List of anonymously published works
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Throughout the history of literature, since the creation of bound texts in the forms of books and codices, various works have been published and written anonymously, often due to their political or controversial nature, or merely for the purposes of the privacy of their authors, among other reasons. This article provides a list of literary works published anonymously, either attributed to "Anonymous", or with no specific author's name given.
Not included in this list are works which predate the advent of publishing and general attribution of authorship, such as ancient written inscriptions (such as hieroglyphic or pictographical, transcribed texts), certain historical folklore and myths of oral traditions now published as text, and reference or plain texts (letters, notes, graffiti) recovered archaeologically, which are otherwise unimportant to literary studies. Religious texts and grimoires, which are often written anonymously, may appear, along with works initially written anonymously whose authors are now known.
This list is ordered alphabetically by title.
Works predating the Common Era
Ancient Mesopotamian works
- Debate between bird and fish
- Enûma Eliš
- Hurrian hymn to Nikkal
- Inscriptions at Tell Abu Salabikh
- Instructions of Shuruppak, attributed to the historically debatable Shuruppak
- Kesh Temple Hymn
- Sumerian city laments
- Sumerian creation myth
Ancient Egyptian works
Other works
- I Ching
- The Aesop Romance
- The New Testament, other than the authentic Epistles of Paul
Early classics
- Cantar de Mio Cid
- Beowulf
- Dresden Codex
- Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
- The Second Shepherds' Play
- "Enchiriadis" texts
- The Battle of Maldon
- Diaries of Court Ladies of Old Japan
- Gesta Hungarorum
- The Secret History of the Mongols
- St. Erkenwald
- Corpus Hermeticum
- Poetic Edda
- The Lady of Escalot
- One Thousand and One Nights
15th century
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3d/Pasquino_02.jpg/220px-Pasquino_02.jpg)
- The pasquinades (satirical poems) glued to the Talking Statues of Rome. They still appear from time to time.
- The Key of Solomon
- The Skibby Chronicle
- La Farce de maître Pierre Pathelin
- Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, published anonymously at the time, now considered likely to have been written by Francesco Colonna
- The Voynich manuscript
16th century
- Narrative of Some Things of New Spain and of the Great City of Temestitan
- Lazarillo de Tormes
- Chilam Balam
17th century
- Theophrastus redivivus
- The entire catalog of Pierre Marteau
- All works published after 1788 by Sylvain Maréchal
18th century
- An Essay on the Principle of Population by T.R. Malthus, originally published anonymously
- Anti-Machiavel by Frederick the Great, originally published anonymously
- Dream of the Red Chamber by Cao Xueqin, originally published anonymously
- The Sorrows of Yamba by Hannah More, originally published anonymously
- Common Sense (pamphlet) by Thomas Paine, originally published anonymously
- The Animated Skeleton
- The Cavern of Death
19th century
- A Brief Inquiry Into the Natural Rights of Man
- Tamerlane and Other Poems, the first published collection of poems by Edgar Allan Poe, originally published anonymously
- A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder by James De Mille, originally published anonymously
- The Log-Cabin Lady
- The Princess Ilsée
- Supernatural Religion: An Inquiry into the Reality of Divine Revelation by Walter Richard Cassels, originally published anonymously
- Democracy by Henry Adams, originally published anonymously
- Romance of Lust, originally published anonymously but variously attributed to Edward Sellon or William Simpson Potter
- Elizabeth and Her German Garden by Elizabeth von Arnim, originally published anonymously
- The Way of a Pilgrim
- The Great Organ In The Boston Music Hall
- The String of Pearls
20th century
- The Autobiography of a Flea erotic novel published in 1901.
- The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, the story of a young biracial man, was published anonymously in 1912 by James Weldon Johnson who revealed himself as the author in 1927.
- The Diary of a U-boat Commander ~1918
- Go Ask Alice, now known to have been written by Beatrice Sparks.
- A Woman in Berlin, an anonymous diary detailing experiences of a German woman as Germany is defeated in World War II.
- Primary Colors, published anonymously but later revealed to be by journalist Joe Klein.
21st century
- Fighting for Our Lives, an anarchist primer published by the CrimethInc collective. All CrimethInc publications are published anonymously.
- Bourbon Kid, an ongoing supernatural horror series first published in 2000[1]
- The Bride Stripped Bare, an erotic novel published in 2003; soon after, the author was revealed as the Australian writer Nikki Gemmell.
- Through Our Enemies' Eyes: Osama Bin Laden, Radical Islam and the Future of America (2003) and Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror (2004) - both revealed to have been written by former CIA employee Michael Scheuer.
- Recipes for Disaster (2004) - An Anarchist Cookbook published by the CrimethInc collective.
- Rolling Thunder (2005–2014) - eleven issues of "an anarchist journal of dangerous living" published the CrimethInc collective.
- Diary of an Oxygen Thief (2006) - A Dutch novel about the independent art, literature, and music scene in [Brooklyn], New York.
- Houston remains Anonymous (2008) - [1]
- Real Life Ren-Gate: Christy Carlson Romano, Censorship, and the Threat to Her Unofficial Fan Sites During the Age of Web 2.0 (2008) - ISBN 978-0-557-01475-0. An anti-copyright publication on the discouragement from the official sites of Christy Carlson Romano toward fan transformative works under "fair use" doctrine.
- O: A Presidential Novel (2011) - ISBN 978-1-4516-2596-7. A speculative novel about President Barack Obama's 2012 re-election campaign. The publishers, Simon & Schuster, claim that the book was written by someone who was "in the room" with the President.
See also
References
- ^ "L'auteur du Livre sans nom se confie". Metro France. Retrieved 11 December 2012.
External links
- See http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu to find some of these texts on the web.
- Works by Anonymous at Project Gutenberg
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