Note literary hoaxes. Research work "the art of literary hoaxes"

August 3 in the New building of the Russian national library(Moskovsky Ave., 165) the exhibition “Under a False Name: Pseudonyms and Literary Hoaxes” began its work.

The exhibition presents the work of famous domestic and foreign writers who worked under pseudonyms or deliberately attributed real authorship to existing person or passing off their works as folk art.

During the Renaissance, interest in ancient authors and their texts was so high that, together with previously unknown authentic works of ancient authors, numerous forgeries, so-called imaginary translations, began to appear. Many researchers call Homer's poems the first literary hoax. The personality of Homer was, in their opinion, invented, and the works attributed to him were the fruit collective work. Today it is difficult to find out which of ancient works real and which are Renaissance hoaxes.

The most famous master of passing off his own texts as someone else’s was the English writer and publicist Daniel Defoe. Of the 500 books he wrote, only 4 were published under his real name, and the rest were attributed to historical and fictitious personalities. Defoe himself acted only as a publisher. So, for example, three volumes of “The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe” were written by a “sailor from York”, “The History of the Wars of Charles XII, King of Sweden” - by a “Scottish officer in Swedish service”, “Notes of a Cavalier” were given to him as the memoirs of a nobleman, who lived in the 17th century, during the Great Rebellion, and “The Narrative of All the Robberies, Escapes and Other Deeds of John Sheppard” - for the suicide notes written in prison by the real-life famous robber John Sheppard. The exhibition features Daniel Defoe's richly illustrated two-volume work Robinson Crusoe and His Interesting Adventures, Narrated by Himself (with 200 drawings engraved on stone, 1870).

The literary hoax “The Song of Ossian”, created by the most talented English poet and literary critic George Macpherson, who wrote in 1760-1763 on behalf of the Scottish bard Ossian, who allegedly lived in the 3rd century.

Among the popular hoaxers, it is worth mentioning Prosper Merimee, who secretly published a collection of plays “Gusli” (“Guzla”) with notes and a portrait of the “author”, a collector of folklore, a fictional guslar named Iakinf Maglanovich. The hoax was successful: for real Slavic folklore“Gusli” was also accepted by Adam Mickiewicz and Alexander Pushkin, who translated 11 ballads into Russian for his collection “Songs of the Western Slavs.” Pushkin, by the way, was no stranger to hoaxes, publishing the famous “Belkin's Tales”, the poet himself acted only as a publisher.

In Russia over the past two hundred years, literary hoaxes and hoaxers have been encountered in abundance. The fictional Kozma Prutkov, created by Alexei Tolstoy and the Zhemchuzhnikov brothers, was endowed with his own biography, personal qualities and literary reference points and was a parody of the literary official.

The book “Leaving the World Unsolved...” (2009) will introduce exhibition guests to the biography of the Russian poetess Elizaveta Vasilyeva (Dmitrieva) and the image of the mysterious beauty Cherubina de Gabriac, created by her and Maximilian Voloshin and which became the loudest hoax of the Silver Age.

Visitors will also learn about other literary hoaxers, including the American Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens), the Frenchman Emil Azhar (Roman Leibovich Katsev), compatriots Andrei Bely (Boris Nikolaevich Bugaev), Sasha Cherny (Alexander Mikhailovich Glikberg) and Boris Akunin (Grigory Shalvovich Chkhartishvili) ... What forced these and many other writers, undoubtedly talented and brilliant, to hide their faces behind someone else's mask, giving up the rights to their own works? Visitors to the exhibition will learn about the causes and consequences of such phenomena in world literature from such publications as “The History of Literary Hoaxes: “From Homer to the Internet” by Vitaly Vulf and Serafima Chebotar (2003), as well as from the book “Disguised Literature” by Valentin Dmitriev (1973 d.) Among the publications that also deserve special attention, it should be noted, the book “The illustrated Mark Twain” (2000). The literary mask, which often completely replaces the writer’s personality, is a necessary element of mystification, the authors explain. According to researchers, play, as an unconditional condition for any creativity, takes on exaggerated proportions among hoaxers. The creator of a hoax can often create only in a mask he has invented, creating his own own world and the only inhabitant in it. The mask helps to move away from imposed restrictions - class, stylistic, historical... and the author, as it were, is born again.

Today, virtual reality, which has settled on the Internet, provides unlimited opportunities for various kinds of hoaxes, putting existing people and fictional characters on equal terms. Both those and others only have email address and the ability to generate text...

Materials for the exhibition were provided by the Russian Book and Russian Magazine Funds, the Foreign Book and Foreign Magazine Funds, as well as the Central Reference Library, the Printmaking Department and the Microform Fund.

Admission with a library card.

Thirty years ago, experts and archival workers determined that Adolf Hitler's sensational personal diaries turned out to be a fake. However, this is far from the only hoax that has affected literature, both fiction and non-fiction. Here are the most famous deceptions that have denigrated the history of world literature since the Middle Ages.

The Fuhrer's personal diaries

In 1983, the Stern newspaper published an article about a unique find - 60 small notebooks, which are the personal diaries of Adolf Hitler from the formation of his party in the 30s until the end of World War II. The newspaper paid journalist Gerd Heidemann, who discovered the diaries (in the supposedly crashed plane), a fortune. As soon as fragments of the diaries were published and presented to the German archive workers for consideration, it turned out that the entries were not only forged, but also extremely crudely forged - the Fuhrer’s handwriting was not similar, pieces of text were stolen from previously published materials, and the paper and ink turned out to be too modern. The fate of the fortune received for the diaries is unknown, but Heidemann and his accomplice were convicted and sent to prison.

The story of Little Tree, a Cherokee orphan boy

The story of a Cherokee orphan who survived a poor childhood under the care of his grandparents was first published in 1976. Presented as a memoir, the story received praise from critics and readers and began to be studied in schools. The first edition sold 9 million copies. In 1991, it turned out that the author of the book was not Forest Carter, but Asa Carter, a famous member of the Ku Klux Klan and ally of George Wallace. Wallace's famous racist line, "Segregation today, segregation tomorrow, and segregation always," was written by Carter. Not only the name of the author turned out to be a fiction, but also the language and culture of the Cherokee tribe, the descriptions of which were criticized by its true representatives.

The Last Adventures of the King of the Wild Lands

The legendary officer, traveler and politician Davy Crockett became the hero of myths and co-author of his own biography. However, pride of place in this list is occupied by a short description of his last adventures before his death during the defense of the Alamo fortress. The book's prologue states that the events were copied directly from Colonel Crockett's personal diary, which only served to establish his status as a folk hero and legendary defender of Texas. Published immediately after Crockett's death, the book became very popular. In 1884, it turned out that the adventure's author, Richard Penn Smith, wrote it in just 24 hours, consulting historical documents, oral legends and his own imagination.

