a different author (with the exception of the first, which covers all three Bronte sisters though focuses most heavily on Charlotte) and we get a biography of each of them. The biographies are tailored around the story of the pseudonym — not only where the pseudonyms originated, but tales of conflicted identities, dualities, feelings of not belonging, wanting to remain anonymous, etc. These themes crop up again and again (not surprisingly), and Ciuraru carefully crafts each biography around these themes to illustrate some of the reasons why each author chose to use a pseudonym. It also means that there are obviously going to be some holes in each person’s story since these are not meant to be comprehensive. I also appreciated the fact that Ciuraru covered some lesser known authors and pseudonyms. You have your big names such as George Orwell, Mark Twain, and George Eliot, but there’s also lesser knowns such James Tiptree, Jr., Henry Green, and Emile Ajar. The variety keeps this collection of biographical essays from totally falling into the “I’ve heard all this before” trap. You probably know the story of Mark Twain, but I doubt you’re familiar with James Triptree, Jr. (Alice Sheldon). My favorite was probably George Sand — now want to go out and read some of her books. Her story just seemed interesting to me. Least favorite…maybe Emile Ajar? I sped through most of them, so no complaints here.
Random, but I found it somewhat amusing that within the pages of this book is a man who died a virgin and a man who boasted having slept with 10,000 women (Fernando Pessoa and Georges Simenon respectively).
Thoroughly enjoyable I’d recommend for bookish nerds who haven’t read a comprehensive bio of every author here. Why the qualification? Because 1) if you have, there probably isn’t enough new material here 2) I had a former co-worker who possessed a seemingly infinite knowledge of everything and anything, and something tells me he’d find this boring because he’s probably heard/read it all before (Karin I bet you know who I’m talking about). Luckily, most of us still have a lot to learn!
Final Verdict: 
I just got an email about this book from Progressive Book Club. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like they’re actually selling it, just promoting an essay the author wrote for their blog. Bummer, because the book sounds awesome.
This sounds really interesting! I read about it a couple of weeks ago on The Ape’s blog – he enjoyed it as well.
This is the first time I actually DO know who you’re talking about! By the way, if you’re interested, there’s a costume drama starring Judy Davis about George Sand and her affair with Liszt called Impromptu. I think I vaguely remember it being melodramatic, but Judy Davis is always great.