“Self-Blurbing” by Author’s Pseudonym: Publisher and friends probably think it a joke, but alternate personalities may sincerely appreciate each other

Self-Blurbing

To the Editor:

Michael Ondaatje’s wonderful story (By the Book, June 17) about the “self-blurb” the crime novelist Donald Westlake gave his own book, written under his Richard Stark pseudonym, “I wish I had written this book,” is not unique. In 1955, Evan Hunter published “Murder in the Navy” under his Richard Marsten pseudonym with this self-blurb: “‘Superb Suspense!’ says Evan Hunter, author of ‘The Blackboard Jungle’”…

Richard Dannay

New York

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/29/books/review/letters-to-the-editor.html