By anonymous

When Primary Colors came out, everyone speculated wildly about who might be the anonymous author. Names were bandied about including Garry Trudeau and George Stephanopoulos before reporter Joe Klein claimed it. Then there was The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer: My life at Rose Red, supposedly edited by Joyce Reardon. Many were certain it was actually the work of Stephen King, but it turned out to have been written by Ridley Pearson. There’s also Oakdale Confidential, which is a novel based on the soap opera As the World Turns and is a dishy tell-all by one of the soap’s characters, who for obvious reasons wishes to remain anonymous. This last one is a fake expose about a fictional town by a television character who doesn’t wish to be revealed. This is as unreal as it gets. More recently, Imperial Hubris came out with an anonymous author, later revealed to be Michael Scheuer.

In children’s fiction there’s A Series of Unfortunate Events by “Lemony Snickett”, who is actually Daniel Handler, and the classic Go Ask Alice who was finally unveiled as Beatrice Sparks, a psychologist who first claimed to have edited the book, and later admitted to authoring it based on a diary.

One thing is for sure about anonymous or veiled authors–it generates a buzz and plenty of speculation which is great for marketing and a lot of fun for readers who spend plenty of time guessing!

Originally posted at Readers Blog March 29th, 2009