Use of Pseudonyms in Chareidi Literature

[Yehuda57]

I don't want this to pollute the other thread, hence the new thread.

Rabbi Moshe Grylak

BDE.

Am I remembering correctly that Chaim Eliav is his pen name, under which he wrote In the Spider's Web and other books?

ETA: https://www.artscroll.com/Items.aspx?author=Chaim_Eliav&rewrite=30

ETA: Confirmed

Thanks for sharing, that's one of my 2 favorite childhood books, along with Blackout.
BD"E.

Seems Yair Weinstock (Blackout) used a pseudonym to get started as well (unless Yair Weinstock is also a pseudonym?).

Of course, I have no data to prove this, but I get the feeling the use of pseudonyms is far more prevalent in chareidi literature, fiction specifically, than other circles. I'm wondering why that is. Are authors worried how they will be perceived? Do authors who write under their real names regret it?

[Dan]

Was wondering about this as well.

[Euclid]

I don't want this to pollute the other thread, hence the new thread.
BDE.

Am I remembering correctly that Chaim Eliav is his pen name, under which he wrote In the Spider's Web and other books?

ETA: https://www.artscroll.com/Items.aspx?author=Chaim_Eliav&rewrite=30

ETA: Confirmed


Seems Yair Weinstock (Blackout) used a pseudonym to get started as well (unless Yair Weinstock is also a pseudonym?).

Of course, I have no data to prove this, but I get the feeling the use of pseudonyms is far more prevalent in chareidi literature, fiction specifically, than other circles. I'm wondering why that is. Are authors worried how they will be perceived? Do authors who write under their real names regret it?

Legit thought cw was a pseudonym until recently.

[username]

Avner Gold. Though in his recently revised books, he says who he is. He actually is a mechaber seforim.

[mevinyavin]

Was wondering about this as well.

+1
As an author, I have thought about this myself. I came up with two reasons, maybe there are more.
The author of TNT (Torah Novel Thoughts) is a friend of a relative. He wrote something he thought was controversial and decided he wasn't interested in the potential negative feedback changing to personal, and the only way to contact him is (as I can recall) an email address. He certainly has an intense writing style, but I don't recall reading anything controversial. https://www.amazon.com/TNT-Torah-Novel-Thoughts/dp/B00Q3HBHCY
Humility is another reason, especially when books are written by talmidim. However, I personally wouldn't take my name off a book myself because of this. Writing anonymously is commonly used when a person is not willing to face up to what he says, and this is one of the dangers of the internet where almost everyone goes without a true name. The stigma attached to that means that anyone who wants to accomplish something in the world needs to stand behind what he writes or risk wasting his work. On the other hand, novels may not be written to accomplish this (sometimes), but rather, an idealogue just wants people reading his book instead of anything else so can afford anonymity. (IMHO a voracious reader cannot be satisfied by Jewish literature if he/she does not get the same satisfaction from seforim, because there just aren't enough books and they also cost too much. In my teens, I read six or more books a week.)
Agav, as a few users know, my name is not on the one sefer I did write, because I was paid to ghostwrite it. Ironic, perhaps, but the sefer I am working on now will IY"H have my name.
EDIT: I suppose a third reason is disassociation, if the real name would result in more people not taking the book seriously.

[dm123]

Avner Gold. Though in his recently revised books, he says who he is. He actually is a mechaber seforim.

The book needed an author’s name on the cover. Rabbi Reinman did not want to use his own name because he thought people would not respect his sefer if they saw him as a fiction writer, and in any case, what was the point of using his own name if the book was only a throwaway? So he had to come up with a pseudonym. He liked the name Avner, and as for a surname, his neighbor’s aunt was named Gold. Why not Avner Gold?

https://thevoiceoflakewood.com/converging-paths/

And here's an interview with him on seforim chatter
https://seforimchatter.com/2022/06/07/with-r-yaakov-yosef-reinman-aka-avner-gold-discussing-his-historical-fiction-book-series-the-strasbourg-saga/

[Yehuda57]

Excellent points

Humility is another reason, especially when books are written by talmidim. However, I personally wouldn't take my name off a book myself because of this.

