Benjamin Franklin’s Pseudonyms: I plan to follow-up my past post from 2015 (reprinted below)

Past Post from 2015

Pseudonyms of Jonathan Swift, Voltaire, Daniel Defoe, and Benjamin Franklin: Was it only playful satire? Do their pseudonyms imply multiple personality?

“In his satires, Jonathan Swift used seventeen pseudonyms including Isaac Bickerstaff and M. B. Drapier, following a satirical convention of having silly-sounding, playful, and memorable pseudonyms…Voltaire, whose real name was Francois Marie Arouet, used 173 pseudonyms (174 if one includes ‘Voltaire’)…Daniel Defoe, who holds the record of using 198 pseudonyms, had one called Miranda Meanwell. In his female pseudonym, Silence Dogood, Franklin actually quotes Defoe…Silence Dogood appeared in…1722. Franklin continues to employ both male and female pseudonyms throughout the 1720s with Busy Body, Patience, Martha Careful, and Caelia Shortface. In the 1730s he used the nom de plumes of Alice Addertongue, Anthony Afterwit, Celia Single, and, most prolifically, Richard Saunders [author of Poor Richard’s Almanack]” (1).

1. Calaway, Jared C., "Benjamin Franklin's Female and Male Pseudonyms: Sex, Gender, Culture, and Name Suppression from Boston to Philadelphia and Beyond" (2003). http://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1003&context=history_honproj

Comment [2015]: I have no information on whether Swift, Voltaire, Defoe, or Franklin had multiple personality, which is the implication of pseudonyms that is previously discussed in this blog. But I thought their having pseudonyms was interesting to note.