Track 3: Pseudonyms of Early Writers

Mathilde Philipson's commanding portrait shows the writer Jessie Couvreur, known as Tasma, with pen in hand. It was probably painted shortly after the publication of her first novel, Uncle Piper of Piper's Hill, a work written while she lived in Melbourne. Although she was born in England, Tasma spent her childhood and adolescence in Tasmania, hence her choice of pseudonym. The practice of employing a pseudonym by 19th and early 20th century Australian writers was common.

Female writers often chose to use their maiden names as pen names. Ada Cambridge, whose writing was often considered inappropriate for a clergyman's wife, was known as Mrs Cross to friends and family, and Ada Cambridge to her readers. Henry Handel Richardson's nom de plume derived from her maiden name, Ethel Florence Lindesay Richardson. In concealing their gender female writers would often choose ambiguous names that suggested neither sex. Mary Helena Fortune began her writing career under her initials MHF. On the strength of the poems, the Mount Alexander Mail offered her a position as copy editor, but quickly withdrew the offer when she visited their offices in Castlemaine – a young woman with a 'youngster' in tow. Fortune subsequently submitted stories, poems and articles to the Australian Journal under the pseudonym of Waif Wanderer.

Waif Wanderer's true identity was not revealed until the 1970s, while Henry Handel Richardson's identity was only discovered after the publication of Ultima Thule. Richardson claimed to have adopted a pen name to test the publisher’s response to her first novel, Maurice Guest. She was keen to preserve her anonymity, and in 1914 when the French translator Paul Solanges requested a photograph of Henry Handel Richardson, Richardson sent a portrait of the young Goethe, who she thought she resembled. It is said that later in life she identified so closely with the pseudonym that she preferred to be called Henry.

Of course it was not only female writers who chose pseudonyms. Bernard O'Dowd had 31 known pen names, which he used to conceal his political journalism from his employer, the Supreme Court of Victoria.