名家笔名背后的奇闻轶事:名家笔名

　　古今中外，以笔名而著称的作家数不胜数。而笔名的由来也可谓形形色色，千奇百态。我们都熟知的欧·亨利原来并非作家的真名，而是取自一名狱警的名字。还有哪些作家有着不为常人所知的笔名，这背后又有着怎样的故事？
　　Pen names speckle1) literary history and our modern bookshelves. If you own anything by George Orwell, Anthony Burgess, or George Eliot, you own a piece of the epic chronicle of pseudonyms2). Authors change their names for many reasons, but historically one of the strongest reasons to use a pen name was to hide gender. But gender isn"t the only guiding force when picking your pen name. Here are seven strange stories behind famous writers" pen names.
　　笔名点缀着文学史的漫漫长河，也装点着我们现代人的层层书架。如果你拥有乔治·奥威尔、安东尼·伯吉斯或是乔治·艾略特的任何一本著作，那你就拥有了一部关于“笔名”的宏大编年史。作家们改用笔名的原因有很多，但在历史上作家使用笔名最主要的原因之一是为了掩盖性别。不过，性别并不是选取笔名的唯一因素。下文讲述了七位名家笔名背后的奇闻轶事。
　　Dr. Seuss (Theodor Geisel)
　　After he threw a raging party, breaking Dartmouth and federal law during Prohibition3), Dr. Seuss, born Theodor Geisel, was fired from his job as editor-in-chief of the college"s Jack-O-Lantern4) magazine. However Theodor, that rapscallion5), kept writing for the humor mag by signing his work under his middle name—Seuss. Years later, when his first book was published, Seuss added the "Dr." as a joke at the expense of6) his father, who always wanted him to pursue a medical career.
　　J. K. Rowling (Joanna Rowling)
　　A lot of writers choose to represent themselves with initials instead of given names. E. E. Cummings. T. S. Eliot. J. K. Rowling. In the case of the Harry Potter scribe7), however, the "K" doesn"t really stand for anything. Joanna Rowling has no middle name, but her publisher thought Harry Potter would sell better if she disguised her gender. Thus, the mysterious "K" was born, which Rowling attributes to "Kathleen", her grandmother.
　　Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq.
　　(Jonathan Swift)
　　Jonathan Swift used the pseudonym "Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq." to essentially punk8) John Partridge, who was a then-famous astrologist9) and almanac10)-maker. Swift loved April Fool"s Day, so "Bickerstaff" published "Predictions for the Year 1708", prophesying11) the astrologist"s death by "raging fever". Two months later, Swift used a different pen name to proclaim that Partridge did, in fact, die—an event so many people believed that it pestered12) Partridge until his actual death. His mourning followers cried outside his window at night, disrupting his sleep. After an undertaker13) arrived, an elegy14) was published, and a gravestone was inscribed15), Partridge finally published a statement declaring himself alive.