Re: <nettime> A Puff Piece on Wikipedia (Fwd)

[Michael H Goldhaber <mgoldh@well.com>]

If Locke, Voltaire, Diderot, Montesquieu, and D'Alembert were all in the
habit of publishing anonymously, why is it their names are so familiar (and
attached to their writings,usually) some 250 years later? Was anonymity
merely a ploy, with clues provided somehow for true authorship? In the case
of Voltaire, we know this was a 'pen-name.' Was it affixed to his work, and
if not, what use would a pen-name have been?

Michael H. Goldhaber

Keith Hart wrote:

> I have been intrigued by this thread for the light it throws on the
> question of authorial anonymity. I have been reading a book by Christopher
> Kelly, Rousseau as Author: consecrating one's life to the truth (Chicago
> University Press, 2003), especially the hilarious first chapter,
> Responsible and irresponsible authors, with section titles including
> Naming names, Anonymity and responsibility, etc. It seems that Locke,
 <...>

--





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