In 1794, William Henry Ireland, the son of publisher and Shakespeare fan Samuel Ireland, presented his father with a unique paper - a mortgage letter signed by the hand of William Shakespeare himself. The shocked father was full of delight, because to this day few documents written by the master’s hand have survived. The younger Ireland announced that he had discovered the document in a friend’s collection and subsequently provided many more documents authored by Shakespeare. Among them were correspondence with Queen Elizabeth I, with the author’s wife, manuscripts of tragedies and even new, unpublished plays: “Henry II” and “Vortigern and Rowena”.

Father and son became popular among London's elite, but not for long. In 1796, Edmond Mellon revealed evidence that the documents were not originals and forced Airend Jr. to admit to forging documents that he created to attract the attention of his strict and cold father.

Autobiography of an eccentric billionaire

In 1971 there was little famous writer named Clifford Irving told McGraw-Hill that the famously reclusive billionaire businessman, filmmaker and aviator Howard Hughes, who went into recluse more than ten years ago, asked him to co-author his autobiography. The publisher could not refuse this opportunity and signed a contract with Irving. Irving almost managed to deceive everyone if Howard Hughes himself had not decided to break his many years of silence. In a telephone interview with a journalist, he said that he had nothing to do with his “autobiography” and did not know Clifford Irving. After exposure, Irving went to jail for 2.5 years.

Deadly fake

Consisting of 24 chapters revealing a secret plan to take over the world's governments by the Jewish elite, The Protocols Elders of Zion” occupy the place of perhaps the most dangerous and influential literary forgery in the history of mankind. It turned out that the forged document was drawn up by someone working for the secret police. Russian Empire journalist Matvey Golovin. Researchers trace the influence of several unrelated sources in the Protocols, from a pamphlet by Wilhelm Marr and the work of Jewish author Theodor Herzl to an anti-Semitic pamphlet by Hermann Goedsche and a satirical work French author, ridiculing Napoleon III. Written as the actual minutes of a secret meeting of Zionist leaders in the Swiss city of Basel in 1897, the Protocols reveal a non-existent secret plan to seize power over Jewish-led financial, cultural and governmental organizations.

The impact of the Protocols on history

The publication of these "Protocols" led to brutal repression of the Jewish population in Tsarist Russia and continued during the formation of the Communist Party. The connection between Zion's leaders and the threat of communism led to the fact that the Protocols gained popularity overseas. Automotive magnate Henry Ford, who had previously published anti-Semitic articles more than once, ordered the publication of half a million copies of the Protocols in America. Despite the fact that evidence of the forgery of this collection of documents appeared almost immediately after publication, the popularity of the Protocols only increased. The Protocols were an integral part of Nazi propaganda, and Hitler even quoted them in his book. To this day, many still mistake this literary hoax for a genuine work.

Testament of the Emperor of Byzantium

During the Middle Ages, the conflict between the church and European rulers over power on the continent began to heat up. The Church managed to gain the upper hand thanks to an ancient, but extremely fortunate document that was at hand at the right time. The Veno of Constantinovo turned out to be a deed of gift from Emperor Constantine to Pope Sylvester, which tells of the emperor’s miraculous cure of leprosy and his conversion to the Christian faith. In connection with the acquisition of faith, the emperor bequeathed lands, wealth and control over the empire to Sylvester and the church. Constantine was ready to give up the crown, but the pope graciously renounced worldly power, however, accepting the highest church rank and control over for the most part western empire.

Despite the fact that nothing was known about the Donation of Constantine until the 8th century, the church managed to maintain control over power in Western Europe. In the end, the clergy themselves made public the status of this document as fake, although not earlier than the 16th century.

From pseudonyms to friendly prank in the environment Russian writers it turned out to be very close. At first, such pranks did not have the nature of a game and were simple “attempts” to present their works under someone else’s name. Here it is worth recalling the classic “Belkin’s Tales”, which belonged to Pushkin, and “Sensations and Remarks of Mrs. Kurdyukova” written by Myatlev. However, the real creators in these cases did not plan to “hide” from readers and put their real names on the covers. However, then real games and hoaxes began among domestic writers.

Thus, it is known that in the mid-19th century the publication of the poem “Woman’s Advocacy” appeared, signed by a certain Evgenia Sarafanova. The Pantheon publishing house publishes this poem, and then receives a letter from the “author”, in which the woman, happy with the publication of the work, thanks the publishing house and asks for some money, since she is in fact a “poor girl.” “Pantheon” sends the fee, and then the real author is announced - G.P. Danilevsky. Later, in order to debunk speculation about the authorship of this poem, he includes it in his collected works.

However, although Mr. Danilevsky was not the only hoaxer of this kind (indeed, there were many similar hoaxes during that period), we will focus only on the two largest hoax events, the scale of which exceeded all previously known attempts at hoaxes.

Kozma Prutkov - we play seriously!

This draw was carried out according to all the rules of a well-thought-out production and in accordance with the genre of urban folklore. This hoax included authors, directors, actors, who were also united by “blood relationship.” All of them were Tolstoy brothers: Alexey Konstantinovich (famous writer) and his three cousins ​​- Alexander, Vladimir and Alexey (Mikhailovich Zhemchuzhnikovs), who chose one collective pseudonym - Kozma Prutkov.
True, at first Kozma, of course, was Kuzma. And it appeared for the first time as a creative experience of 4 authors in the Sovremennik supplement - “Literary Jumble”.

Literary scholars who subsequently analyzed this phenomenon came to the conclusion that Kozma Prutkov had not only a “collective” parent, but also a “collective” prototype, since in the prototype of the hero of this hoax the researchers saw both the lyrical poet of that time V.V. Benediktov and Fet , and Polonsky, and Khomyakov...

Prutkov, observing all the requirements and conventions of presence in literature, had and own biography, and social status.

So, this “writer” was born in 1803, on April 11. He served in his youth in a hussar regiment, then retired and entered the civilian field - service in the Assay Office, where he reached the rank of state councilor and the position of director. Prutkov appeared in print in 1850, and passed away in 1863 on January 13. That is, his literary activity is limited to only 13 years, but, nevertheless, Prutkov’s popularity is great.

