In addition to employing an assortment of pen names, some authors began writing as adolescents, then after marriage, published under their husband's surname, and connections among the different names are not always evident or easily located. Thus, this page identifies as many pseudonyms and variants of an author's name as possible.
Since these authors often lack biographies in standard reference works, it also includes links to several sources with such information. Over time, I hope to add biographies of more women based on my own research. At present, the only authors with such entries are Mrs. Georgie Sheldon (Sarah Elizabeth Downs) and Mrs. E. Burke Collins (Mrs. Robert R. Sharkey).
Information in the Chart
Name: The author's real name serves as the main entry and is boldfaced. Variants of the real name (maiden names in some cases; married names, in others; names with combinations of initials in still others) appear in parenthesis with a see reference for the main entry. Pseudonyms and names lacking biographical information appear in plain type and without parenthesis. In the case of known pseudonyms, if the actual author is female, a "see" reference appears in the Biography column; if the author is male, his name is given as "pseud. of." "House name" denotes a pseudonym controlled by a publisher and used by multiple authors.Biography: Primarily links to two key online sources:
- NIU = Northern Illinois University's House of Beadle and Adams, a digitization of Albert Johannsen, The House of Beadle and Adams (Norman: U of OK P, 1950)
- ADN = Felicia L. Carr's American Women's Dime Novels
one 19th-century compilation (with romanticized biographies and some inaccurate dates, but also a general outline of the subject's life and often a photograph):
- WoC = A Woman of the Century, eds. Frances E. Willard and Mary A. Livermore (Buffalo: Charles Wells Moulton, 1893)
and one core reference work:
- DNC = J. Randolph Cox, Dime Novel Companion (Greenwood, 2000) (Links lead to Google Books, which allows some page views.)
Finally
- Elsewhere links to significant biographical information found online in a source other than those listed above
The final column includes codes identifying story papers in which the authors were published:
- FC for George Munro's Fireside Companion
- FSP for Norman Munro's New York Family Story Paper
- NYW for Street & Smith's New York Weekly
