To some people, the idea of a pen name seems kind of weird. If I, a writer, am going to put countless hours of hard work and thought into my masterpiece, why wouldn’t I want to put my own name underneath the title? But from Stephen King to Ben Franklin who had their own secret aliases, to Mark Twain and Dr. Seuss, whose pseudonyms became so famous that they are remembered by their pen names and not their actual names, the nom de plume (French for ‘pen name’) has a long and proud history in the literary world.

Explore the world of pen names in this video from It’s Lit! and learn about the hidden, or not so hidden, identity of authors who chose to not use their real names.

Essential Questions:

• Why would someone take a pen name?
• What is problematic about a pen name?
• What is potentially empowering about a pen name?