The first “germs” of the revelation were already discovered in the biography, since although the Assay Chamber itself really existed, there was no position of director in it. In fact, the institution so called belonged to the department of the Department of Mining and Salt Affairs under the Ministry of Finance, where there were both the Moscow and St. Petersburg Chambers, which were engaged in testing and marking silver and gold. At the Assay Office Northern capital, of course, it also had its own legal address - 51 Catherine Canal Embankment. Moreover, this establishment existed there until 1980. However, the urban folklore of St. Petersburg has retained this name to this day - this is also the name of the Institute of Metrology, which is located on Moskovsky Prospekt, 19. Previously, it was the Chamber of Weights and Measures, and the corresponding samples were actually set there.

In addition to the invented “official data”, the writer Kozma Prutkov was endowed with the real traits of his “parents”, who at that time were already poets (mostly known to A.K. Tolstoy), belonged to the “golden youth” of the capital, and were known as “snarlers” and wits. These pampered people really had amazing tricks behind them that excited and amused the capital.

For example, one day Alexander Zhemchuzhnikov caused a stir when, dressed in an adjutant wing uniform, he visited all the major architects of the capital overnight and gave them orders to appear at the palace, because

He showed up to work in a perfect suit, patent leather boots and a starched collar. Among bohemians, he was known as the “arbiter of proper taste” and even ordered his employees to come to work in tailcoats. Such refined aesthetics and pretentious elegance could almost claim to be the norm in the culture of those years.

After listening to the homely lame woman, Makovsky rejects her poems...

Of course, in his ideas, the modern poetess had to be correlated with the image of an inaccessible and demonic lady, a socialite and a beauty.

It would seem that the plot is exhausted? Elizabeth is denied access to literature forever. But here fate intervenes in the form of another poet - Maximilian Voloshin. He was a very talented and extraordinary person. For some time, Voloshin also collaborated with Apollo, although his editor-in-chief did not particularly like him personally. Voloshin was a resident of Kyivian, he worked part of his life in Moscow, part in Koktebel. This poet did not have an understanding with St. Petersburg; he did not like this capital. It was as if Voloshin was a stranger here. On the contrary, in his house in Koktebel he organized a completely different life - with pranks, jokes, caricatures and very sensitive meetings for his friends. However, Maximilian Voloshin deserves a separate and detailed story.

So it was Voloshin who came up with the idea to punish Makovsky for his snobbery and excessive aesthetics and thus protect Dmitrieva (by the way, legend says that the poet himself was not indifferent to this “ugly girl”). Thus, the genre of literary hoax, already half-forgotten since the time of Prutkov, was “resurrected” in the capital.

Together with Dmitrieva, Voloshin creates the image of a fatal beauty, necessary and “desired” for bohemia, who also has hereditary roots in South America! The name is made up of the name of the heroine (Garta-Cherubina) of one American writer and one of the names of evil spirits is Gabriak. A beautiful romantic pseudonym came out - Cherubina de Gabriak.

The poems signed by this lady were written on beautiful and expensive paper, sealed with wax with the inscription on the seal - “Vae vintis!” or "Woe to the vanquished."

Voloshin hoped a little that this inscription would “open the eyes” of Makovsky. The goal of the hoaxers was to publish Dmitrieva’s poems, and it was achieved! The femme fatale became a literary sensation in the capital. As expected, all the writers were immediately fascinated and in love with the mysterious stranger. And even Makovsky sent the poetess luxurious bouquets. Everyone knew her poems, everyone talked about her, but no one saw her.

As usual, the hoax was not without love “adventures” and even a duel. About this romantic story we wrote in the section of literary duels. It was because of Cherubina that Voloshin and Gumilev met on the Black River. The first defended the lady's honor, the second longed for satisfaction for the slap he received from Max. The background to this duel includes Gumilev’s invitation to marry him, to which Cherubina refused, after receiving which Gumilev publicly speaks about the mysterious stranger in offensive and frank terms.

The duel was bloodless, but with the consequences of exposure. It is believed that Elizaveta Ivanovna began to be tormented by her conscience, and she decided to stop the hoax by confessing everything to Makovsky.

Cherubina confesses, Makovsky is stunned, but pretends that he was aware of the adventure.

Game over…

It's interesting that the life of a teacher primary classes with a modest salary in the future also remained a secret. So, no one knows for sure anything about her life or burial place. As if she died either in 1925, or in 1931, or in Turkmenistan, or on Solovki. It is known that in her marriage she is Vasilyeva, and allegedly she and her husband were sent into exile on the “Academic Case”. However, already in our time another collection of her poems was published under her real name, and they turned out to be not at all mediocre...

A hoax is an attempt to mislead someone (readers, the public, etc.) by presenting a non-existent phenomenon or fact as real. Literary hoaxes are considered to be works whose authorship is attributed to another person (real or fictitious) or folk art.

The custom of encrypting your last name or replacing it with another dates back to time immemorial. Not always under literary work costs true surname its creator. For various reasons, authorship is often disguised. We invite you to learn more about the most striking literary hoaxes of the 20th century and the pseudonyms of writers.

Nickname Cherubina de Gabriac

Hoax In the fall of 1909, a letter in a purple envelope arrives at the editorial office of Apollo magazine. The editor of the magazine, esthete Sergei Makovsky, carefully opening the envelope, sees snow-white sheets of poetry, which are perfumed and arranged with dry leaves. The poems are signed very briefly - “H”. Makovsky convenes the entire editorial staff, consisting mainly of young men, and they read poetry together. Their lines are bright, spicy, and they decide to publish them immediately. Illustrations for them are made by Evgeny Lanceray himself, one of the leading artists of those years. A mysterious writer periodically calls the editor and reports something about herself. For example, that her name is Cherubina de Gabriac, that she is Spanish, but writes in Russian, that she is beautiful and deeply unhappy. Literary Russia goes crazy with delight, the entire editorial staff of Apollo is in absentia in love with a stranger.

Exposure Until her incognito identity was revealed, Elizaveta Dmitrieva, a teacher at the Petrovskaya Women's Gymnasium, wrote caustic critical notes on her own behalf about the poems of Cherubina de Gabriac and wondered if this was a hoax - provoking the literary community to conduct their own investigations and thereby fueling interest in the mysterious Spanish woman , that is, actually creating a “famous poetess” out of thin air. This is partly why everything was revealed quite quickly: already at the end of 1909, the poet Mikhail Kuzmin found out that it was Dmitrieva who spoke on the phone on behalf of de Gabriak, a very smart and talented girl, but not at all a beauty, and in addition, she was also lame. The St. Petersburg gentlemen who fell in love with the Spanish beauty in absentia were severely disappointed. At the end of 1910, another selection of Cherubina’s poems appeared in Apollo, with the final poem “Meeting,” signed with the poetess’s real name. The revelation turned into a severe creative crisis for Dmitrieva: after the break with Gumilyov and Voloshin and the scandalous duel between the two poets, Dmitrieva fell silent for a long time. However, in 1927, while in exile, at the suggestion of a close friend recent years, sinologist and translator Yu. Shchutsky, she created another literary hoax - a cycle of seven-line poems “The House under the Pear Tree,” written on behalf of the “philosopher Li Xiang Tzu,” exiled to a foreign land “for his belief in the immortality of the human spirit.”

