BY THE SAME AUTHOR
‘The Foundation Saga
Prelude to Foundation
Foundation :
Foundation and Empire
Second Foundation
Foundation’s Edge
Fowsidation and Earth
Galactic Empire Novels
‘The Currents of Space
Pebble in the Sky
Earth is Room Enough
The Martian Way
The End of Eternity
The Winds of Change
‘Asimov's Mysteries
The Gods Themselves
Nightfall Ono
Nightfall Ton
Buy Jupiter
The Bicentennial Man
Nine Tomorrows
Robor Stories and Novels,
1, Robot
‘The Rest of the Robots
‘The Complete Robot
‘The Caves of Steel
‘The Naked Sun
The Robots of Dawn
Robots and Empire
Nebula Award Stories 8 editor)
The Science Ficional Solar System
(editor, with Martin Greenberg,
and Charles G. Waugh)
Non-fiction
‘The Stars in their Courses
The Left Hand of the Electron
Asimov on Science Fiction
The Sun Shines Bright
Counting the Fons
Far As Hiean Eye Could See
Detection
“Tales of the Black Widowers
More Tales of the Black
Widowers
Casebook of the Black Widowers
Authorised Murder
‘The Union Club Mysteries
The Final Science fiction -
CollectionPSEUDONVINS
(T LIAS QUITE FASHIONABLE, in earlier times, to refrain from putting
‘one’s name to things one had written. The writer could leave himself
unnamed (“anonymous”—from Greek words meaning “no name”),
of else he could use a false name (“pseudonym”—from Greek
words meaning “false name”). So common was the practice that a
pseudonym is often referred to as a “pen-name,” oF to give it
greater elegance by placing it in French, a “nom de plume.”
There were a variety of reasons for this. In most places in the
world and at most times, it was all too easy to write something that
would get you in trouble. The corruption, venality, and cruelty of
those in power cried out for exposure, and those in power had the
strongest objections ro being exposed. For that reason, writers had
to expect all sorts of governmental correction if ceught—anywhere
from a fine to death by torture.
The best-known example of this type of pseudonym was
Voltaire, the eighteenth century French satirist, whose real name
was Francois-Marie Arouet. 7
'A second major reason was that any nonscholarly writing was
looked upon as rather frivolous, and a decent person guilty of concoct-
Bs)ing such material might well be looked upon askance by society, and
considered as having lost caste. A pseudonym, therefore, preserved
respectability. This was especially crue of women who were widely con-
sidered subhuman in mentality (by men) and who would have shocked
the world by a too-open demonstration of the possession of brains.
‘Mary Ann Evans, therefore, wrote under the name of George Eliot,
‘and Charlotte Brontié at first wrote under the name of Currer Bell.
‘One would think that neither reason would hold for the world
of modern Ametican science fiction. Why should anyone fear pun-
ishment for writing science fiction in our free land, or why should
‘anyone fear the loss of respectability if convicted of the deed. And
It is conceivable, particularly in the early days of magazine sci-
cence fiction, that people in the more sensitive professions, such as
teaching, would not have cared to have it known that they wrote
*pseudo-scientific trash” and so would protect themselves from lack
of promotion, or outright dismissal, by the use of a pseudonym. I
don’t know of such cases definitely, but J suspect some.
It is even more likely that in the bad old days before the
‘women’s movement became strong, women who wrote science fic-
tion concealed their sex from the readers (and even, sometimes,
from the editors). Science fiction was thought to be a very masculine
pursuit at the time and I know two editors (no names, please, even
though both are now dead) who insisted on believing that women
could not write good science fiction, Pseudonyms were therefore
necessary if they were to sell anything at all.
Sometimes, women did not have to use pseudonyms. Their first
names might be epicene, and that would be protection enough. Thus,
Leslie F Stone and Leigh Brackett were women but, as far as one could
tell from their names, they might be as masculine as Leslie Fiedler and
Leigh Hunt. Editors and readers at first believed they were.
‘Or women might simply convert names to initials. Could you
tell that A. R. Long owned up to the name of Amelia, or that C. L
‘Moore was Catherine to her friends?
There were other reasons for pseudonyms in science fiction. In
the early days of the magazine many of the successful writers could
only make a living by writing a great deal just as fast as they could,
for a variety of pulp markets. They might use different names for
different markets, creating separate personalities, so to speak, that
wouldn't compete with each other. Thus Will Jenkins wrote for the
slicks under his own name, but adopted the pseudonym Murray
Leinster when he wrote science fiction.
