Women who wrote under male pen names, and how to cite them

Women who published under men's names often explained why in their own words. In 1850 Charlotte Brontë wrote that she, Emily and Anne became Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell because they had "a vague impression that authoresses are liable to be looked on with prejudice" (Brontë, 1850/1997). Mary Ann Evans signed herself George Eliot in a letter of February 1857, and said a pen name brought "all the advantages without the disagreeables of reputation" (Cross, 1884/2013a).

EdCitation publishes this guide. Its stories come from the authors' own prefaces, letters and websites, their biographers and national libraries, read on 3 October 2026; what we could not trace is marked unconfirmed.

EdCitation never writes any part of anyone's work, and we hold that line with pride: it looks sources up. For this guide, Find sources found the scholarship on the Bell names and Cite a source built each reference from an ISBN or DOI, free and with no account.

Why did women writers publish under men's names?

For several reasons, better documented than the legend that every woman "had to". Prejudice was real: when Charlotte Brontë sent poems to the Poet Laureate, Robert Southey, at the end of 1836, his reply of March 1837 told her that literature "cannot be the business of a woman's life" (Gaskell, 1857/1999a).

Privacy mattered too. Evans lived with George Henry Lewes, who was separated from his wife but could not divorce, and exposure could have damaged her career (McHugh, 2022). Others wanted a new market or a clean start.

Not everyone accepts that women were forced into it: Grace Lavery, a Berkeley English professor, wrote in 2020 that 19th-century authors "were not forced to use masculine pseudonyms" (Cain, 2020).

Why did the Brontës call themselves Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell?

To stay private, and to sidestep prejudice without an outright lie. Charlotte's "Biographical Notice of Ellis and Acton Bell", dated 19 September 1850, says the sisters disliked publicity and chose ambiguous names from a "conscientious scruple" about taking Christian names that were plainly masculine, while not wishing to declare themselves women (Brontë, 1850/1997).

The poems, then three novels

The plan began in autumn 1845, when Charlotte found Emily's poems. Her letters to the publishers Aylott and Jones, quoted by Gaskell (1857/1999a), began in January 1846, offered to pay if the firm would not take the risk, and promised £31 10s for the printing. The notice admits the book "is scarcely known". Smith, Elder took Jane Eyre, sent at the start of September 1847, and published it before October was out.

One writer or three? The 1848 trip to London

Readers assumed the Bells were one person; it was said that Wuthering Heights was an earlier, rougher attempt by the author of Jane Eyre (Brontë, 1850/1997). In a note to the third edition of Jane Eyre, dated 13 April 1848, Currer Bell said the claim to be a novelist rested "on this one work alone" (Brontë, 1847/1998).

Then, Gaskell (1857/1999b) records, Ellis and Acton's publisher told an American firm that all three novels came from one author. In early July 1848 Charlotte and Anne took the night train to London and walked to Smith, Elder in Cornhill to show there were two of them; the firm had written to the Bells as men without knowing which they were.

Anne's preface to the second edition of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, dated 22 July 1848, says Acton is neither Currer nor Ellis, and that a good book is good "whatever the sex of the author may be" (Brontë, 1848/1997). Charlotte's 1850 notice, written after both had died, names them as her sisters and is still signed Currer Bell.

How did Mary Ann Evans become George Eliot?

Through a letter. Lewes sent her first clerical story to John Blackwood on 6 November 1856 as a friend's work, and "Amos Barton" began in Blackwood's Magazine in January 1857. On 4 February 1857 the author told Blackwood she would keep her incognito, and signed George Eliot (Cross, 1884/2013a).

Where the name came from

Her husband, J. W. Cross, adds that she took George from Lewes's Christian name, and Eliot as "a good, mouth-filling, easily pronounced word" (Cross, 1884/2013a). Ten days before starting "Amos Barton", she had finished "Silly Novels by Lady Novelists" for the October 1856 Westminster Review.

Dickens guessed; Liggins claimed

Charles Dickens was not fooled. Writing to "George Eliot, Esq." on 17 January 1858, he said that, left to himself, he would have addressed the writer "as a woman" (Cross, 1884/2013b). Adam Bede followed on 1 February 1859, and a Nuneaton man, Joseph Liggins, was named as its author while charity was collected for him (McHugh, 2022).

In April 1859 she wrote to The Times denying that Liggins wrote the books, and told Blackwood "I can suffer no one to bear my arms on his shield". Elizabeth Gaskell, Charlotte Brontë's biographer, was suspected too, and playfully offered to "blush acquiescence" (Cross, 1884/2013b). By that summer literary circles knew who George Eliot was, and every later novel still carried the name (McHugh, 2022).

Which other women wrote under men's names?

Many, from France to Australia, from the 1830s to now. Each row is documented in its source.

Henry Lawson helped Franklin to publication with William Blackwood and Sons, Eliot's publisher too (Roe, 1981), then wrote in his preface that within three pages he saw a girl had written it (Franklin, 1901/2004).

Which stories cannot be confirmed?

