On Ghost Writers

The ghost is the unacknowledged author whose personality haunts the book claimed by another. When the work is eminent the deception is especially galling. The award of honor and renown is misplaced. The association of recognition with achievement is nullified. Where the supposed creator is a person of established reputation the significance of the creation is distorted. In either case fraud is the outcome. The audience is denied the power to evaluate either the public person or his supposed work.

The most famous ghostwriter in English might actually be a false spectre. Shakespeare was refused his own works. His lack of standing in the social world of his time made him creatively suspect and he was demoted to simply be the author, that is the front. The noble Frances Bacon (among others) was promoted to be the socially correct ghost. He supposedly used Shakespeare because the play was below his own dignity. More usually it is the prominent person who hires the writer to ghost in total anonymity. The historical challenge is to identify the books that are haunted and to call their shades to light. These are buried in the past. The modern ghost has been demystified and set in his recognized bureaucratic place. He is now listed on the title page after the author but in smaller type. The story comes from the mouth of the babe into the ear of the ghost. 'As told to' or a similar phrase is the usual identifier.

The ghost is now a collaborator. The author has a story to tell: An autobiography, a memoir, an adventure, an invention or discovery, a philosophy. The audience wants the inside story, the message, the word, the glimpse of the real action beyond ordinary experience. The ghost mediates and assists.

The next step is an annual award ceremony for out-of-the-closet ghosts. The different kinds of work produced in the prior year will be ranked and the leading figures recognized. Each of the acclaimed will be called out of the crowd to stand alone, except for his author echeloned to the side and a little behind. Scheherazade's veil will be awarded and, head bowed and arms akimbo in triumph, the ghost will finally receive the accolades of his readers.

If you would care to contribute the identity of an anonymous ghost writer and the title and author he or she ghosted please e-mail it to us and we'll add it here along with your name, e-mail address and/or web site address.

I can assure you I would be very interested.

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Alvin Katz copyright 2000