Fall is in the air. The leaves are changing colors, everything is pumpkin spice something-or-another and a haunting feeling seems to permeate the whole month. Well, did you know that our very library is “haunted” by ghostwriters?
But not THAT kind of ghostwriter.
What is this particular ghostwriter, you ask? Merriam-Webster defines a ghostwriter as someone writing for another who is the presumed or credited author.
There are varied reasons an author may use a ghostwriter. There is a demand that the author cannot keep up with; or the author has died but has designated another writer to finish that book or series; or the person may be knowledgeable in their field, but not a great writer; or a publisher has a great idea for a publication, but no one to write it.
The Bartholomew County Public Library has a nice variety of authors who became famous and then later could not keep up with the demand. If an author is writing more than a couple of books a year, chances are high that a ghostwriter is being used.
Ian Fleming of the James Bond series, Tom Clancy and James Patterson are a few of the writers in this category. After Robert Ludlum passed away in 2001, titles in the Bourne Series have been written by ghostwriters. Interest in the movie “The Bourne Identity,” released in 2002, made it possible for the book, “The Janson Directive” to be finished by various ghostwriters.
If you have an interest in politicians who used a ghostwriter, then it may surprise you that then-Sen. John F. Kennedy worked in close collaboration with his very own speechwriter, Ted Sorenson, to write a famous work we know as “Profiles in Courage” in 1955. Back in the 1960s, there was even a libel suit disputing this fact.
Another well-known political figure, Hillary Rodham Clinton, used a ghostwriter for her 1996 bestseller, “It Takes a Village.” The actual writer, Barbara Feinman Todd, supposedly labored on this book for seven months and received no credit from Clinton. I was tickled to find out that the autobiography of General Ulysses S. Grant, “Memoirs of the Civil War,” had some significant help in its writing by one of his closest friends — Mark Twain.
I was a little disappointed to find out that one of my very favorite series of books, the Nancy Drew Mysteries, was actually written by an author who never existed, at least in the actual name given. The author known as Carolyn Keene was actually a pseudonym created by the publishers to set in motion the writing for this still-popular series.
This same idea was put to use with The Hardy Boys series as well as the Tom Swift books.
Why not come over to our library and check out our stacks of books haunted by the above ghostwriters or find out at our reference desk if your favorite author might have a ghostwriter? You never know what ghostwriter you may find lurking in the shadow of your favorite author.
Michelle (Shelly) Bishop works as a library assistant in Adult Circulation at the Bartholomew County Public Library, contact her at circdesk@mybcpl.org
