|
I used to read the Doc Savage monthly series of books (FYI, the Bantam paperbacks. I'm not that old!), all attributed on the cover to "Kenneth Robeson." The name was in fact a house pseudonym used by a number of authors (Lester Dent wrote most of the Doc series, but there were at least half a dozen others who wrote one or more of the stories between 1936 and 1945), as well as for a number of other series.
This is similar to the subject of the thread, though in this case, the name itself doesn't belong to a person, but a publishing house. Still, it's used as a recognizable brand name: The buyer assumes that a Kenneth Robeson story will be of a particular style and quality, whichever series they buy.
The method did have merit... it put aspiring and unknown writers to work. It didn't garner those authors any fame, but it paid a lot of bills. It also allowed writers who were unpopular or struggling (for instance, those blacklisted during the McCarthy era) to get work "under the table."
Most importantly, it gave authors the chance to get into the publishing house, prove their ability and worth, and possibly make it on their own original material, breaking out of the anonymity of the Pseudonym system.
|