My grandparents wrote a few books which were published by the official Lubavitch organization in England. Someone (if I recall correctly, it was Mrs Azimov, wife of the head Shliach to France) once asked my grandfather why he doesn't put his name on them, and he gave his regular humble answer, and she told him, "don't do it for yourself. Do it for your grandchildren." He didn't listen. As he got older and had grandchildren, he remembered her words and regretted not listening.

Writing anonymously is commonly used when a person is not willing to face up to what he says, and this is one of the dangers of the internet where almost everyone goes without a true name.

I've mentioned this elsewhere, a now-defunct blog I used to follow only allowed comments from signed-in users with the comment, "If it's not worth taking credit for, it's probably not worth saying!"

I suppose a third reason is disassociation, if the real name would result in more people not taking the book seriously.

The Rebbe was wont to say when encouraging a message to be shared that it need not be in his name if that will discourage people from listening to the message.

[ExGingi]

When is it a Pseudonym and when is it a Nom de plume?

[yfr bachur]

Shu"t Besamim Rosh and Yerushalmi Kodshim come to mind...
There are also claims that the Zohar is too...

[moko]

Shu"t Besamim Rosh and Yerushalmi Kodshim come to mind...
There are also claims that the Zohar is too...

not often that you get a heter for suicide

[sds1493]

Mishna Berura 

 

[zh cohen]

I am not sure that pen names are more common in the Frum community, but if it is I can think of two reasons;

1 - Authors might not want potential employers/mechutanim to identity them as "the guy who writes fiction" (especially since that is not their primary occupation/identity).

2 - Since the Frum community is a small world, there is a greater loss of privacy in publishing under your own name. You are more likely to interact with people who know you from your book than (all but the most successful) secular authors are.

[Pony]

Lhavdil to fiction novels, the Chazon Ish, The Steipler, Reb Chaim Kanievsky and Reb Ahron Leib Shteinman all do not have their names in their seforim (although its hinted in the name of the sefer).

[Yehuda57]

My OP is primarily about fiction - I get the humility of not using your own name.

My curiosity is if there is a worry about people viewing fiction writing as some sort of negative or stain on the author's character, that they feel they will be taken less seriously in other areas of their work (as implied above with "Avner Gold"), or is it something else?

The yomim tovim editions of Ami and Mishpacha have these booklets with short fiction stories, IIRC none have the authors' names. I would think at least *some* of them would be proud to be published.

[username]

Lhavdil to fiction novels, the Chazon Ish, The Steipler, Reb Chaim Kanievsky and Reb Ahron Leib Shteinman all do not have their names in their seforim (although its hinted in the name of the sefer).

As well as Sefer Chofetz Chaim

[YitzyS]

I don't know the reason for Avner Gold, but I can think of a good reason. He's a lamdan who published seforim and someone asked him to write a story book. He has a talent for it and did it as a favor (first book of his, The Promised Child, was sent out as a tzedakah mailer for Bais Kaila), and was not really interested in associating his persona at the time with fiction. I imagine that was a reason, but I guess someone can just ask him.

[moish]

As well as Sefer Chofetz Chaim

His name is there

[zh cohen]

they feel they will be taken less seriously in other areas of their work (as implied above with "Avner Gold")

This is certainly a factor in some situations.

The yomim tovim editions of Ami and Mishpacha have these booklets with short fiction stories, IIRC none have the authors' names. I would think at least *some* of them would be proud to be published.

The Mishpacha has author names. Not sure if they are pen names or not.

In the magazine they often publish true stories, written from the perspective of one of the characters. Usually it says "As told to (the authors name)."

One week they forgot to put the "As told to," giving the impression that the author was telling her own story. The next week the author wrote that people came over to her thinking the story was about her, and clarifying that she was only the writer.

[username]

Chofetz Chaim

His name is there

Not when he published it, AFAIK.

[USam]

Seems Yair Weinstock (Blackout) used a pseudonym to get started as well (unless Yair Weinstock is also a pseudonym?).

I remember reading once that Yair Weinstock used a pen name in Israel but not America, because he thought no one would know him there. In the end they figured it out.