The meaning of the hoax Maximilian Voloshin liked Dmitrieva’s poems, but when he brought the poetess to Makovsky, one of the publishers of Apollo, he was not impressed. Perhaps because Elizabeth herself seemed unsightly to him. Voloshin and Dmitrieva conceived the hoax in the summer of 1909 in Koktebel: a sonorous pseudonym and a literary mask of a mysterious Catholic beauty were invented.

Quote“I stand at a great crossroads. I left you. I won't write poetry anymore. I don't know what I'll do. Max, you brought out the power of creativity in me for a moment, but then took it away from me forever. Let my poems be a symbol of my love for you” (from a letter from Elizaveta Dmitrieva to Maximilian Voloshin).

Poetry

Alias ​​Max Fry

Hoax Since 1996, the St. Petersburg publishing house "Azbuka" began publishing books by the writer Max Frei. Genre: fantasy with elements of parody. The novels gradually gained popularity, and by 2001 Max Fry had become one of the most published Russian science fiction writers. Eventually, the author's popularity grew to such an extent that it became necessary to present it to the public: Fry became a real star.

Exposure Max Fry is not listed among foreign authors; for Russia such a first and last name is atypical - that means it is a pseudonym, everyone decided. The publisher joked that Max Fry was a blue-eyed black man. This continued until the fall of 2001, when on Dmitry Dibrov’s television program the host introduced Svetlana Martynchik to the audience as the real author of Max Frei’s books. And then a scandal broke out: Martynchik accused ABC of trying to register “Max Fry” as a trademark and get literary blacks to write for her.

The meaning of the hoax In the 1990s, against the backdrop of a flood of foreign science fiction pouring into the domestic market Russian authors a few got lost. As a result, books of domestic origin began to appear, but under foreign names. Dmitry Gromov and Oleg Ladyzhensky wrote on behalf of Henry Lyon Oldie, and Elena Khaetskaya became Madeline Simons. For the same reason, the pseudonym “Max Fry” was born. By the way, Fry’s books always bear the copyright of Martynchik herself. Actually we're talking about about a publishing, not a writer's, hoax: the figure of the author is carefully mythologized, and at the moment the pseudonym is revealed, if the author still retains popularity by that time, you can make good money.

Quote“After the story of the attempt to register the name Max Fry as a trademark was revealed, they [Azbuka publishing house] quickly suggested to me: let’s put the guys in prison, and they will write books - candidates philological sciences, not less! So, they will write a book per quarter, and for this they will pay me one hundred thousand rubles, also per quarter” (from an interview with Svetlana Martynchik).

P.S. You can borrow books from the “Echo Labyrinths” series from the central library, the city children’s and youth library, and the library named after L.A. Gladina.

Pseudonym Boris Akunin

Hoax In 1998, the detective novel “Azazel” was published about the adventures of the young St. Petersburg detective Erast Fandorin. The author is listed on the cover - Boris Akunin. The genre - “intelligent historical detective story” - turned out to be in demand, although not immediately. At the beginning of the 2000s, Akunin's books became bestsellers, and conversations began about film adaptations, which meant much more money for the author than just royalties for novels.

Exposure As Akunin's books became more popular and their audience wider, a variety of assumptions were put forward, including that the author was actually Vladimir Zhirinovsky or Tatyana Tolstaya. However, already in 2000 it became known that under this pseudonym was hiding a Japanese translator, deputy editor-in-chief of the magazine “Foreign Literature” Grigory Chkhartishvili. He himself admitted this, giving several interviews and beginning to appear in public not only as Chkhartishvili, but also as Akunin.

The meaning of the hoax Throughout the 90s, writing popular books of the “low genre”, that is, detective stories and thrillers, was considered an activity unworthy of an intelligent person: the author should not be smarter than his works. Moreover, as the writer himself admitted in an interview, bookstore merchandisers would never have pronounced Chkhartishvili’s name anyway. And Boris Akunin speaks easily, and immediately sets up the reader who has graduated from school to classics of the 19th century century. "Aku-nin" means " bad person", "scoundrel." According to another version, this pseudonym was chosen in honor of the famous Russian anarchist Bakunin. Well, maybe.

Quote“I needed a pseudonym because this type of writing is very different from all my other activities. When Akunin sits down at the computer and starts pounding on the keyboard, his thoughts don’t work the same way as Chkhartishvili’s, writing an article or essay. We are so different. Akunin is significantly kinder than me. This is the first thing. Secondly, he, unlike me, is an idealist. And thirdly, he firmly knows that God exists, for which I envy him” (from an interview with Grigory Chkhartishvili).

P.S. You can borrow B. Akunin’s books from any library in Apatity.

NicknamesAnatoly Brusnikin, Anna Borisova

Hoax In the fall of 2007, all of Moscow was covered with advertisements for the novel “The Ninth Savior.” The author is an unknown Anatoly Brusnikin. According to rumors, in advertising campaign The AST publishing house invested up to a million dollars - colossal money even for the pre-crisis book market. Hardly little-known writer could qualify for such investments. To the usual reviews in decent publications, suspiciously laudatory texts in the yellow press are added, and the writer Elena Chudinova claims that the plot of the book was stolen from her. In addition to “The Ninth Savior,” “Hero of Another Time” and “Bellona” were also released.

Exposure Suspicion quickly falls on Grigory Chkhartishvili: the action of the novel takes place at the end of the seventeenth century, and the book is written in the language of the nineteenth century, like the novels of Boris Akunin. Well, the pseudonym is painfully similar: both here and there “A. B." The search for the true author takes place mainly in the tabloids and is fueled by the publishing house itself: some facts are periodically leaked to the press, for example, an indistinct photograph of Brusnikin, where he either looks like Chkhartishvili, or doesn’t look like him. Meanwhile, at the beginning of 2008, the Atticus publishing group, which has much less financial resources, published the novel “There” by another unknown author— Anna Borisova (and also “Creative” and “Vremena goda”). Finally, in mid-January 2012, writer Grigory Chkhartishvili officially announced on his blog that Anatoly Brusnikin and Anna Borisova are him.

