The use of pseudonyms by the Brontë sisters is perhaps one of the best known examples of the use of pen names in English literature. This post focusses on Charlotte Brontë (1816-1855), whose novel ‘Jane Eyre’ was published 175 years ago in October 1847. It was Charlotte who persuaded her sisters to submit their writing […]
Tag: literature
James Dover Grant becomes bestselling author Lee Child
Lee Child is the author of a series of thrillers about former American military police officer Jack Reacher. who travels around the United States by bus carrying only a toothbrush and a bank card. It has been claimed that a Jack Reacher novel is sold every four seconds, fans of the series include Stephen King, […]
A potted history of pen names
A pen name is a literary alias: a variation of a writer’s birth or married name or a completely invented pseudonym. The Library’s exhibition ‘Pen Names’ takes a thematic approach to the subject, looking at how factors such as privacy, gender, reputation, authenticity, and genre have influenced writers’ decision to use a pen name from […]
Sunset Song is now available to read on our website
We have just made available all the books published by James Leslie Mitchell (1901-1935) during his lifetime on our website. Included are the three novels he published under the pseudonym Lewis Grassic Gibbon namely “Sunset Song” (1932); “Cloud Howe” (1933) and “Grey Granite” (1934) which are collectively known as “A Scots Quair”. http://digital.nls.uk/lewis-grassic-gibbon-books You can […]
The Rankin Files
It all began a few years ago, when representatives of the Library sat down with renowned crime writer Ian Rankin to discuss the acquisition of his extensive literary archive. Fast-forward to September 2019, when I took up the post of Ian Rankin Project Curator, tasked with the arrangement, cataloguing, and promotion of this incredible collection […]
Modernist Periodicals at the National Library of Scotland
Guest blog by Dr Francesca Bratton Dr Francesca Bratton (Durham University) recently completed her AHRC funded PhD on Hart Crane and the Little Magazine. She was a Library of Congress Kluge Fellow in 2013-14 and is currently teaching at Durham University and is developing a project on the roots of New Criticism in literary periodicals, […]
The pleasure of reading
Antonia Fraser describes herself as an ‘addict’ of the written word. In this revealing book, she brings together more than forty leading writers (writing in the English language) of all ages and from backgrounds a diverse as possible, to explain what inspired their interest in books and what keeps them reading. First published in 1992, […]
Reading the World : Confessions of a Literary Explorer
In 2012, Ann Morgan set out to read a book from every country in the world, focusing mainly on contemporary novels. On setting herself this challenge, she faced a number of obstacles including a lack of English translations, issues over censorship and discovering that some countries had very few published works. Through the generosity of […]
Why not Catch-21?
(Photo credit: Frances Lincoln) (Image above shows the front cover of a book sitting on a book shelf surrounded by other books. The title and author of the book, Why not catch-21? The stories behind the title. Gary Dexter, are shown) Most book titles simply describe the contents of the book they are attached to. […]