Wednesday, October 10, 2007

My email signature

This is the email signature I've been using for my personal email account lately:

Sharon Bryan is a pseudonym for the authors of the "Tanglewood Trio" mystery series and the "Brown River Boys" adventure series, both published by the Green Syndicate. Orson Green, publisher of the Green Syndicate, created the "Tanglewood Trio" characters and contributed the first five plot-lines, but the books were written by a number of ghost writers, all using the name "Sharon Bryan" to ensure the rights for all of the plots and characters stayed with the company. It is believed his daughter, Prudence Green wrote the first ten books in the "Brown River Boys" series. The practice was continued by the publishers Jackson & Wynn when they bought the Green Syndicate in 1973.

Since 1946, when the name was first used, at least thirty writers are known to have used the pseudonym, including Carolyn Keene, Franklin W. Dixon, Victor Appleton, Laura Lee Hope, Arthur M. Winfield, Roy Rockwood, Dan Scott, Jerry West, Helen Louise Thorndyke, Allen Chapman and Clarence Young.

For further information, please read the wikipedia entry for the Stratemeyer Syndicate, a rival publishing company which used similar methods.


It is, of course, a joke. All of the names listed above were pseudonyms used by the Stratemeyer Syndicate for their various series (such as the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books).

I'm in two minds about it, though. On the one hand, I enjoy the joke as it is, and don't want to qualify or lessen it in any way. On the other hand, I wonder how many people would get the joke - especially if they don't know about Carolyn Keene and the others.

I want to keep it, I want to change it, I don't know what I want to do with it.

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