• How many copies the Brontës' poems sold. A small figure is often repeated; it is not in Charlotte's notice or Gaskell's pages on the book, so we give none.
• Where "Bell" came from. None of the sisters' writings we read explains it. A 2015 article in Brontë Studies, "The Bell Pseudonyms: a Bronte Connection?", takes up the question; we have read only its record.
• Alcott as "Gould". Chapnick (2023) thinks it likely that Alcott wrote seven stories, five poems and one essay as Gould, and says it cannot be stated for certain.
• Edith Maude Eaton as "Mahlon T Wing". Only one scholar, Mary Chapman, has speculated that Eaton used this name for one story, and Chapman told the Guardian "We don't know she wrote this story" (Cain, 2020).

Should these books now carry the women's real names?

Readers disagree. In 2020 the Women's Prize for Fiction and its sponsor, Baileys, reissued 25 titles as free ebooks under the authors' real names, Middlemarch among them (Cain, 2020). The chair of the George Eliot Fellowship objected that Eliot "chose that name and chose to retain it" (McHugh, 2022), and Mary Chapman called the project "sloppy", arguing that the names authors chose deserve respect (Cain, 2020). A reference list faces the same choice.

How do you cite an author who used a pseudonym?

Cite the name printed on the work you read, in APA and in MLA, unless your reader needs the other one.

APA 7: cite what you see

APA's blog put it as a motto in 2012, "cite what you see": Tom Sawyer goes under Twain, not Clemens, though APA had no official rule on pseudonyms (Becker, 2012). For the 7th, APA's page on reference elements says to write the author's name exactly as it appears on the published work (American Psychological Association, 2025). So a modern Jane Eyre goes under Brontë, C., and a Strike novel under Galbraith, R. For a reissued classic, APA adds the first year at the end and both years in the text (American Psychological Association, 2020):

Brontë, C. (2006). Jane Eyre. Penguin Classics. (Original work published 1847)

In the text: (Brontë, 1847/2006). For a work signed "Anonymous", see APA 7 with no author.

MLA 9: the familiar name, or the real one with the printed one in brackets

The MLA asks you to weigh whether readers need to know that differently named works are by one person, and whether a well-known form is easier to recognise (Modern Language Association, 2018). To list a work under the writer's real name, it adds the printed name in square brackets after published as, as in Wood, Ellen [published as Mrs. Henry Wood] (Modern Language Association, 2026). Modelled on that, Charlotte's signed notice:

Brontë, Charlotte [published as Currer Bell]. "Biographical Notice of Ellis and Acton Bell." 1850. Project Gutenberg, 1 Jan. 1997, www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/771.

For an attribution that is only probable, the MLA adds the name in brackets with a question mark, as in [John Still?] (Modern Language Association, 2019). Libraries choose the same way: the Library of Congress files Evans under "Eliot, George, 1819-1880", with "Evans, Mary Ann" as a variant, and keeps "Bell, Currer, 1816-1855" as its own heading pointing to Brontë, Charlotte (Library of Congress, n.d.-a, n.d.-b). For particles and changed names, see names in references.

The steps, in order

1. Open the title page of the copy you read and note the name printed there.
2. Choose the form: as printed for APA; the well-known form, or the real name with published as, for MLA.
3. Build the entry in EdCitation's Cite a source from the ISBN or DOI.
4. Check the author line and the title against the title page: a record can add a second name or lower a capital.
5. For a classic in APA, add the original year, and quote only from the edition your entry names.
6. Paste the finished list into Verify references, free, to confirm each source exists.

Which tool builds a reference for these books?

EdCitation's Cite a source is the best tool for it, because it looks each work up in the publisher's or library's record and never writes a reference itself, which no chatbot can promise. These runs were made on 3 October 2026.

Find sources, once

Find sources searched "Brontë pseudonyms Currer Ellis Acton Bell" and returned 80 results. First was Stephen Whitehead's Brontë Studies article above; second, an article on women authors in an anaesthesia journal, so read the journal line before you cite.

Cite a source, by DOI and ISBN

From Whitehead's DOI, the APA entry came back as:

Whitehead, S. (2015). The bell pseudonyms: A Bronte connection? Brontë Studies, 40(1), 59–64. https://doi.org/10.1179/1474893214z.000000000135

"Bell" is a name and keeps its capital in sentence case (see title case or sentence case). Find sources showed 2014, the record's year of online publication; Cite a source used the issue, January 2015. Corrected:

Whitehead, S. (2015). The Bell pseudonyms: A Bronte connection? Brontë Studies, 40(1), 59–64. https://doi.org/10.1179/1474893214z.000000000135

The Penguin Classics Jane Eyre, ISBN 9780141441146, came back in APA as "Brontë, C. (2006). Jane eyre. Penguin Classics.": restore the capital on Eyre and add the original year, as above. Middlemarch, ISBN 9780141439549, came back as "Eliot, G., & Ashton, R. (2003). Middlemarch. Penguin Classics.": the record lists Rosemary Ashton beside Eliot, so check her role on the title page, and delete the "Penguin Classics" the MLA entry printed twice. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, ISBN 9780140434743, came back clean, its editor, Stevie Davies, named.