The meaning of the hoax By inventing Borisova and Brusnikin, Chkhartishvili set up an experiment - on himself and the publishing market. Can publishers promote an unknown writer from scratch and will readers accept this writer? How much money do you need for this? Which genres is the market ready to accept and which ones is not? In fact, the hoax turned into an entire marketing research.

Quote“I was occupied with the following business problem. Suppose there is some unknown writer, in which the publishing house is ready to seriously invest, because it firmly believes in the promise of this author. How to proceed? How much money should you invest in promotion so as not to remain in the red? What techniques should I use? What is the sequence of steps? I talked on this topic one-on-one with Jan Helemsky, head of the AST publishing house. I remember I was flattered that he said, without even reading the manuscript of Brusnikin’s first novel: “I’m in the game, I’m very interested in this”” (from Grigory Chkhartishvili’s blog).

P.S. You can borrow A. Brusnikin’s books “The Nine Savior” and “Hero of Another Time” in the central library, the city children’s and youth library, the library named after L.A. Gladina, the library family reading. And A. Borisova’s books “There” and “Vremena goda” are in the central library and the family reading library.

Nickname: Holm van Zaitchik

Hoax Since 2000, seven novels have been published in Russian under the general title “Eurasian Symphony” by a certain Dutch writer and humanist Holm van Zaichik about a utopian-sympathetic parallel historical reality, in which China, the Mongol Empire and Rus' are united into one superpower, Ordus. These stories belong simultaneously to the genres of alternative history and detective fiction, are mixed with Chinese stylization, and are richly flavored political propaganda with addition love lines and with a huge amount well-recognized quotes.

Exposure The mystery of Van Zaitchik was an open secret from the very beginning, although parody interviews were published in the name of the “humanist.” The fact that two St. Petersburg authors were hiding behind this pseudonym, which refers to the name of the Dutchman Robert van Gulik (one of the greatest orientalists of the twentieth century and the author of the famous detective stories about Judge Dee), became known a year later, when they began to receive money for their project. literary prizes at science fiction festivals, and then honestly admit in interviews that it’s them.

The meaning of the hoax The frankly ironic content of the work (a utopia parodying Russian history, and even many of the characters have real prototypes among friends and acquaintances of the authors) encouraged the co-authors to continue the game. At the same time, the serious science fiction writer Rybakov and the serious historian Alimov would look bad as authors on the cover of such a book. But the openly bantering van Zaychik is very good. At the turn of the millennium, literature gravitated towards dystopias, no one wrote utopias, and additional literary play was required to justify positive prose.

Quote“I love utopias. Their appearance is always a harbinger of a sharp historical breakthrough. We've eaten too much dystopia. Every appearance of utopias foreshadows leaps in development. The rejection of utopia is, in principle, the rejection of historical effort in general. Easy, accessible skeptical disbelief that things can and should be good here” (from an interview with Vyacheslav Rybakov).

P.S. You can borrow all of Holm van Zaitchik's books from the central library, the city children's and youth library, and the family reading library.

Pseudonym Mikhail Ageev

Hoax In 1934, the book “A Romance with Cocaine” was published in Paris - a confessional story of the protagonist’s growing up in pre- and post-revolutionary Moscow against the background historical events. The novel was liked by most famous emigre authors and critics, including Merezhkovsky and Khodasevich. Even then it was believed that this was someone’s pseudonym, since no other texts (except for the story published along with the novel) were listed as Ageev’s, and the author of one book who appeared out of nowhere is an extremely suspicious phenomenon. In the 1980s, the novel was republished in the West, and it had big success. In the 90s he reached Russia. Intelligent schoolchildren and students read to him, and perhaps it was he who influenced Pelevin when he wrote Chapaev and Emptiness.

Exposure For a long time there was popular version that Ageev is none other than Vladimir Nabokov: the biographical facts of Nabokov and the main character of “An Affair with Cocaine” coincided, structurally this thing was reminiscent of Nabokov’s early works, and finally, the names of the characters were often found in Nabokov’s texts. At the same time, the famous poetess Lydia Chervinskaya insisted that the author was a certain Marco Levi, but her version was not taken into account. Finally, in 1996, thanks to the efforts of literary scholars Gabriel Superfin and Marina Sorokina, it turned out that the author's name is really Levi, but not Marco, but Mark. The fact is that the novel quite accurately describes the Moscow private Kreiman gymnasium, where Mark Levy actually studied in the years described by the author. All questions were finally resolved in 1997, when letters from Levi himself were found and published, in which he negotiated the publication of his book.

The meaning of the hoax Biography real author“A Romance with Cocaine” is full of blind spots. It is known that in the 1920s - 1930s he wandered around Europe, studied in Germany, worked in France, possibly collaborated with Soviet intelligence, exchanged Soviet citizenship for Paraguayan, and then returned Soviet citizenship. After the war he lived in Yerevan, where he died in 1973. Given such a biography and in that historical situation, publishing a confessional novel under a pseudonym seems a reasonable precaution: the author invented a “writer” who is not connected with the outside world by political, social or other obligations, and therefore is free to say whatever he wants.

Quote“In 1930, he (Levi. - “RR”) left Germany and came to Turkey, where he was engaged in teaching languages ​​and even literary activities. He wrote a book called “The Tale of Cocaine,” which was published in the Parisian emigrant publication “House of Books.” Levi points out that the book is harmless, it does not contain a single word directed against the USSR, and in general it is his forced work, written for the sake of its existence. From the conversations that took place, one could draw the conclusion that Levi, apparently, thought through and realized the depth of the mistake he made and is trying to make amends for it. practical work" (From a certificate from the Soviet Consulate General in Istanbul).

P.S. You can borrow M. Ageev’s book “A Romance with Cocaine” at the central library and the library named after L.A. Gladina.

Nickname Abram Tertz

Hoax Since the early 1960s, works signed by a certain Abram Tertz began to appear in Russian-language foreign publications. One of the most famous was the story “Lyubimov” - about a small Soviet town in which a bicycle master seized power, became a dictator and began to build real communism. The same author published an ironic and caustic article on socialist realism.

