Anonymity in publishing  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

Current revision

Traité des trois imposteurs by anonymous (date unknown, edition shown 1777)

Related e

Wikipedia Wiktionary Shop Featured: Rhombicuboctahedron by Leonardo da Vinci

Throughout the history of literature, since the creation of bound texts in the forms of books and (initially) codices, various works have been published anonymously, often due to their political or controversial nature. This is a list of literary works published anonymously, either attributed to "Anonymous", or with no specific author's name given. For works where a pseudonym was used, see instead the list of works published under a pseudonym.

It should be noted that not included in this list are works which predate the advent of publishing and general attribution of authorship, such as ancient written inscriptions (such as heiroglyphic or pictographical, transcribed texts), certain historical folklore and myths of oral traditions now published as text, and reference or plain texts (letters, notes, graffiti) recovered archaeologically, which are otherwise unimportant to literary studies. Religious texts and grimoires, which are often written anonymously, may appear, along with works initially witten anonymously whose author is now known.

Works predating the Common Era

Ancient Mesopotamian works

• Sumerian city laments
  • Lament for Ur
  • Lament for Sumer and Ur
  • Lament for Nippur
  • Lament for Eridu
  • Lament for Uruk
• Debate between bird and fish

Ancient Egyptian works

• Ancient Egyptian medical papyri
• Egyptian Book of the Dead

Early classics

• Cantar de Mio Cid
• Beowulf
• Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
• The Second Shepherds' Play
• "Enchiriadis" texts
  • Scolica enchiriadis
  • Musica enchiriadis
• The Battle of Maldon
• Diaries of Court Ladies of Old Japan
• Gesta Hungarorum
• The Secret History of the Mongols
• St. Erkenwald

15th century

• The pasquinades (satirical poems) glued to the Talking Statues of Rome. They still appear from time to time.
• The Skibby Chronicle, an anonymous Danish Latin chronicle from the 1530s.
• La Farce de maître Pierre Pathelin (The Farce of Master Pierre Pathelin) popular French medieval farce
• Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, published anonymously at the time, now considered likely to have been written by Francesco Colonna.
• The Voynich manuscript, authorship and meaning unknown.

16th century

• Narrative of Some Things of New Spain and of the Great City of Temestitan
• Lazarillo de Tormes

17th century

• The entire catalog of Pierre Marteau.
• All works published after 1788 by Sylvain Maréchal.

The first classic of modern erotic literature, L'École des filles of 1655 -- like so many similar works after it -- was published anonymously. Anonymous pamphlets played an important role in the political culture of eighteenth century France. In Forbidden Bestsellers Robert Darnton points out that some of the most radical printed texts of the Enlightenment had no author. "They were the public discussing. They expressed the on dit, or talk of the town. Pierre Marteau for instance, was one of those clandestine publishers.

18th century

• An Essay on the Principle of Population by T.R. Malthus, originally published anonymously
• Anti-Machiavel, an essay by Frederick the Great, originally published anonymously
• Dream of the Red Chamber by Cao Xueqin, originally published anonymously
• The Sorrows of Yamba
• The Animated Skeleton
• The Cavern of Death

19th century

• A Brief Inquiry Into the Natural Rights of Man
• Tamerlane and Other Poems was the first published collection of poems by Edgar Allan Poe, published anonymously in 1827.
• A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder by James De Mille, originally published anonymously after the author's death.
• The Log-Cabin Lady: An Anonymous Autobiography
• The Princess Ilsée: A Fairy Tale (London: Saunders, Otley, and Co., 1867), illust. by Eugène Froment
• Supernatural Religion: An Inquiry into the Reality of Divine Revelation (Longmans & Co.: London, 1874)
• Democracy published in 1880, author (Henry Adams) revealed after his death in 1918.
• Romance of Lust, Victorian erotic novel published anonymously in four volumes (1873-1876) and variously attributed to Edward Sellon or William Simpson Potter, although a stronger case can be made for Potter as the author.
• Elizabeth and Her German Garden, published anonymously in 1898, a humorous semi-autobiographical idyll, the first book by Elizabeth von Arnim. Her later books were published as "By the author of Elizabeth and her German Garden".
• The Way of a Pilgrim Russian

20th century

• The Autobiography of a Flea erotic novel published in 1901.
• The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, the story of a young biracial man, was published anonymously in 1912 by James Weldon Johnson who revealed himself as the author in 1927.
• The Diary of a U-boat Commander ~1918
• Go Ask Alice, now known to have been written by Beatrice Sparks.
• A Woman in Berlin, an anonymous diary detailing experiences of a German woman as Germany is defeated in World War II.
• Primary Colors, published anonymously but later revealed to be by journalist Joe Klein.

21st century

• Fighting for Our Lives, an anarchist primer published by the CrimethInc collective. All CrimethInc publications are published anonymously.
• The Bride Stripped Bare, an erotic novel published in 2003; soon after, the author was revealed as the Australian writer Nikki Gemmell.
• Through Our Enemies' Eyes: Osama Bin Laden, Radical Islam and the Future of America (2003) and Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror (2004) - both revealed to have been written by former CIA employee Michael Scheuer.
• Recipes for Disaster (2004) - An Anarchist Cookbook published by the CrimethInc collective.
• Rolling Thunder (2005-2008) - five issues of "an anarchist journal of dangerous living" published the CrimethInc collective.
• Houston remains Anonymous (2008) - [1]
• Real Life Ren-Gate: Christy Carlson Romano, Censorship, and the Threat to Her Unofficial Fan Sites During the Age of Web 2.0 (2008) - ISBN: 978-0-557-01475-0. An anti-copyright publication on the discouragement from the official sites of Christy Carlson Romano toward fan transformative works under "fair use" doctrine.

See also

anonymous work, literary mystification, literary forgery, Pierre Marteau

• List of works published under a pseudonym