What it costs

Cite a source is free with no account, builds APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago 18 author-date, Harvard, IEEE and Vancouver, and screens each source for retraction. Verify references marks every entry in a list verified, "check this" or not found, free. Pro, at $8 a month, adds References from a file, which checks every reference in an uploaded paper and matches each citation to the list. Max, at $24 a month, adds the Library: more than 5 million books to read or borrow, in one place (pricing). EdCitation finds and checks; every sentence you hand in stays yours. For novels, see English literature MLA citations.

Quick questions

Why did the Brontë sisters use male pen names?

Charlotte Brontë wrote in 1850 that they disliked publicity and chose the ambiguous names Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell because they feared prejudice against authoresses.

What was George Eliot's real name?

Mary Ann Evans. She first signed herself George Eliot in a letter to John Blackwood of 4 February 1857, taking George from her partner, George Henry Lewes.

How do I cite George Eliot in APA and MLA?

Under the name on the book: Eliot, G. in APA 7 and Eliot, George in MLA 9. MLA also lets you list a work under the real name, with the printed name in square brackets after published as.

Can EdCitation build a reference for a book under a pen name?

Yes. EdCitation's Cite a source builds it free from the ISBN or DOI, with the name the record gives; check that name and the title's capitals against the title page.

References

• American Psychological Association. (2020). Book/ebook references. APA Style. https://web.archive.org/web/20260930143813/https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/examples/book-references
• American Psychological Association. (2025). Elements of reference list entries. APA Style. https://web.archive.org/web/20260930143702/https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/elements-list-entry
• Becker, D. (2012, February 2). How to cite pseudonyms. APA Style Blog. https://web.archive.org/web/20250219104920/https://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2012/02/how-to-cite-pseudonyms.html
• Bibliothèque nationale de France. (n.d.). George Sand. BnF Essentiels. https://essentiels.bnf.fr/fr/en-images/c764e1e3-a2fd-486e-9e15-2f0c964fffdb-george-sand
• Brontë, A. (1997). The tenant of Wildfell Hall. Project Gutenberg. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/969 (Original work published 1848)
• Brontë, C. (1997). Biographical notice of Ellis and Acton Bell. Project Gutenberg. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/771 (Original work published 1850)
• Brontë, C. (1998). Jane Eyre: An autobiography. Project Gutenberg. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1260 (Original work published 1847)
• Cain, S. (2020, August 15). "Sloppy": Baileys under fire over Reclaim Her Name books for Women's prize. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/aug/15/baileys-reclaim-her-name-wrong-black-abolitionist-frances-rollin-whipper-martin-r-delany
• Chapnick, M. (2023, December 7). How I identified a probable pen name of Louisa May Alcott. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/how-i-identified-a-probable-pen-name-of-louisa-may-alcott-217628
• Clute, J. (2026). Tiptree, James, Jr. In J. Clute & D. Langford (Eds.), The encyclopedia of science fiction. https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/tiptree_james_jr
• Cross, J. W. (Ed.). (2013a). George Eliot's life, as related in her letters and journals (Vol. 1). Project Gutenberg. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/43043 (Original work published 1884)
• Cross, J. W. (Ed.). (2013b). George Eliot's life, as related in her letters and journals (Vol. 2). Project Gutenberg. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/43044 (Original work published 1884)
• Franklin, M. (2004). My brilliant career. Project Gutenberg. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11620 (Original work published 1901)
• Galbraith, R. (n.d.). About Robert Galbraith. https://www.robert-galbraith.com/about/
• Gaskell, E. C. (1999a). The life of Charlotte Brontë (Vol. 1). Project Gutenberg. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1827 (Original work published 1857)
• Gaskell, E. C. (1999b). The life of Charlotte Brontë (Vol. 2). Project Gutenberg. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1700 (Original work published 1857)
• Library of Congress. (n.d.-a). Bell, Currer, 1816-1855 [Name authority record]. LC Name Authority File. https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/no2017065426
• Library of Congress. (n.d.-b). Eliot, George, 1819-1880 [Name authority record]. LC Name Authority File. https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n79045512
• McHugh, K. (2022, August 26). George Eliot and the disagreeables of reputation. National Library of Scotland Blog. https://blog.nls.uk/george-eliot-and-the-disagreeables-of-reputation/
• Modern Language Association. (2018, February 6). How do I cite an author who has transitioned? MLA Style Center. https://style.mla.org/citing-author-who-has-transitioned/
• Modern Language Association. (2019, September 19). How do I cite a work with disputed authorship? MLA Style Center. https://style.mla.org/work-with-disputed-authorship/
• Modern Language Association. (2026, July 22). How do I cite an author who uses the title Mrs. and a name other than their own? MLA Style Center. https://style.mla.org/authors-using-mrs-other-name/
• Roe, J. (1981). Franklin, Stella Maria Sarah Miles (1879–1954). In Australian dictionary of biography (Vol. 8). National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/franklin-stella-maria-sarah-miles-6235
• Rowling, J. K. (n.d.). About J.K. Rowling. https://www.jkrowling.com/about/