Figuring out pseudonyms, posthumously?

November 7, 2020 6:52 AM

This question reminds me that my mother's father, who had a career as a PR bureaucrat for the US Atomic Energy Commission (and later, nuclear energy companies), released a novel in the mid-90s under a pseudonym. I'm unsure if it was self-published or not. How might I identify the book today, given that he passed away 15 years ago and I'm not on speaking terms with that side of my family? Where would one start?

From childhood memory, he was very cagey with everyone about the novel and the pen-name, although he clearly talked about it enough that people knew it happened. I suspect the novel was probably awful smut, but who knows, it might be a proto-Clive-Cussler comedy goldmine. In hindsight, he was probably not a nice person, but I'm sort of curious about what on earth kind of fiction the man would've written. If I wanted to find that novel, is there any way to do so via research in sources that does not involve dealing directly with that side of my family?

posted by Alterscape to Media & Arts (6 answers total)

I hate to say it, but you've given us very little information to go on. It's hard to imagine a reasonable way to begin with this, because his real name is probably not associated with the pseudonym in many/any records I can think of. You don't have the publisher, you don't have a copyright date, you just have the knowledge that this thing happened sometime. I'd love to be proven wrong, and maybe librarians have better ideas.
posted by Alensin at 10:47 AM on November 7, 2020 [1 favorite]

You could try thinking of potential pseudonyms he might have used (mother’s maiden name, childhood town or street, nickname, name of a beloved pet, parents’ or grandparents’ surnames or middle names or towns or origin, etc) and searching to see if any authors by that name released a single book in the right decade?
posted by nouvelle-personne at 10:57 AM on November 7, 2020

Do you know anyone that knew your mother's father and might know that you talk to?

You could try calling a good used bookstore in the area where he lived. If he released a book, there's a good chance he had a reading for it and gave a few copies to people. Maybe someone will remember.
posted by drezdn at 12:41 PM on November 7, 2020

Best answer: Yeah I would also suggest the local library. If this was published in a mainstream press, which it sounds like it wasn't, sometimes the author's original name is in the bibliographic record. However, if it was "awful smut" it would not have been in the public library, pretty sure. Also if it was in the mid-90s, there weren't that many places where you could self publish so it might be worth looking into places that did self-publishing in his loose geographical area, since people would be more likely to work with a business that was near them. I also appreciate that you do not want to talk with your family, but were there other non-family members (or people on the other side of the family) that you could send a quick ping to and ask, local buddies or otherwise (I do not know how old you are so apologies if this is an unrealistic ask)? The good news is that is there is someone still alive who knows about it, it's less of a big deal to reveal the secret than it might have been just after he died.
posted by jessamyn at 3:11 PM on November 7, 2020

Response by poster: To be clear: Not saying smut is awful, by any stretch. Just saying that I imagine, if my grandfather wrote smut, it would not be of high quality or any sort of self-awareness! Realized in hindsight that could be interpreted in two ways! :(

And thank you! I may give my home county library a call at some point and see if anyone there could help me out!
posted by Alterscape at 7:38 PM on November 7, 2020

Your uncle published under a pen name, but if he registered a copyright that might be under his real name. Have you searched by that name (as Anderson John, or Anderson J.) in the U.S. Copyright Office's public catalog?
posted by Iris Gambol at 12:34 AM on November 8, 2020