Elena Ferrante and anonymity

There's an Italian author called Elena Ferrante who wrote several popular bestsellers under that psuedonym and managed to remain hidden from the public at large as to who they were. However in the last few days, the author was supposedly unmasked by a journalist, Claudio Gatti, who then decided to tell the whole world as to who the person was.

Now, the novels have caused plenty of conversation due to the quality, even going so far as several people saying that the description of the two women in the stories growing up had to be written by a man, because no women was that good. (Yeah, I know, some people are that dumb).

Anyways, previously Ferrante had said that if they were uncovered they were unlikely to write any more as it was their anonymity that enabled them. Gatti's response was that they shouldn't expect anonymity if they lie to their readers about who they are. Either way, it looks like a great author is going to hang up their pen.

Question is, in the wide open world, where everything is pretty much trackable and, to be honest, a lot of books are sold because of interest in the author, should they expect any degree of anonymity, or are they always likely to be found out in the end?

 

I see no problem with the use of a pen name. If someone is upfront about using a pseudonym, how are they lying to their readers? One of the authors I know of has a bio reading "Here are three facts, two are lies, and I am using a penname". VH Folland wrote a long piece on why people use pennames, because being known to write can adversely affect career options in some roles.

After all, if authors could never use pennames, we wouldn't have the Brontes' work, or Tiptree's, because they would never have never have been published or purchased.

However, as Gatti is known to have deliberately taken an action he knows will mean that author no longer writes, he should probably expect the backlash he is going to receive from her fans.

 

Well, I am a man. I have written 3 different books under a penname that conveys that I'm a woman. The reason was quite simple- I had written on topics of feminism and none of my books were being read. So, I changed the name and suddenly people started reading them.

As far as pen names are concerned, people have used them since modern writing began. Charlotte Bronte published her works under the name Currer Bell. Joanne Rowling delibrately used J.K. Rowling because her publishers insisted her to!

Amazon allows it for the same reason as long as you're not deliberately impersonating anyone or using a real person's name. And they know who you're and in turn the tax man knows who you're too. So, it's not hidden hidden in that sense.

Why a journalist had to "unveil" anything is beyond me... because it's not shady to use a pen name.

 

I completely agree. A penname is a marketing and privacy tool.

This gentleman appears to have unveiled it to try to get his fifteen minutes of fame, and to benefit his career by harming someone else. I sincerely hope he finds out that not all publicity is good publicity.