Sometimes, even within the single field of science fiction, par-
ticular writers wrote too many stories. They were so good that edi-
tors would cheerfully buy, let us say, eighteen stories from them in a
particular year in which they only published twelve issues of their
magazines. This meant (if you work out the arithmetic carefully)
that it would be necessary to run more than one story by them in a
single issue now and then, and editors generally have a prejudice
against that, Readers would feel they were cheated of variety, or sus-
pect that editors were showing undue favoritism, or who knows
what, Therefore some of the stories would be put under a
pseudonym,
‘The pseudonyms might be transparent enough. For instance,
Robert A. Heinlein at che height of his magazine popularity wrote
half his stories under the name of Anson MacDonald, but Bob's
middle initial A. stood for Anson, and MacDonald was the maiden
name of his then-wife. Similarly, L. Ron Hubbard wrote under the
name of Rene Lafayette, but the initial L. in Hubbard's name was
Lafayette, and Rene was a not-too-distant version of Ron, Still, as
long as the readers were led to believe that not too many stories of
one author were included in the inventory, all was well.
Sometimes, an author is so identified with a particular type of
story, that when he writes another type of story, he doesn’t want to
confuse the reader by false associations—so he adopts a new name,
Thus, John W. Campbell was a writer of super-science stories of cos-
mic scope, and one day he wrote a story called “Twilight” which
was altogether different. He put it under the name of Don A. Stuart
(his then-wife’s maiden name was Dona Stuart, you see) and rapidly
made that name even more popular than his own.
Sometimes, an author simply wants to separate his writing
activities from his nonwriting activities, if they are of equal impor-
tance to him. Thus, a talented teacher at Milton Academy, who is
named Harry C. Stubbs, writes under the name of Hal Clement.
He's not hiding. Hal is short for Harry, as all Shakespearian devo-
tees know, and the C. in his full name stands for Clement.
Again, my dear wife has practiced medicine for over thirty
years as Janet Jeppson, M.D. As a writer she prefers J. O. Jeppson.
‘The earnings fall inco two different slots as far as the LR. is con-
cerned and that makes it convenient for her bookkeeping.
In my own case, [have eschewed pseudonyms almost entirely;
Tam far too fond of my own name, and far too proud of my writing
to want to sail under false colors for any reason. And yet, in one or
wo cases,“Thus in 1951, I was persuaded to write a juvenile science fiction
novel in the hope that it would be sold as the beginning of a long-lived
television series. (Those were early days, and no one understood how
television was going to work.) I objected, very correctly T think, that
TV might ruin the stuff and make me ashamed of having my name
associated with it, My editor said, “Then use a pseudonym.”
did, plucking Paul French out of the air for the purpose, and
eventually wrote six novels under that name. (Some people, with lit-
tle knowledge of science fiction, assumed from this that all my SF
‘was written under Paul French, a suggestion that simply horrified
me.)
[As soon as it was clear that TV was not interested in my juve-
niles, I dropped all pretense, and made use of the Three Laws of
Robotics, for instance, which was a dead giveaway. Eventually,
‘when it was time for new printings, [had my own name put upon it,
‘Again, in 1942, I wrote a short story for an editor who wanted
it done under a pseudonym in order to give the impression that it
was by a brand-new author. (The reason is complicated and I won't
bore you with it, You'll find it in my autobiography.) I wrote it,
reluctantly, under the name George E. Dale, but eventually included
it in my book The Early Asimov as a story of my own.
Also, in 1942, I sold a story to the magazine Super Science Sto-
ries which printed it under the pseudonym H. B. Ogden, for reasons
{no longer remember. (Even my memory has its limits.) So litle did
Tare for the story, and so unhappy was I over the nonuse of my
name that 1 totally forgot about it, until nearly forty years later
when I was going over my diary carefully in order to prepare my
autobiography.
Twas shocked to find there was a story of mine that I had for~
gotten and didn’t own in printed form. Fortunately, with the help of
Rorrest J. Ackerman I got the issue and reprinted the story in the
first volume of my autobiography, In Memory Yet Green, acknow!-
edging it as my own.
In 1971, I was persuaded to write a book entitled The Sensi
ous Dirty Old Man, in which I gently satirized sexual how-to books
such as The Sensuous Woman. Since the latter book was writsen by
42 writer identified only as “J,” my editor felt the joke should be car-
ried on by having my book written by “Dr. A.” Even before publica
tion day, however, it was announced that I was the author and my
identity was never a secret.
"At the present moment, then, absolutely none of my writing
appears under anything but my own name,
~
eee P|
ISAAC ASIENOU
‘Which brings up onc puzzle. The early pulps occasionally
made use of “house names.” A particular magazine would use a
pscudonym that was never used except in that magazine, but that
pseudonym might be used by any number of different writers. I have
never really understood why this was done and if any reader knows
Twould appreciate being told.
ya