Handbook of fictitious names : being a guide to authors, chiefly in the…
"Handbook of fictitious names" by Olphar Hamst is a bibliographical handbook written in the late 19th century. It guides readers to the real identities behind pseudonyms and anonymous publications—chiefly in lighter literature—while also documenting literary forgers, impostors, plagiarists, and imitators. Influenced by the work of the French bibliographer Quérard, it standardizes terms and citation conventions and supplies indexes and notes to make such attributions clear and verifiable. The opening of the handbook
lays out its editorial ground rules and purpose before beginning the alphabetized entries. It starts with a transcriber’s note on typographic conventions, prints press opinions of an earlier related pamphlet, dedicates the work to Quérard, and quotes on the public harm of literary imposture. The preface explains the novelty of such a guide in English, defines “pseudonym” versus “anonymous,” describes the classification tags used, and sets the strict alphabetical arrangement under the assumed name (including how to file initials, phrases, and “by the author of” attributions). It notes a broad geographic scope, acknowledges major sources (notably the British Museum manuscript catalogue, the Athenæum, and Notes and Queries), and even remarks on the lack of international copyright protection. The entries then commence under A (and proceed into B and C), pairing pen-names with real authors and brief bibliographical notes—ranging from “A.” for Matthew Arnold and “A Chinese Philosopher” for Oliver Goldsmith to angling, whist, and legal tracts—sprinkled with pithy anecdotes about plagiarism, imposture, and editorial practice. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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About this eBook
| Author | Hamst, Olphar, 1840-1926 |
|---|---|
| Title | Handbook of fictitious names : being a guide to authors, chiefly in the lighter literature of the XIXth century, who have written under assumed names, and to literary forgers, impostors, plagiarists, and imitators |
| Original Publication | London: John Russell Smith, 1868. |
| Credits | deaurider, John Campbell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) |
| Language | English |
| LoC Class | Z: Bibliography, Library science |
| Subject | Literary forgeries and mystifications |
| Subject | Anonyms and pseudonyms |
| Subject | Anonyms and pseudonyms, English |
| Category | Text |
| EBook-No. | 77977 |
| Release Date | Feb 18, 2026 |
| Copyright Status | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 1084 downloads in the last 30 days. |
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