Wednesday, 15 April 2009

Quiz Question


I’ve acquired a new bibliography of a writer whose life has long been shrouded in quite a bit of mystery, and who used at least three pseudonyms. The material in the book prompts me to set a quiz question.

The real identity of this author was the subject of much speculation when he or she published a pseudonymous novel in 1931. Can you guess the real person - who was variously identified by critics and others as being:

Aldous Huxley
Rose Macauley
E. M. Delafield
Edgar Wallace
Francis Brett Young
H.G. Wells
Richard Hughes
W. Somerset Maugham
Marie Belloc Lowndes
R. Austin Freeman
Eden Philpotts
Francis Brett Young
Roland Pertwee
Bernadette Croce
Warwick Deeping
Robert Hichens
Marjorie Bowen
Osbert Sitwell
Charles Williams
Patrick Hamilton
Anthony Rolls
Stella Benson
E.M. Forster

An extraordinarily diverse list, I think you’ll agree. Some eighteen months passed after publication before the truth about the author’s identity was revealed. Who can guess what it was? (Clue: none of the above!)

The answer will appear here shortly.

16 comments:

  1. seana graham15 April 2009 at 09:02

    Great quiz question, Martin. I am going to guess Agatha Christie, just to be sporting about it, even though I don't think the criteria quite matches...

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  2. Uriah Robinson15 April 2009 at 09:37

    I am going to guess John Creasey who started the Gideon series around that time under the pseudonym J.J.Maric.

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  3. Uriah Robinson15 April 2009 at 09:41

    Oops I got the dates wrong on the Gideon series much later but it still might be John Creasey.

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  4. Anonymous15 April 2009 at 09:54

    Anthony Berkeley Cox

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  5. vegetableduck15 April 2009 at 11:11

    I know this one, but I'm not spoiling it, so I'm keeping quiet. ;)

    That's quite a list though, isn't it?

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  6. Philip Amos15 April 2009 at 12:01

    1931? I am going to hazard Anthony Berkeley Cox writing as Francis Iles, the book in question being Malice Aforethought. That list is extraordinary indeed.

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  7. BooksPlease15 April 2009 at 12:04

    Could it be Anthony Berkeley Cox - Malice Aforethought (writing as Francis Iles)?

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  8. David Cranmer15 April 2009 at 12:11

    Clueless here but my guess is Ngaio Marsh?

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  9. Maxine Clarke15 April 2009 at 15:43

    Graham Greene?

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  10. Jilly15 April 2009 at 19:26

    The only person I can think of is Michael Innes (J I M Stewart) but I think the date is wrong for him.

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  11. Dorte H15 April 2009 at 20:47

    I think he died a few years ago and that there was a Russian connection.

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  12. Martin Edwards15 April 2009 at 21:09

    Thanks, everyone. It was a pleasure to come home from work this evening and read your answers!
    More on this tomorrow....

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  13. Gary Dobbs/Jack Martin15 April 2009 at 22:21

    I was going to go for Edgar Wallace but then I read your list again. I'm thinking Anthony Cox now.

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  14. pattinase (abbott)15 April 2009 at 22:28

    Josephine Tey?

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  15. pattinase (abbott)15 April 2009 at 22:29

    Or should I say Elizabeth MacIntosh?

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  16. Martin Edwards15 April 2009 at 22:36

    The more I think about it, the harder I find it to imagine any other pseudonym giving rise to such a varied range of suggestions. Quite an achievement in itself! Interesting that contemporary critics couldn't agree whether the author was male or female.

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