Exposure In the USSR, Tertz’s texts were considered anti-Soviet and defamatory of the “Soviet state and social order", after which the KGB began searching for the author. It is not known exactly how Sinyavsky’s authorship was established - perhaps we are talking about someone’s betrayal or a graphological examination. In 1965-1966, a high-profile trial took place against Andrei Sinyavsky and Yuli Daniel (he also published in the West under a pseudonym). And although collective letters were received in defense of the writers both from abroad and from many of their Soviet colleagues, nevertheless, the court found them guilty. Sinyavsky received seven years for anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda. In 1991, the case was reviewed and the verdict was overturned. But there remains a letter from Mikhail Sholokhov, in which he calls the books of Sinyavsky and Daniel “dirt from a puddle.”

The meaning of the hoax Pure precaution. To publish in the West, and even with texts that censorship would never have allowed in the USSR, under one’s own name was pure suicide. By publishing under pseudonyms, the authors tried to protect themselves and their loved ones. However, Sinyavsky continued to publish prose under the name of Abram Tertz even after his release from the camp and departure to emigrate. According to the version voiced by his wife Maria Rozanova after the writer’s death, the pseudonym was taken in honor of the hero of an Odessa criminal song - a pickpocket. By this, Sinyavsky seemed to admit that he was playing a dangerous game. And having become famous under this name, he no longer wanted to give it up: the fictional writer’s biography turned out to be more glorious and exciting than that of the real one.

P.S. You can borrow the collected works of A. Tertz (in 2 volumes) from the central library, city children's and youth library, family reading library, libraries No. 1 and No. 2.

Nickname Emil Azhar

Hoax In 1974, writer Emile Azhar published his debut novel, “Darling.” Critics receive it with a bang, and then the author who writes under this pseudonym is announced - the young writer Paul Pavlovich, nephew famous writer Romain Gary. His second novel, “The Whole Life Ahead,” receives the Prix Goncourt, the main literary award France. In total, Azhar has four novels coming out.

Exposure Gary claimed that it was he who discovered the talent of a writer in his nephew. However, some suspicions arose quite quickly: the novels of the debutant Pavlovich were too mature and skillful. However, until Gary’s suicide at the end of 1980, it was not known for certain who Azhar was. A few days before his death, the author completed the essay “The Life and Death of Emile Azhar,” which was published in the summer of 1981, in which he detailed the history of his hoax.

The meaning of the hoax By the mid-1970s, Romain Gary, once a favorite of the public and critics, winner of the Prix Goncourt, was considered worn out and exhausted. By creating a pseudonym, Gary wanted to prove to both his critics and himself that this was not so. As a result, he became the only person in French history to receive the Goncourt Prize twice. But it was the fame that went not to the writer himself, but to the Azhar he invented, that became the cause of a deep mental crisis, and then Gary’s suicide: if at first the writer laughed at the critics who began to chase a new star, then in the end it was someone else’s success, which, in theory , should have belonged to him, began to oppress him.

Quote“I was driven out of my domain. Another one has settled in the mirage I created. Having materialized, Azhar put an end to my ghostly existence in him. The vicissitudes of fate: my dream turned against me” (Romain Gary “The Life and Death of Emile Azhar”).

P.S. Books by R. Gary (“ Kites", "The Promise at Dawn", "The Dance of Genghis Khaim", "The Light of a Woman", "Pseudo" and "The Fears of King Solomon" - the last two novels were published under the pseudonym E. Azhar) you can borrow from the central library and other libraries in the city .

Writers' pseudonyms

Anna Akhmatova

Gorenko Anna Andreevna (1889-1966)

Russian poet. For her pseudonym, Anna Gorenko chose the surname of her great-grandmother, who descended from the Tatar Khan Akhmat. She later said: “Only a seventeen-year-old crazy girl could choose a Tatar surname for a Russian poetess... That’s why it occurred to me to take a pseudonym for myself because my dad, having learned about my poems, said: “Don’t disgrace my name.” - “And I don’t need your name!” - I said...” (L. Chukovskaya “Notes about Anna Akhmatova”).

Arkady Arkanov

Steinbock Arkady Mikhailovich (born 1933)

Russian satirist writer. In the early 1960s, Arkady Steinbock began to engage in literary activities, but not everyone liked his last name - it was too Jewish. As a child, Arkady's name was simply Arkan - hence the pseudonym.

Eduard Bagritsky

Dzyubin Eduard Georgievich (1895-1934)

Russian and Soviet poet, translator. He had a phenomenal memory and could recite poems by almost any poet by heart. It is unknown where the pseudonym comes from, but times were “crimson” then. He was also published in Odessa newspapers and humor magazines under the pseudonyms “Someone Vasya”, “Nina Voskresenskaya”, “Rabkor Gortsev”.

Demyan Bedny

Pridvorov Efim Alekseevich (1883-1945)

Russian and Soviet poet. Efim Alekseevich's surname is in no way suitable for proletarian writer. The pseudonym Demyan Bedny is the village nickname of his uncle, a people's fighter for justice.

Andrey Bely

Bugaev Boris Nikolaevich (1880-1934)

Russian poet, prose writer, critic, publicist, memoirist, leading theorist of symbolism. His teacher and mentor S.M. Soloviev suggested that he take the pseudonym Andrei Bely ( White color- “complete synthesis of all mental faculties”).

Kir Bulychev

Mozheiko Igor Vsevolodovich (1934-2003)

Russian science fiction writer, film scriptwriter, historian-orientalist (Ph.D. historical sciences). Author scientific works in history South-East Asia(signed with his real name), numerous fantastic stories, stories (often combined into cycles), the collection “Some Poems” (2000). The pseudonym is composed of the name of his wife (Kira) and maiden name the writer's mother. As the writer admitted, the idea of ​​a pseudonym arose a long time ago, when he was still a graduate student at the Institute of Oriental Studies and wrote his first science fiction story. He was afraid of criticism and ridicule: “I skipped the vegetable depot! Didn’t show up to the trade union meeting... And he’s also playing around fantastic stories" Subsequently, the name “Kirill” on the covers of books began to be written in abbreviation - “Kir.”, and then the period was shortened, and this is how the now famous “Kir Bulychev” turned out.

Voltaire

François-Marie Arouet (1694-1778)

French writer, philosopher and educator. One of the largest French enlightenment philosophers of the 18th century, poet, prose writer, satirist, publicist, founder of Voltairianism. The nickname Voltaire is an anagram of "Arouet le j(eune)" - "Arouet the younger" (Latin spelling - AROVETLI)

Arkady Gaidar

Golikov Arkady Petrovich (1904-1941)

Soviet writer, grandfather of Yegor Gaidar, one of the founders of modern children's literature. His most famous works are “The Fate of the Drummer” and “Timur and His Team”. There are two versions of the origin of the pseudonym Gaidar. The first, which has become widespread, is “gaidar” - in Mongolian “a horseman galloping in front”. According to another version, Arkady Golikov could take the name Gaidar as his own: in Bashkiria and Khakassia, where he visited, the names Gaidar (Geidar, Haydar, etc.) are found very often. This version was supported by the writer himself.

