The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms - Ross Murfin 2018

Nom de plume

Nom de plume: From the French, an author’s “pen name.” The term most commonly refers to pseudonyms, entirely fictitious names adopted by writers seeking to mask their identities or to publish works differing in kind or quality under different names. The term may also apply more broadly, however, to whatever name an author uses for publication. Thus, Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens), Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel), and J. K. Rowling (Joanne Rowling) may all be called noms de plume.

Although the term nom de plume is taken from the French, the French themselves use the phrase nom de guerre.

EXAMPLES: Benjamin Franklin wrote under the nom de plume Richard Saunders in his serial Poor Richard’s Almanack (1733—58); French novelist Marie-Henri Beyle wrote under the nom de guerre Stendhal. Nineteenth-century female writers who adopted male pseudonyms include Amandine Aurore Lucie Dupin and Mary Ann Evans, who published, respectively, as George Sand and George Eliot. Twentieth-century Chilean poets Lucila de María del Perpetuo Socorro Godoy Alcayaga and Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto are also better known by their noms de plume, Gabriela Mistral and Pablo Neruda. Contemporary novelists who have used pen names include Michael Crichton, who also writes as Jeffery Hudson and John Lange and has coauthored a book with brother Douglas Crichton under the single joint nom de plume of Michael Douglas; Anne Rice, who has written pornography under the name A. N. Roquelaure; and Rowling, who authored not only the Harry Potter series (1997—2007) but who also writes crime novels — e.g., Career of Evil (2015) — under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith.