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Posted on entry Varieties of insanity known to affect authors ::: December 23, 2003, 11:19 PM:
"I want you to publish my next book under a pseudonym so I can find out whether it92s my writing or my name that92s selling." [...]Doris Lessing actually got to try that with her Jane Somers (?) novels.

Romain Gary did it. He disliked the Paris literary scene, and felt that his novels were well-reviewed and won prizes because of complex social play, not because of the quality of his writing. So he wrote under the pseudonym Emile Ajar, and for his second novel as Ajar won the Prix Goncourt. The secret was largely unknown until after his death. Basic summary here.

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