Alexander Herzen

Yakovlev Alexander Ivanovich (1812-1870)

Russian writer, philosopher, revolutionary. Author of the novel "Who is to Blame?" and the essay "The Past and Thoughts." Herzen is the illegitimate son of a Russian writer, philosopher, revolutionary. The author of the novel by landowner Ivan Alekseevich Yakovlev and German Henrietta-Wilhelmina Louise Haag. The surname Herzen - “child of the heart” (from German Herz - heart) was invented by his father.

Grigory Gorin

Ofshtein Grigory Izrailevich (1910-2000)

Maksim Gorky

Peshkov Alexey Maksimovich (1868-1936)

Russian writer, public figure, literary critic, publicist, first Chairman of the Board of the Union of Writers of the USSR. The first story was published in 1892 under the pseudonym Gorky, which characterized hard life writer, this pseudonym was used in the future. At the very beginning of his literary activity, he also wrote feuilletons in the Samara Newspaper under the pseudonym Yehudiel Khlamida. M. Gorky himself emphasized that correct pronunciation his last name is Peshkov, although almost everyone pronounces it as Peshkov.

Irina Grekova

Elena Sergeevna Ventzel (1907 - 2002)

Russian prose writer, mathematician. Doctor of Technical Sciences, author of numerous scientific works on problems of applied mathematics Pridvorov Efim Alekseevich (1883-1945), a university textbook on probability theory, a book on game theory, etc. Like Lewis Carroll, his scientific works She published under her real name, and published novels and stories under a “mathematical” pseudonym (from the name of the French letter “y”, which goes back to Latin). As a writer, she began publishing in 1957 and immediately became famous and loved; her novel “The Pulpit” was literally read to the gills.

Alexander Green

Grinevsky Alexander Stefanovich (1880-1932)

Ilya Ilf

Fainzilberg Ilya Arnoldovich (1897-1937)

Veniamin Kaverin

Zilber Veniamin Alexandrovich (1902-1988)

Soviet writer, most famous work- novel "Two Captains". The pseudonym "Kaverin" was taken from a hussar, a friend young Pushkin(brought by him under his own name in “Eugene Onegin”).

Lewis Carroll

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (1832-1898)

English mathematician and theologian, as well as a writer, author of the fairy tale "Alice in Wonderland". Magazine publisher and writer Edmund Yates advised Dodgson to come up with a pseudonym, and in Dodgson's Diaries an entry appears dated February 11, 1865: “Wrote to Mr. Yates, offering him a choice of pseudonyms: 1) Edgar Cutwellis (the name Edgar Cutwellis is obtained by rearranging the letters from Charles Lutwidge ); 2) Edgard W. C. Westhill (the method of obtaining a pseudonym is the same as in the previous case); 3) Louis Carroll (Louis from Lutwidge - Ludwick - Louis, Carroll from Charles); 4) Lewis Carroll (by the same the principle of "translation" of the names Charles Lutwidge into Latin and the reverse "translation" from Latin into English)". The choice fell on Lewis Carroll. Since then, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson signed all his “serious” mathematical and logical works with his real name, and all his literary works with a pseudonym.

Eduard Limonov

Savenko Eduard Veniaminovich (born 1943)

Infamous writer, journalist, social and political figure, founder and head of the liquidated National Bolshevik Party. Since July 2006, he has been an active participant in the “Other Russia” movement in opposition to the Kremlin, the organizer of a number of “Dissent Marches”. The pseudonym Limonov was invented for him by the artist Vagrich Bakhchanyan (according to other sources - Sergei Dovlatov).

Alexandra Marinina

Alekseeva Marina Anatolyevna (born 1957)

Author of numerous detective novels. In 1991, together with her colleague Alexander Gorkin, she wrote the detective story "Six-Winged Seraphim", which was published in the magazine "Police" in the fall of 1992. The story was signed by the pseudonym of Alexander Marinin, compiled from the names of the authors.

Evgeniy Petrov

Evgeny Petrovich Kataev (1901-1942)

Russian and Soviet writer, brother of the writer Valentin Kataev, co-author (together with I. Ilf) famous novels“Golden Calf”, “12 Chairs”, etc. The pseudonym Petrov is a surname derived from the patronymic, since one Kataev, i.e. his brother Valentin was already a famous writer.

Kozma Prutkov

Alexey Tolstoy and the Zhemchuzhnikov brothers - Alexey, Alexander and Vladimir.

Prutkov is a fictional writer, a one-of-a-kind literary phenomenon. Two talented poets, Count A.K. Tolstoy and Alexey Mikhailovich Zhemchuzhnikov, together with Vladimir Mikhailovich Zhemchuzhnikov and with some participation of Zhemchuzhnikov’s third brother, Alexander Mikhailovich, created a type of important complacency and self-confidence of the St. Petersburg official (director of the assay office), who, out of vanity, practiced various types of literature. Famous Quotes: “If you want to be happy, be it”, “Look at the root!”, “Don’t cut everything that grows!”, “It is more useful to walk the path of life than the whole universe”, “An egoist is like someone who has been sitting in a well for a long time”, “Genius like a hill rising on a plain”, “Death is placed at the end of life in order to more conveniently prepare for it”, “Don’t take anything to the extreme: a person who wants to eat too late runs the risk of eating the next day in the morning”, “I don’t quite understand “Why do many people call fate a turkey, and not some other bird that is more similar to fate?”

George Sand

Aurore Dupin (1804-1876)

French writer. Since it was almost impossible for a woman to get published at that time, Aurora Dupin took a male pseudonym.

Igor Severyanin

Lotarev Igor Vladimirovich (1887-1941)

Poet of the "Silver Age". The pseudonym Northerner emphasizes the poet’s “northern” origin (he was born in Vologda province). According to another version, in his youth he went with his father on a trip to the Far East (1904). This trip inspired the poet - hence the pseudonym Northerner. For most of his literary activity, the author preferred to write Igor-Severyanin. He perceived the pseudonym as a middle name, not a surname.

Nadezhda TEFFI

Lokhvitskaya Nadezhda Alexandrovna (1872-1952)

Russian writer, poetess, author of satirical poems and feuilletons. She was called the first Russian humorist of the early 20th century, the “queen of Russian humor,” but she was never a supporter of pure humor, always combining it with sadness and witty observations of the life around her. She explained the origin of her pseudonym as follows: she knew a certain stupid man named Stefan, whom the servant called Steffy. Believing that stupid people are usually happy, she took this nickname for herself as a pseudonym, shortening it “for the sake of delicacy” to “Taffy.” Another version of the origin of the pseudonym is offered by researchers of Teffi’s creativity, according to whom the pseudonym for Nadezhda Alexandrovna, who loved hoaxes and jokes, and was also the author of literary parodies and feuilletons, became part of literary game aimed at creating an appropriate image of the author. There is also a version that Teffi took her pseudonym because her sister, the poetess Mirra Lokhvitskaya, who was called the “Russian Sappho,” was published under her real name.

Daniil Kharms

Yuvachev Daniil Ivanovich (1905-1942)

Russian writer and poet. Yuvachev had many pseudonyms, and he playfully changed them: Kharms, Haarms, Dandan, Charms, Karl Ivanovich Shusterling, etc. The pseudonym "Kharms" (a combination of the French "charme" - "charm, charm" and the English "harm" - "harm" ") most accurately reflected the essence of the writer's attitude to life and creativity.

Vasily Yan

Yanchevetsky Vasily Grigorievich (1875-1954)

Dmitriev V. G. Invented names: (Stories about pseudonyms) / V. G. Dmitriev. - M.: Sovremennik, 1986. - 255 p.

The book talks about the reasons for the appearance of pseudonyms and cryptonyms, the methods of their formation, the role they played in the work of a number of outstanding Russian and foreign writers, and explains the semantic meaning of many foreign language pseudonyms. Fascinating stories will introduce the reader to other methods of disguising the author, to the invented names that writers gave to their literary opponents and book characters. Separate chapters are devoted to the pseudonyms of artists, theater and circus performers.

First story. Why do you need a pseudonym?

Second story. How pseudonyms were created.

Third story. Ancient times.

Story four. At the dawn of Russian literature.

Fifth story. Lyceum "cricket".

Story six. Pechorin's acquaintance.

Story seven. From the beekeeper Rudy Panka to Konrad Lilienschwager.

The eighth story. From Savva Namordnikov to Nikanor Zatrapezny.

Ninth story. How the "Iskraists" signed.

Tenth story. Antosha Chekhonte and his contemporaries.

Story eleven. "Sespel" means snowdrop.

Twelfth story. Why is there a double surname?

Story thirteen. The nickname serves as a mask.

Story fourteen. Pseudonyms of revolutionaries.

Story fifteen. Artists' pseudonyms.

Story sixteen. Stage names.

Location of the book: central city library.

Dmitriev V.G. Those who hid their name: From the history of pseudonyms and anonyms / Dmitriev, Valentin Grigorievich, Dmitriev, V.G. - M.: Nauka, 1970. - 255 p.

The book tells about the origin of pseudonyms, reveals their semantic meaning, methods of their formation, makes an attempt to systematize some facts from this interesting area of ​​literary criticism, and presents the most vivid examples from Russian and foreign literature.

Location of the book: library named after L.A. Gladina.

Osovtsev, S. What's in my name for you? // Neva. - 2001. - No. 7. - P. 183-195.

Sindalovsky N.A. Pseudonym: legends and myths of the second name // Neva. - 2011. - N 2. - P.215-238.

The problem of literary mystification is one of the most pressing in modern literature. According to the classification proposed by E. Lann, all literary hoaxes are divided into two types: forgeries of works of impersonal creativity; forgeries of copyrighted works attributed to: a) writers, b) historical figures, c) fictitious authors (Lani E. Literary mystification. M.. 1930, P. 67).

A special place among hoaxes is occupied by forgery of folklore texts. The most famous was the “Kraledvor Manuscript”, authored by the Czech philologist V. Hanka (1817). For about 50 years it was considered one of the most valuable sources for reconstruction Slavic mythology. An example of literary mystification of Scottish folklore is “The Songs of Ossian” by J. Macpherson (1760-1763). Of the hoaxers of Russian folklore, I.P. Sakharov (1807-1863) gained the greatest popularity; his “Tales of the Russian People” are still republished and cited by many researchers.

The most striking literary hoaxes of the 19th - early 20th centuries, created by Russian writers and poets, are the following: “Tales of the late Ivan Petrovich Belkin” by A. Pushkin, “Letters and Notes of Ommer de Gehl” by P. Vyazemsky, “Egyptian Nights” by A. Pushkin, completed by V. Bryusov (included in the collected works of Pushkin in 1919), Kozma Prutkov, and in fact A.K. Tolstoy and the Zhemchuzhnikov brothers, Cherubina de Gabriac, invented by M. Voloshin, poet Vasily Shishkov, an “acquaintance” of V. Nabokov, poems by the 19th century poet. V. Travnikov from the archive “found” by Vl. Khodasevich, “The Diary of A. Vyrubova”, created by P. E. Shchegolev and A. N. Tolstoy, N. Nekrasov’s poem “Lights”, “discovered” by E. Vashkov.

A sensation of the 20th century. became a hoax of the French writer of Russian origin Romain Gary (Roman Kaseva). In 1956, he received the Goncourt Prize for his novel The Roots of Heaven. In 1974, Gary published the novel "The Big Weasel" on behalf of the writer Emile Azhar. Azhar's second novel, The Life Ahead, wins the Prix Goncourt. Thus, Gary became the only winner of two Goncourt Prizes (it is not awarded twice).

Postmodernism takes literary mystification to a new level, realizing in literature the statement: “nobody writes books,” since “all books are written by no one” (Max Frei / Svetlana Martynchik). The realization that “can there really be literature without mystification” gives rise to literary mystifications proper (the “great Euro-Chinese humanist” Holm van Zaichik / writer Vyacheslav Rybakov and orientalist Igor Alimov) and literary projects based on mystification: Boris Akunin (individual project of Grigory Chkhartishvili), Marina Serova (publishing project carried out by a group of authors).

A hoax in a number of ways coincides with the concept of a pseudonym. The possibilities for using a pseudonym are undoubtedly wider, but it does not have the main specific difference between hoaxes - stylization. Brilliant examples of stylization can be found in the works of Felix Salten, the author of “Bambi the Fawn,” who created memoirs on behalf of the famous Viennese prostitute Josephine Mutzenbacher, and the Norwegian writer and philosopher Jostein Gorder, who published a letter from St. Augustine’s beloved Floria Emilia, allegedly discovered by the author in Argentina, at bookstores.